Senator Conrad Burns issued a written apology today to the wildland firefighters, the elite Augusta Hotshots of Virginia, that he accused of doing a poor job in fighting a fire in central Montana this week. It appears that most of Burns' more critical comments were left out of the initial report written by a state employee that worked as the public information officer on the fire and dealt with Burns on the "altercation" between the senator and the firefighters at the Billings Airport.
The Helena Independent Record has the whole story here
More below the fold:
From the Independent Record article:
HELENA -- U.S. Sen. Conrad Burns pointed across the Billings airport Sunday and accused a member of an elite firefighting team of not doing "a God damned thing'' and charged that crew members just "sit around'' on the job, the original version of a state report said.
Most of Burns' highly critical comments, made to state employee Paula Rosenthal, were omitted from the version of her report released to reporters on Wednesday and Thursday.
...SNIP....
"See that guy over there? He hasn't done a God-damned thing. They sit around. I saw it up on the Wedge fire and in northwestern Montana some years ago. It's wasteful. You probably paid that guy $10,000 to sit around. It's gotta change.''
The Wedge Fire that Senator Burns is referring to occurred three years ago in late August on national forest lands to the west of Glacier National Park near the Canadian border. It was an extraordinarily large and dangerous fire that burned through the Flathead National Forest and into Glacier Park near Kintla Lake. The firefighters were unable to stop its spread, and could not dig fire lines in front of the fast moving blaze, but could only prevent its movement to the south. Few, if any, structures were lost in a area of cabins and vacation homes on the national forest. The fire was still burning in places two months later in the park when I canoed Kintla Lake in late October of that year. I heard of no criticisms of firefighters at that time, but nothing but praise that they did what they could to protect vacation cabins and park lands.
This criticism is typical of Burns. The Senator remembers an incident that irritated him years ago (usually for some misunderstood reason) and he takes it out angrily on people that had no involvement in the situation.
Senator Burns has also roundly criticized the Mayor of New Orleans and the Governor of Louisiana for their supposed inability to evacuate everyone before Katrina. "Any teenager could have hotwired those school buses and driven people out of there," the senator remarked in his June debate with Jon Tester. Apparently Conrad Burns does hate first responders, and has no idea of how difficult things can be in face of major natural disasters.
Paula Rosenthal tried to correct Burns' impression of wealthy firefighters:
Rosenthal wrote in both versions: "I offered to the senator that our firefighters make around $8-$12 per hour and time-and-a-half for overtime. He seemed a little surprised that it wasn't higher.''
Burns issued the apology after the State Bureau faxed his office a copy of Rosenthal's original report.
The Augusta Hot Shots are national heroes for their work in New York City following 9/11, but they appear to be lazy bums that are too well paid according to Senator Burns:
The Augusta Hot Shots are a 20-person crew formed in June 2001. After the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, they spent time in New York City helping the crews at Ground Zero. Last year, the Augusta Hot Shots were called out 35 times, a Forest Service spokesman told the Staunton, Va., News Leader in a story Thursday.
"They're very sought after, very well trained,'' Jo Beth Brown of the Forest Service told the Virginia newspaper.
Jon Tester praised the work of the firefighters:
Burns' Democratic opponent, state Senate President Jon Tester of Big Sandy, issued a statement that didn't mention Burns but praised firefighters.
"During this dangerous fire season, all Montanans are grateful for the thousands of firefighters who are on the front lines protecting our homes, property and wild lands,'' he said. "These dedicated professionals are to be commended for their bravery, hard work and sacrifice. Until the rains come, Montana will remain at risk, and it is the responsibility of every Montanan to support our firefighters and let them do their job.'
Senator Burns issues what has becoming a standard apology for running his mouth without engaging his brain first:
"In retrospect, I wish I had chosen my words more carefully,'' Burns said in a statement.
This Burns incident follows a long line of ill considered statements, referring to Arab-Americans as "ragheads" and having to live with "the niggers in DC", as well telling airline stewards that they need to "stay home and raise their children".
This November the 18 year embarrassing senatorial career of Conrad Burns has to come to an end.