1. He's a drunk. Alcoholism is a treatable disease and Rehberg needs to get help. His drunken behavior in several very public incidents has been a great embarrassment to Montana.
2. He's a homophobe. Rehberg supports a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. And in 2007 he voted against the Local Law Enforcement Hate Crimes Prevention Act, a bill amending the Federal definition of hate crimes to include gender identification and sexual orientation.
Rehberg's long-standing homophobia caught the attention of Newsweek fifteen years ago when AIDS was considered a "gay disease." In the Dec. 26, 1994, issue he was quoted as saying "The problem with AIDS is you get it, you die, so why are we spending [money on] any people that get it?"
3. He's a hypocrite. Despite claiming to "support our troops," Rehberg voted in 2007 against the Mandatory Troop Rest Periods between Deployments to Iraq bill. Thanks to Democrats, the bill passed. Rehberg apparently saw no need for our soldiers to rest between multiple deployments. Suck it up, soldier!
4. He's such a hypocrite! In a statement pandering to the "tea-partiers," Rehberg said, "Montanans are understandably outraged at the dangerously irresponsible spending in Washington, D.C. The tea parties springing up around the nation exemplify that anger, and I hear their message loud and clear. "
Here, however, is a partial list of requests for pork, er, appropriations Rehberg has made this year:
$20 million over two years to a major political donor, Synesis7 in Butte.
$9 million to Resodyn, another major donor to his campaign.
$25 million to the Columbia River Channel Coalition (Don't Oregon and
Washington have members in Congress?)
$4.7 million to America Chemet to "develop a bioavailability model for copper in estuarine waters" (how does this benefit Montanans?)
$650,000 for his favorite charity and travel agent, the Montana World Trade Center.
5. He's lying about the Forest Jobs and Recreation Act. In a recent editorial, he trotted out all the anti-wilderness canards: that bug kills and wildfires will get worse (as if labels on maps matter to these natural phenomena); that private inholders will be denied access to their land (patently false because it would be illegal); that "faceless federal agencies" in Washington D.C. will be put in charge of our forests (wrong! our local FS land managers will still be in charge).
Here's the biggest whopper of them all: that wilderness is the first step toward banning all guns on our federal lands! This is an obvious attempt to appeal to the paranoid, gun-toting, anti-government fringe element of his party, and of course there's not an ounce of truth in it. His pants are really on fire!
6. He's not doing his job. Rehberg is paid $174,000 annually and funds a staff that costs millions. Yet his only contribution to the health care debate is the following very detached statement (to which he tacks on the inevitable anti-government cliche): "Something better be done or there's going to be a revolt. I just don't think the government is the solution." Isn't it his government job to see that something is done?
[Update: On September 10, following President Obama's powerful speech on health care reform, Rehberg had the temerity to request that Congress adjourn for thirty more days so congressional members could experience more of the right-winger packed town hall meetings he couldn't get enough of in August.]
So, what has he actually done? Asked recently to highlight Rehberg's legislative accomplishments in the past eight years, his former chief of staff Erik Iverson said: "Time and again Denny has backed legislation that matters to Montanans. He's sponsored bills to recognize Billings' 125th anniversary, to push for a water project in Fort Peck, and to congratulate Carroll College's football team for its 2007 league win."
7. He's in the pocket of Big Oil. Because much of Rehberg's campaign money comes from petroleum companies, he voted in 2007 against the Creating Long-Term Energy Alternatives for the Nation Act (HR 6). Fortunately, it passed 264-163. Instead of supporting this alternative-energy legislation, which has already begun weaning our country off of oil dependency, Rehberg argued for drilling along the Rocky Mountain Front. This would've been quite lucrative for his Big Oil donors but terrible for the environment.
8. He's opposed, for the dumbest of reasons, to raising CAFE standards. Explaining why he opposed a bill increasing CAFE standards for cars and light trucks to 35 mph., he wrote to a constituent that "Montana families put function over fashion when it comes to their vehicles." His belief that fuel efficiency is merely a matter of fashion (to which Montanans, by golly, will not be slaves) is quite silly and reveals his inability to grasp complex issues.
9. He's totally on the side of the rich. Rehberg, one of the wealthiest men in Montana, strongly opposes the full reinstatement of the Federal Estate Tax (which he and other Republicans call the "death tax") in 2011. Extrapolating from the last available tax records (2006), it's estimated that in 2009 only 24 families, or about .7% of estates in Montana, will be rich enough to pay this tax. But since these families are in Rehberg's social circle, he will continue voting to protect them from a tax that would have very little impact on them while producing much-needed federal revenues.
10. He's totally against working people. Rehberg consistently votes against legislation that would benefit workers. Here's a partial list of bills he voted against (but which, thanks to a Democratic majority, passed):
The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, 2009 (HR 11).
The Paycheck Fairness Act, 2009 (HR 12).
The Unequal Pay Act, 2008 (HR 1338).
The Emergency Extended Unemployment Compensation Act, 2008 (HR 5749).
The S-Miner Act, 2008 (HR 2768).
The Sexual Orientation Employment Nondiscrimination Act, 2007 (HR
3017).
The Fair Minimum Wage Act, 2007 (HR 2).
