Sen. Conrad Burns (R-MT) opens fire on firefighters
By on Jul 27th, 2006 at 3:19 pm
Sen. Conrad Burns (R-MT) opens fire on firefighters
who had come from Virginia to Montana to put out a 92,000-acre blaze. Burns told the firefighters, who earn $8 to $12 an hour and time-and-a-half for overtime, they had “done a poor job†and “should have listened to the ranchers.â€
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Lazy senator trying to look like he’s doing something.
Not buying it.
July 27th, 2006 at 3:26 pmWooohh… MAJOR misleading with that headline. I understand it’s a play on words, but c’mon now. After reading the story about a Repyblican lawmakers gun being used in a fatal shooting, I could only presume this was another Republican/firearm story!
July 27th, 2006 at 3:33 pmI guess Senator Burns is just a grateful person . Personally, I’ll be grateful is the voters in Montana send someone else to the Senate in November.
July 27th, 2006 at 3:39 pmI fought fire on a Hotshot crew, and on a regular ranger district crew, out of Idaho for four seasons.
Unlike most people from Montana, who either fought fire, or have friends or relatives that do/did, this man obviously has NO IDEA WHAT HE IS TALKING ABOUT, or how hard it is to beat mother nature, or how physically demanding the job is. He probably spends more time drinking martinis on the golf course in D.C. than actually getting his hands dirty in his homestate…
Even if he had some legitimate concerns (I’m not saying he does, but perhaps…), accosting tired, non-decision makers like the generally young (20-something) firefighters who are simply waiting to go home, rather than speaking with the firebosses, or better yet the government agencies in charge, is completely inappropriate.
Shame on you, Senator.
July 27th, 2006 at 3:41 pmWhat in this article leads one to believe that the Senator was wrong? Is the fact that someone earns $8-$12/hr somehow indicitave of performance? What did the ranchers say that should have been listened to?
ThinkProgress usually does a better job than this.
July 27th, 2006 at 3:45 pmWhen the Senators house is close to being burned he will call the same firefighters he now talks bad about. That’s normal for stupid people. I guess the bible was right after all that the evil people would be crazy and they would show it. Now lets see who’s talking crazy in this government. Connie, Rummy, Bush, Cheney ( when he’s awake) and others. Now we know why the United States is in this mess.
July 27th, 2006 at 3:46 pmBurns…douche bag….Thank god Tester is polling at 50% to 43% in Montana.
Another bushie bites the dust come November.
Hey, we may actually get to govern again….Won’t it be fun to tell King dumbya “NO!” and watch his head explode just like in the movie Scanners….
July 27th, 2006 at 3:48 pmRobert
You are right…Burns may actually have a legitimate concern. But his concerns need to be addressed to someone higher up, an actual decision maker…Acc. to the article, there were several hundred people on a 90,000 acre fire…and he accosts a handful of them in the airport? Young men who simply go where told with chain saw and pulaski, and work as hard as they can? Not the incident command team, or the head of the Interior Dept/Dept of Agriculture, but a chain sawyer? A pulaski weilder?
If the Forest Service or BLM was making poor decisions about how to fight fires, it was not doing so with the advice of a handful of kids making $10/hr (is the point).
July 27th, 2006 at 3:58 pmBurns is a putz. always has been….Isn’t he also one being investigated for something in this bunch of pigs at the trouth.?……Blessings
July 27th, 2006 at 4:00 pmSen Burns sounds like another “quintessential kiss up, kick down kind of guy.”
July 27th, 2006 at 4:00 pmAfter reading the article, it’s really quite vague as to what his complaints were. . . other than some farmers thought there was more interest in protecting public land rather than theirs…. but it’s not clear. Having worked in government for 31+ years as an administrator of a large agency, I’ve seen this behavior before. It’s called, “Making a big stink over nothing but impressing some folks who might vote for me.” Since the someone in Washington called EACH farmer, they must really be impressed how the Senator can get things done.
July 27th, 2006 at 4:02 pmI notice Conrad is up for reelection this fall. He barely won in 2000, and polls this year so far put his support in the state at around 40%. Mostly due to his high disapproval ratings from the Abramoff scandal. The democrats have Burns singled out as one of the most vulnerable senators facing re-election. His Democratic opponent, by the way is the popular Montana State Senate President and organic farmer Jon Tester.
Here is some more of Conard:
In April 2006, he was selected by Time as one of “America’s Five Worst Senators.”
The senator ratings from just a few interest groups:
American Civil Liberties Union= 0%
National Education Association = 0%
League of Conservation Voters = 5%
Christian Coalition = 100%
American Public Health Association = 10%
American Land Rights Association = 100%
Here is what Jack Abramoff was quoted as saying to Vanity Fair, “Every appropriation we wanted from Senator Conrad Burns’ committee we got.”
I think that pretty well says it all about Burns and his desperate play for a little press.
July 27th, 2006 at 4:04 pmDamage Control Will Robinson!!!
Damage Control Will Robinson!!!
July 27th, 2006 at 4:32 pmThe article never stated what the ranchers were saying, other than they wanted to fight the fires on their own property, which they can if they wanted to. In taking in the information from the article, it seems the senator didn’t have enough information to be confronting anyone, let alone the men and women who take orders to fight a fire. Maybe Mr. Burns had a friend with lots of ranch property who didn’t get his fire put out fast enough? And this is interesting to TP because….. oh it’s a Republican senator, fun to bash.
July 27th, 2006 at 4:33 pmfor truth – it’s intersting because
A) the link TP uses is from the Missoula Paper (a local Montana paper)
B) it show’s the Senator to be an ASSHAT!
Do you need us to tell you how to tie your shoes as well?
July 27th, 2006 at 4:37 pmbut, what do we gain by this?
just wondering….
aren’t there more important things going on today??
July 27th, 2006 at 4:48 pmWhat do you expect from an ungrateful Republican. These firefighter came all the way out from New York and this idiot tells them they did a poor job.
He needed to go to higher ups with his concerns. I hope the voters in Montana give him the boot in November.
July 27th, 2006 at 4:49 pmGood luck, Montana, on getting help to fight your next fire!
July 27th, 2006 at 4:51 pmHey – anyone wonder who LOST is? It’s our bud James Risser…he wants to link you over to a web site of his called Think Progress Lies. Wow, that took some thinkin’ eh James. What, did you stay up maybe a couple of nights wondering what to hook your wagon up to to get some web visits?
Psst jimmie baby – Nice try, but try harder next time. Your web site sucks the wad.
July 27th, 2006 at 5:07 pmthank you, kindness. my first bag of ‘web visits’ will be sent to you since you seem to value them more than i….
i care about people NOT misusing the word ‘progressive’ to promote a democratic/clintonesque view of the world. period. i could give two-shits for ‘web visits’ for ‘web visits’ sake.
do you have a better title? i was thinking of ‘think progress isn’t’ or ‘think progress is a pawn of the special interests associated with the heart of the democratic party and has no resemblance to the true progressive movement that has no ties to special interests’ but, the one seemed too short and the other too long.
July 27th, 2006 at 5:12 pmYour welcome.
July 27th, 2006 at 5:15 pmcertainly. i am nothing if not cordial…
now, about the titile? :)
July 27th, 2006 at 5:21 pmHow about The James Risser Report
July 27th, 2006 at 5:55 pmRobert at 5. You have got to be kidding me. Nobody said he was wrong. Tactless, ineffective, stupid, crass, but maybe not wrong. Guys come sweating off a fire line taking a welcome respite before going home or to the next fire and a US Senator comes in and starts telling the they did a poor job. A leader doesn’t do that. What possible excuse could he have to choose that forum to air his gripe? You can re-evaluate decisions and try better next time but you sure as hell don’t chastise a bunch a guys doing a hard job. It takes the wind right out of their sails. Its like blaming the New York City firefighters for letting the towers come down.
July 27th, 2006 at 6:10 pmTypical kiss-up, kick-down conservative. It’s amazing to me that any working class American supports the repub party these days.
July 27th, 2006 at 7:55 pmFirefighters are real heroes, just like people who’ve actually served their country in uniform. Why do Republicans hate real American heroes?
July 27th, 2006 at 8:15 pmOh wow, all 28 of you are fire fighters, you know fire in building, forests, and plains. Its so nice to know that so many experts are still unemployed because if you look at your posts, you’ll never be employed. Sorry just from a chinese broad who’s been here two years…. oh damn I speak engish.
July 27th, 2006 at 11:47 pmSenator Burns needs to get his head out of his ass. When the department of homeland security went searchign for an emergency management system to use for integrating services in time of disaser, they used NIMS, which is taken from the firefighters – developed to combat California wildfires in the 70’s. The firefighters did their job by listening to Command, not frenzied ranchers.
(Just more in a long history of right-wing dorks who co-op liberal developments and call it their own – then blame others when they are too stupid to implement it or unable to exploit it for their own gain.)
His comments are especially timely with many agencies gearing up to meet the 09/2006 deadline for NIMS compliance.
July 28th, 2006 at 1:42 amlet me tell you something, burns doesn’t know shit but ripping off the indians and bowin’ down to the criminals. this fire was totally out of control. i-94 runs on one side and a hwy runs on the other. these ranchers by NO means were going to be able to help contain it. the only thing they could have done was to try and save their own land. and the retardent was dropped so the damn fire didn’t spread. and on top of that there was another fire on the north side of 1-94 and burning along side of the interstate. on the bundy fire the hwy had to be shut down. this prick won’t have a chance to survive if the local montanans know what is good for them. and for him to care about the ranchers—–he had his shot but has we know bushco did away with the farmer/rancher subsidaries. f. this prick.
July 28th, 2006 at 3:17 amDid any of these Ranchers make ‘generous’ campaign contributions to the Senator? The Republicans always take care of their ‘Sugar Daddies” first.
July 28th, 2006 at 7:06 amThis is what he said in reference to the rancher;
Burns also said he had heard from one rancher that fire crews on the Bundy Railroad fire put a strip of fire retardant on the edge of Bureau of Land Management land, implying that firefighters were more interested in protecting public land than private.
Burns is only quoted as citing 1 rancher, not some as stated by an earlier poster, #12
Southwest Bob and #5 Robert says Think Prgressive usually does better. But some are missing the point, Think Progressive is blasting Burns, because of his comments, yet only cites one rancher! One, only one, that is all he spoke to? Maybe Burns should take his a$$ out on the range and fight the fires for 8 to 12 bucks an hour!
Looks as though he wants the firfighters to be local;
Burns said he was unhappy that fires are run out of the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho, which he called “ridiculous.â€
July 28th, 2006 at 7:53 amI think Conrad should get to experience what some brave
firefighters, (help me out here, Swan), call a ‘marshmallow roast’.
Fire is coming up on you fast. You dig a quick hole, get in it with
your space age foil blanket, pack as much dirt around you as possible,
wrap the foil blanket around you, zip it up and let the fire burn over you.
My cousin had to this fighting fire in Northern Idaho. I’ve been a volunteer
firemand for many years, but never fought the big ones in forests.
Conrad, you want end times. Go toast yourself to just see what Hell may
July 28th, 2006 at 10:01 amfeel like. You better get used to it, ’cause that’s exactly where you’re headed.
LOL, Zimzone…
We used to call it a shake and bake, cuz you shake out your fire shelter, then get inside to bake like a potato!
I’ve never experienced it, thankfully, and few firefighters do…but being inside of them is clausterphobic even without the heat and high winds.
And I don’t mean the high winds from Burns’s flatulent comments, either…
July 28th, 2006 at 10:22 amIs this the same Senator Burns that is linked with the Jack Abramoff corruption scandal? How can you expect better of him? How can you expect better of any republican? Come on people, this guy is totally linked to corruption and is nothing but a mouthpiece for the bush administration. And you expect to hold him to normal standards for human behavior?
July 28th, 2006 at 11:03 amI was also on a Hotshot crew and worked on a Helitack crew. Crewmembers are GS 4/5 and are told by the chain of command what to do. Burns is a dipshit to yell at the line diggers, since they do what they are told. And to complain that NIFC in Boise “runs” the fires is crap. They might co-ordinate where nationwide resources go (which is why a crew from the eastcoast was in Montana in the first place), but the IC and/or firebosses at the fire provide the actual leadership on each fire. The thing about working on a fire crew is that no-one sees you digging line all day and all night, sleeping in the same clothes on the ground etc when you are out on the fire-line because you are in the boonies. The only time firecrews are seen by the public is when they are off the fire and at the airport or sitting by the road. So most people only see crews when they are done with a fire and dead tired from working 12 to 24 days. Burns is a jackass.
July 28th, 2006 at 6:49 pmNowhere does it state the Burns made any attempt to apologize to the firefighters, even after an official high-tailed it to the airport to mediate this “altercation”. What an asshole.
The way I read the article, it seems that the official(s) sent to speak with Burns were MUCH more gracious in dealing with this bastard than what I would have been if he were berating these folks on my watch. But, then again, I didn’t take Diplomacy 101 to deal with such absolute waste of space types like Burns. I was raised by Missouri farmers (on my Dad’s side), though, who didn’t put up with much bullshit from any ol’ waste of space. They would have dispatched this idiot so fully and with so little effort that he would have at first thought they were showing the him utmost respect until he realized that they had just handed him his head on a shit-covered platter.
Talk about plain-speaking and eloquent folks. If only my Grandpa was here on this earth now to sagely discuss his take on this current crop of Republican poseurs.
How I would love to have him in a room with me and some of my misguided, Limbaugh-listenin’ friends discussing politics. He’d tell them how the world turned pretty quick! And they’d love his style, too, as he always injected enough humor into a serious topic to make you listen and not shut-down. And then he’d change their minds as only someone like him could do.
There are certainly people who have been with us that should still be (even though Grandpa would be close to 100 years old now) and those who, as I stated before, are just a waste like Burns.
July 28th, 2006 at 7:16 pmSen. Burns just burned himself to political death > enough said for this GOP clown > lol.
July 28th, 2006 at 11:55 pmBurns and I made sweet homosexual love last night. His ass caught fire so Jesus put it out with sperm,
August 1st, 2006 at 1:12 amAs a republican in Utah who also fights fire, I can tell you I’ve never told a rancher how to ranch…why would I want some armchair quarterback trying to tell ME how to fight fire?
August 4th, 2006 at 3:03 pmSeems the conservatives always have the answer unless they’re wrong…and then if they’re wrong, they weren’t WRONG…they were just mis-understood. He’s back-pedalling as fast as he can now.
But hey– if you guys in Montana need some Ross-Perot-acting morons to take Burns’ place, just come on down to Utah and take a truckload of them off MY hands.
Politicians. There’s one good one for every dozen self-indulging egotists.