MT’s Schweitzer Leads Charge Against Bush on Prescription Drugs

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Around these parts, Montana’s new Democratic governor Brian Schweitzer has come in for a lot of (well-deserved) adulation. So it was with special interest that I read this story today about Schweitzer taking the lead in the fight to bring low-cost prescription drugs to his constituents, who of course live along the Canadian border:

The Bush administration cites public safety in trying to block admission of cheaper prescription drugs from Canada, but has agreed to expand imports of Canadian beef and cattle despite cases of mad cow disease, Montana’s Democratic governor complained Saturday. “President Bush was recently here in Montana and we had justone question for him,” Gov. Brian Schweitzer said in his party’s weekly radio address. ”Why allow bad beef to enter the U.S. from Canada and not allow safe medicine?” (Emphasis added.)

Now, it may be a little harsh and unfair to brand all Canadian beef as “bad,” but (and apologies to our friends from the Great White North), I really like what Schweitzer is doing here. Rhetorically, he is making Bush look like a hypocrite, and I think the media just loves hypocrisy. The difficulty with this tactic, though is that you can’t simply say someone is a hypocrite - that just looks like a rank partisan charge and it won’t stick.

But ah, if you can use someone’s words or actions against them in a compare-and-contrast like this, then you can paint a Picasso of hypocrisy. And Schweitzer, an exceptionally clever politician, has been pointing up this hypocrisy for years:

During an earlier, unsuccessful campaign for a Senate seat, Schweitzer became known for chartering buses to take older people to Canada to buy their prescription drugs. He said he often gave those on board clipboards and asked them to make note of the number of Canadian trucks headed into the United States carrying cattle, hogs and lumber. “Yet prescription drugs made in the U.S., shipped to Canada, aren’t allowed back across the border. This makes no sense,” Schweitzer said. (Emphasis added.)

Letting his own constituents draw the picture of Bush-as-hypocrite. Brilliant. Media pressure is the only thing these megalomaniacs in the White House ever seem to respond to, so let’s see what happens here. And you can definitely count me as an eager Schweitzer watcher. 

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