Conservative Cannabalism?

Seattlepi.com: Narrowly defeated in his bid for a fourth term, Montana Sen. Conrad Burns turned his anger on the National Republican Senatorial Committee and commercials it had run months before the election.

"The ads hurt me more than they helped. I wouldn't have spent the money," he said, his comments characteristic of the season of second-guessing now unfolding among Republicans.

That's funny because I thought Burns' defeat had to do with something other than the NRSC. As Marie Horrigan of the New York Times noted:

Burns’ defeat was a perfect storm of voter dissent over the sizable campaign contributions Burns received in the past from disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, and the senator’s uncanny ability to commit verbal gaffes.

Montana Democrats scored bonus points when Tester won the June 6 primary over state Auditor John Morrison. A lawyer with an urbane manner, Morrison might have had a hard time offsetting former farm broadcaster Burns’ claims that he was the only “real” Montanan in the race.

Not so for Tester, a crewcut-wearing, big-bellied organic farmer who works the land his grandfather homesteaded in the early 20th century and freely showed off the fact that he lost three fingers years ago in a meat grinder accident.

Tester kept his campaign mainly positive, withstood a barrage of ads by Burns and GOP allies aimed at portraying him as too liberal, and let Burns do himself in with self-inflicted controversies — such his statement there was a cadre of taxi drivers who moonlight as assassins in their off-hours, and his public scolding of Virginia firefighters whose efforts to put out wildfires in Montana were deemed insufficient by Burns.

One interesting aspect of the Montana race is that it was much less affected by Bush’s national unpopularity than most of the Republican defeats. While the president, according to the SurveyUSA polling company, had a big job approval deficit in all of the other states where Democrats gained Senate seats, he had a narrow 50 percent to 48 percent advantage in Montana just prior to the Nov. 7 election. In fact, a late campaign appearance in Montana by Bush appeared to help Burns narrow Tester’s lead in “horserace” polls.

Instead of sighting his own flaws, Burns decides to bite the hand that fed him. What a class act. I don't think the RNSC will miss him too much.