Facing the biggest election of his life, the only real challenge since the first time he ran for Congress, lagging poll numbers, and a race in the national spotlight that is already being talked about as one of the top three in the nation, Montana Congressman Dennis Rehberg (R-Montana) is giving us all a giant snow job.
Rehberg, who is running to challenge Jon Tester's (D-Montana) senate seat, is trying to hide (by writing down) the value of his property so that he won't have to run as one of the richest members of the entire U.S. Congress.
Rehberg is claiming that he suddenly went from being a mega millionaire to being just like the rest of us because of fire damage to his scrub brush (he is suing the firefighters who risked their lives to protect it). The scrub brush was burned nearly two years ago. Go up on the rims and check it out. It's as green now as Ireland. But here's where it gets really rich.
If you look at Rehberg's latest 2010 Personal Financial Disclosure compared to the one he filed in 2009 you'll find that the corporate entity known as "Rehberg Ranch Land & Livestock" dropped from a minimum value of $5 million to maximum value of $1 million.
Here's the problem, the only corporation filing for fire damages in the lawsuit is Rehberg Ranch, LLC - that's a different company than Rehberg Ranch, Land, & Livestock LLC.
On his 2009 report, Rehberg specifically noted that Rehberg Ranch LLC was being reappraised for fire damage - but he did not say anything about Rehberg Ranch Land & Livestock.
So if the drop in value (by millions and millions) at Rehberg Ranch Land & Livestock wasn't because of the fire, um...where did all the value go?
Rehberg's been working hard to keep this out of the press. He even filed his reports a day late to miss getting covered in the annual news stories about the income reports, which were due Wednesday. Only Roll Call went back and got the Rehberg report. Word on the street is that he'll be filing an amended report soon, and it will be interesting to see how Rehberg tries to further obfuscate and attempt to spin the situation away from inevitable disaster for his campaign.
Watch for more to come out on this one. All eyes are on this race, and this story isn't going away. This diary is cross-posted at the Montana Cowgirl Blog.