NPR's John Ydstie has a great summary of the connection between money and politics. Most of us in Montana know in general terms how bad the senator is. But this is great analysis of just how easy it is to sell out your consituents.

http://www.npr.org/...

And as to the alternative, see below the fold.

I attended another Jon Tester fundraiser over the weekend. Besides being well-organized and well-located (a vineyard in the valley-what could be better), it was great to hear Jon's message up close.

And Burns name hardly came up in Jon's short speech. Most of us feel Conrad is toast anyway, and not worth spending a lot of speechifying on. He is, to use a phrase bandied about here, a three-legged cat in a room full of dogs.

Outside of our mostly blood-red state (with its progressive gov and soon to be TWO DEMO SENATORS) it is unfortunate that Democrats, for the most part, just wait for people like Cunningham and Burns to just screw up, rather than offer a compelling alternative.

I phoned my other supposedly Democratic Senator, Max Baucus recently, to decry his (and most) demos scattering away from Feingold and his censure resolution. Spineless doesn't even begin to describe such behavior. I used to be depressed that D's haven't had power in a long while. Now I just think they don't deserve it.

Tester is a good man with good ideas, and will make a great alternative to the morally bankrupt business as uusal Senator Burns.

But I hope the party doesn't rely on blatant Republican incompetence as a strategy. I hope they do a self-scan and discover both their guts and their spines.