| Okay...so I mentioned briefly that I've been out camping for the last several days. So imagine my surprise when I heard that Dennis Rehberg - right in the middle of an election - sues the Billings Fire Department for...well...because a fire burned on his land?
Pogie: "I certainly hope to see a McDonald ad exposing the gall of one of the richest members of Congress suing firefighters who spent a week risking their lives, to defend his scrub brush." He's also posted a couple of letters in newspapers criticizing Rehberg's decision to sue.
In a subsequent post, Pogie explains why the suit went forward, now, in the heat of an election year: the Rehbergs' request for an extension to the statute of limitations for the suit was denied by Billings city officials. Pogie: "Gosh, I wonder why they would want to wait? It would seem that two years would be enough time to determine that 'irreparable' damage was done to one's scrub brush, wouldn't it?"
Cowgirl has her blog up and running and is all over this story. For one, this isn't the first time that the Rehberg estates has had conflicts with the public over his real estate business. Cowgirl also has Rehberg on video bragging that he owns Billings' city park on the Rims. That the Rehbergs essentially treated state land as their private property shouldn't surprise anyone familiar with Rehberg's record on public lands.
And the suit made for a joke on MSNBC.
Oh, and Cowgirl provides a link to the the lawsuit (pdf). And, reading Pogie's analysis of the suit, it seems like...Rehberg...assumed the Billings Fire Department should have stood guard over his scrub brush on the 4th of July two years ago?
Megan Carpentier writing on TPMMuckraker reminds us that impolite remarks to firefighters played a role in the 2006 election, and that this is the second controversy hanging over Rehberg's head this election... |
