Senator Jon Tester of Montana: Redefining what it means to be a Democrat?

[DeepModem Mom]

NY Times: With the new Congress sworn in, the Op-Ed Page asked writers who followed four key Senate races last year to contribute final dispatches on their states’ political futures.

***

Op-Ed Contributor
They Came From Montana
By DEIRDRE McNAMER
Published: January 7, 2007

....Mr. Tester and his wife, Sharla...traveled to Washington from their farm in north-central Montana, a patch of ground in a county with 1.5 people per square mile, about 1,800 miles from the nation’s capital as the crow flies. They were there because Mr. Tester, campaigning for government honesty and attention to the concerns of “regular folks,” had unseated the Republican incumbent, Conrad Burns, in a cliffhanger that helped deliver the Senate to the Democratic Party.

And now what?

Undoubtedly, Mr. Tester’s rhetoric and style — he might always look a little wrong in a business suit — will tempt continuing comparisons to the barmy screen version of the gentleman from Montana ("Mr. Smith Goes to Washington"). But only if one forgets that Mr. Tester is 50 years old, he’s seasoned in state politics, he ran a canny, gloves-off campaign, and he’s the kind of charismatic, hard-to-peg, Western neopopulist (like his friend, Gov. Brian Schweitzer of Montana) who might be, even now, redefining in certain far-reaching ways what it means to be a Democrat....

Montana, like any state, has sent to Congress its share of those who strode forth, verges in hand, to become forgettable in the long run. But I think we can be forgiven for anticipating the exceptional. After all, we sent lean and plain-spoken Mike Mansfield, the Senate’s longest-serving majority leader and a pivotal force behind civil rights legislation, the Watergate investigation and opposition to the Vietnam War. Decades earlier, we sent Congress its first female member, Republican Jeannette Rankin, the only person to vote against United States entry into not one, but two, world wars. We sent Thomas J. Walsh, who became a national hero for exposing Interior Department corruption in the Teapot Dome oil scandal of the 1920s. And Senator Burton K. Wheeler, a Democrat, who became the most vocal foe of F.D.R.’s attempt to “pack” the Supreme Court.

“Always try to see life around you as if you just came out of a tunnel,” Senator Smith advises his hard-boiled assistant, Miss Saunders, in the Capra parable.

Campaigns are tunnels in a sense, filled as they are with obfuscation, noise and narrowly defined progress. Out of the tunnel, out in the lit-up day, it’s different. What the members of the 110th Congress see now, and what they choose to do about what they see, might well decide who among them — among both the Testers and the old hands — will outlast their day.

(Deirdre McNamer’s novel “Red Rover” will be published this summer.)

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/07/opinion/07mcnamer.html

[illinoisprogressive]

1. I like Tester. He is just cool.

[snowbear]

2. Me too! ~~ Rock on Congressman Tester ~~~

You are seriously going to make us PROUD! ~~~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ (( ))

[AnotherDreamWeaver]

3. He sounds like a "Wellstone" kind of guy.

Be Safe Sir,
adw

[fujiyama]

4. I really look forward to both Webb's and Tester's Senate tenures

They are both very interesting and unusual politicians.

Though Tester's farming background make him especially able to relate to issues related to working class people. Montana (as well as CO and other mountain west states) has a new breed of Dems that should be looked at very closely. We're making some especially great inroads in those states. I hope Dems will keep it up.

[greenman3610]

5. My Sister knows Tester well

used to buy organic stuff from him for her company, and
has drunk a few beers on his porch.

She says he is just as sharp, funny, and uncluttered cool
as he looks. I'm loving the guy.

[nealmhughes]

6. I had rather buy some organic food from Tester and then sit on his porch

for 15 mins. than meet 3/4 of the Washington Illuminati and dine at the White House for 5 hours.

[DeepModem Mom]

7. That's great to know -- thanks! nt