Schweitzer Takes Aim

[Valin]

The Weekly Standard:

A progressive populist has Hillary in his sights

MICHAEL WARREN

Dec 23, 2013

 

Brian Schweitzer sounds content with being a former pol. As we chat on the phone, he is looking out the window of his home on Georgetown Lake in western Montana. By mid-November, the lake is frozen, and the Pintler Mountains to the south are covered with snow. Schweitzers home sits at the end of a dirt road more than a mile long. Im 25 miles from groceries, he says.

 

The 58-year-old Democrat is also a long way from Helena, the state capital, where he was governor from 2005 to 2013. And hes even farther from Washington, D.C., where national Democrats had hoped he might succeed longtime senator Max Baucus in two years. They assumed when Baucus announced his retirement in April that Schweitzer was the partys best (and maybe only) choice to replace him. But in July, Schweitzer said he wasnt running, leaving Democrats scrambling to find a suitable candidate.

 

Just because Schweitzer wasnt ready to be one of a hundred in the U.S. Senate doesnt mean hes out of the game, though. Hes acting and talking like someone who is preparing to run for president. In an interview with Scott Conroy of Real Clear Politics, Schweitzer casually mentioned New Hampshires state motto. Live Free or Die, he said. We understand that notion in Montana. On December 18, hes making the trek to Des Moines to speak to a gathering of Progress Iowa, a liberal grassroots group.

 

(Snip)

 

Podcast: Podcast: Hillary's First Real Challenger: Brian Schweitzer

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