"Hobbled by a foot planted firmly in his mouth, dogged by nearly $150,000 in donations he took from clients of disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, embattled Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., is fighting back with pork and slime.

A crowd of more than 1,000 showed up Monday night at Montana State University. Dr. Geoff Gamble, MSU president, helped set up chairs for five elderly women on oxygen who arrived from a local rest home.

[Democrat Jon] Tester backers were easy to identify. They wore yellow T-shirts saying: "FIRE BURNS."

It's an unsubtle reference to a July 23rd incident at the Billings Airport, where Burns encountered an elite Virginia-based fire team imported to fight a major ranchland fire. Burns told them they'd done "a piss-poor job."

The senator has also described Arab oil sheiks as "rag heads," used the N-word in a joking reference to African Americans and recently speculated that a cab driver by day could be a terrorist by night.

Until the Abramoff money, and the insult to firefighters, Montanans tended to chuckle and forgive."

Get the Story:
Joel Connelly: Montana tires of senator's shtick (The Seattle Post-Intelligencer 10/11)

Relevant Links:
Jon Tester for US Senate - http://www.testerforsenate.com
Conrad Burns for Senate - http://www.conradburns.com
Sen. Conrad Burns - http://burns.senate.gov
Montana Republican Party - http://www.mtgop.org
Montana Democratic Party - http://www.montanademocrats.org

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