Montana Senator Does It Again

mslacat · Post by **mslacat** » Fri Sep 01, 2006 10:09 am

Sometimes you wonder whether he has any idea what he is going to say, until 5 minutes after he has said it!!!

But still he is our Conrad.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/09/ ... 9902.shtml

grizbeer · Post by **grizbeer** » Fri Sep 01, 2006 10:51 am

Having over the last week read Jill Carrol's story about her time in captivity it doesn't sound like Conrad was far off - she talks about how her captors boast of fighting US soldiers, then blend in to the point of sharing meals with them, how they shave their beards and drive with kids in the car to blend in with society, of planting IEDs at night then detonating them during the day, of mothers who dream of being suicide bombers. granted no mention specifically of taxi drivers, but very clearly everyday people you would not think of as a threat.

BTW I believe some of the participants in the first WTC bombing were taxi drivers, if my memory is correct.

Post by **SonomaCat** » Fri Sep 01, 2006 11:21 am

He could have just as easily said that terrorists are farmers by day and terrorists by night (and been historically accurate by way of OKC bombing) ... but somehow I doubt he would have used that generalization.

Speaking to a MT crowd, the comment is somewhat benign ... I doubt the 30 taxi drivers in MT took offense to the insinuation ... they knew he was talking about dark complected guys that talk funny (you know, immigrants ... but not those pale immigrants that populated MT in the past), and not them.

King · Post by **King** » Fri Sep 01, 2006 4:43 pm

Some of the things he says are pure gold. I laughed reading much of that. Some of it was in embarassment though

Post by **SonomaCat** » Fri Sep 01, 2006 5:43 pm

Here's an article on the comments from the Chronicle:

http://pioneer.olivesoftware.com/Reposi ... kin-custom

The disturbing part to me isn't just on the face of what he said. Had it been a random comment said in passing, it would have been easier to explain. This was said in a scripted speech. Then, later, when asked about the comment, Burns was either unable or unwilling to expand or clarify the comment, and merely repeated the exact same words. His staffer had to come in later and clarify that not only taxi drivers can be terrorists ... something that Burns certainly should have spoken to when he was asked about it.

I don't know Burns well, and I don't know how bright or dumb he really is, but he sure has a knack for saying stupid things lately, and seems to have very little ability to explain why he says what he says. People misspeak all the time, and I think people tend to go too far with the "Gotcha" stuff sometimes. If a person (but not their spokespeople) can later clarify what they meant, and it turns out that their words betrayed their true feelings, then I usually cut them some slack. But in this case, and in several previous ones, I just get the feeling that he might just not "get it" when it comes to certain things in our society.

That being said, I know next to nothing about Tester. He might be worse in this regard, and he might have ideas determental to MT and the country ... but he does seem better at hiding it, if true.