Perhaps you’ve visited MT Cowgirl in the past day.
If so, you’ve probably seen the post called Under New Management.
It was put up by Montana Cowboy…whoever that is.
Yes, the site might have a new writer or two, but the anonymity will remain.
So…who is this person…and what happened to the old people?
“The old administrators are no longer around so I stepped up,” we’re told, and then it’s mentioned that “no longer are the original creators of this blog associated with it anymore.”
After that we're told that it’s “time to start doing the hard, important work of holding those who govern us accountable.”
By this I assume we’re talking about the legislature, as Bullock is a Democrat and we know that in Montana Democrats don’t hold their own accountable.
Or is MT Cowgirl going to have a different political bent these days? I highly doubt it.
Still, we are told that “Montana values must come first.”
What are Montana values?
From the site’s past content I have to assume it’s anti-trapping crusades, lots of gun control talk, inordinate attention paid to LGBT issues, and a complete ignoring of Democratic improprieties in favor of posts bashing the Republicans for even the smallest of ‘infractions.’
But don’t worry, for in 2017 “we all have a responsibility to be engaged and really make sure we hold our state and country to the standards we demand.”
And that, my friends, is our introduction to the new MT Cowgirl.
If so, you’ve probably seen the post called Under New Management.
It was put up by Montana Cowboy…whoever that is.
Yes, the site might have a new writer or two, but the anonymity will remain.
So…who is this person…and what happened to the old people?
“The old administrators are no longer around so I stepped up,” we’re told, and then it’s mentioned that “no longer are the original creators of this blog associated with it anymore.”
After that we're told that it’s “time to start doing the hard, important work of holding those who govern us accountable.”
By this I assume we’re talking about the legislature, as Bullock is a Democrat and we know that in Montana Democrats don’t hold their own accountable.
Or is MT Cowgirl going to have a different political bent these days? I highly doubt it.
Still, we are told that “Montana values must come first.”
What are Montana values?
From the site’s past content I have to assume it’s anti-trapping crusades, lots of gun control talk, inordinate attention paid to LGBT issues, and a complete ignoring of Democratic improprieties in favor of posts bashing the Republicans for even the smallest of ‘infractions.’
But don’t worry, for in 2017 “we all have a responsibility to be engaged and really make sure we hold our state and country to the standards we demand.”
And that, my friends, is our introduction to the new MT Cowgirl.
I received the following email early this morning:
“Do you think it's merely coincidental that Montana Cowgirl changes hands right after Jessica Rhoades and Eric Stern take jobs in the governor's office? I'm sure Bullock's people made it clear the blogging needed to stop.”
I was wondering what Stern would do now that Dems no longer control the Secretary of State’s Office.
I thought he might crawl back to New York, but it appears we’re not so lucky.
Instead it seems he’s crawled right over to the governor’s office.
Now, I can’t help but think that Matthew Koehler sent me that email, for the main reason that he put those same names forth in 2010.
(In the same post, someone claimed the Cowgirl commenter “Farmboy” was Brian Schweitzer.)
It’s widely been assumed that Eric Stern is the main writer for MT Cowgirl.
Some think that Jessica Rhoades is Sterns’ girlfriend.
“If Stern’s girlfriend, another public employee, is also using her position to attack people anonymously, it will only feed into the evidence that Bullock and the Democrats are stacking more people into state government for the purposes of attacking Republicans with taxpayer dollars and using state positions as rewards for allies.”
Jessica Rhoades used to do Intergovernmental Relations for the Director’s Office of DPHHS.
Since 2012 she’s listed herself as policy director for that office, and prior to that she was policy advisor to Schweitzer for about 2 years.
Before that she was Communications Director for OPI, Communications Director for the Office of the State Commissioner of Securities and Insurance, and even the Independent Expenditure Campaign Director for the Montana Democratic Party.
She got that last job in 2008, and she came to it from Planned Parenthood, where she spent a year. Prior to Planned Parenthood she’d served as Communications Director for the Montana Democratic Party from 2005 to 2007. In the two years previous to that she was with Pro-Choice Montana, serving as its executive director.
Think MT Cowgirl had a lot on abortion, an issue that most Montanans don’t care about?
That was probably due to Rhoades’ influence.
Now, this is all speculation, and that’s exactly what we can expect when we have anonymous writers trying to guide a political party in Montana.
We’ll speculate on who those writers are, what their agenda is, where they work, and a lot more.
The smart thing to do would have been to come clean, identify the old writers of the site, and give a name to the new ones.
But we don’t see that.
Instead we see a new writer and the exact same game plan.
The new post up today bashing the usual suspects makes that quite clear.
Mostly, it’s sad.
It’s sad that Democrats in Montana are so cowardly that they can’t put their real name on their ideas.
They have to hide, both because their ideas are so unpopular and because those pushing the ideas have no courage.
- They have no honor, for sniping from the bushes is not an honorable pursuit.
- They have no integrity, for they’re not honest in who they are.
- They have no decency, for that’s the shield that anonymity brings.
Despite having no honor, integrity, or decency, this website expects Democrats in Montana to follow it, nod along to its words, and take up the rallying cry on its positions.
No thanks.
I’d rather not go down that road, one that’ll give us the exact same losing strategy that it gave us in 2016.
But what do I know?
- I’m not some Democratic bigwig in the state.
- I’m not making a big taxpayer-funded paycheck.
- I haven’t even won an election.
But neither have Stern or Rhoades. Hell, they haven’t even run in one.
Maybe that’s part of the problem – the voices telling us what to do are pure hypocrites.
Despite telling us how things should be and how bad they are now, these people never actively go out and try to change them.
They sit behind their fake names and tell us what to do about it.
That’s lame.
These people at MT Cowgirl aren’t leaders.
I’m not sure who they’re following for their orders and their ideas, but I don’t feel it’s anyone I’m interested in helping.
So I wish good luck to MT Cowboy and his crop of writers at MT Cowgirl.
I’m not expecting any changes in that site, not in the slightest.
I am expecting Montana Democrats to continue their unprecedented losing streak, however.
That won’t be changing for a long time.
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What is Wrong with Montana Cowgirl? (April 2015)
Dissecting MT Cowgirl’s BS This Evening (December 2015)
An Anonymous Troll Guides Montana Democrats (December 2015)
Analyzing the Montana Analyzers (May 2016)
Making the Rounds of the Montana Blogosphere (October 2016)
Dissecting MT Cowgirl’s BS This Evening (December 2015)
An Anonymous Troll Guides Montana Democrats (December 2015)
Analyzing the Montana Analyzers (May 2016)
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