Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored. – Aldous Huxley

Welcome to the big show to end the week “Caught My Eye” (CME)!

If you are a first-time visitor, CME is posted right here every Friday morning. This is when I take a look at some of the stories I did not have time to write about during the week. I often throw in a touch of sarcasm to make you smile – or to irritate you just a little – maybe both.

Topics that I am providing commentary on today include Rob Quist, Greg Gianforte, Steve Daines, Amanda Curtis, Donald Trump, Russia, Mike Flynn, the Freedom Caucus, and much more!

Quist Fights Back:

The Democrat running for the open U.S. House seat in the special election is (finally) fighting back.

Lee Newspapers reported that Rob Quist told a crowd in Missoula:

“All (Gianforte) is doing is hiding in his lair and kinda throwing these mudballs at me,” Quist told the crowd. “I challenge him and congressional leaders to come out into the light of day and listen to these health care stories that everyday Montanans are telling. I challenge them to do that.”

It was also pointed out by Lee Newspapers that Quist’s opponent, Republican Greg Gianforte, has kept a “low public profile” since he was nominated.

Gianforte is on my TV all the time, though.

Quist also went after Senator Steve Daines, saying, “Steve Daines talks about his town hall meetings but he’s not in town and he’s not in a hall.”

That was a good one about Daines. Very true, too.

It’s good to see Quist fight back and make this race a little more interesting.

State Rep. Amanda Curtis:

I enjoy watching the YouTube updates from State Representative Amanda Curtis during the Montana Legislative sessions. She gives pretty good updates from the minority party and the updates are not very long, which is good. I’ve said before here at The Western Word that these videos from Curtis are a great way to communicate with constituents – it’s too bad more legislators don’t update their constituents this way.

Curtis was considered by the Montana Democrats to be their nominee to run in the U.S. House special election. Considering the issues that Rob Quist has, now it looks like Curtis would have been a better choice. Readers may remember that Curtis replaced John Walsh late in the 2014 U.S. Senate race. She ended up losing to Steve Daines.

I think that if given the opportunity to run a full campaign she might do pretty well in a state-wide race. To win she will need to appeal to more moderates and independents (like me).

She won’t win much support from those folks with comments like the following.

Rep. Curtis pissed me off the other day with her remarks about naming a highway in Montana after the late U.S. Senator Conrad Burns. As many readers know (it’s listed in my bio on this website), I worked for Burns for about a dozen years. Curtis told her viewers about the work in the legislature on Day 63 and closed with this remark: “However we did vote to name a Montana highway after a pretty outspoken racist. Your tax dollars at work.”

That’s a pretty cheap attack on a dead person, Rep. Curtis. You are better than that.

Russia, Russia, Russia:

First, the New York Times reported, “2 White House Officials Helped Give Nunes Intelligence Reports” and then last night the Wall Street Journal reported, “Mike Flynn Offers to Testify in Exchange for Immunity.” Flynn was President Donald Trump’s former national security adviser.

It’s funny that in September 2016, Flynn appeared on Meet the Press and talked about Clinton aides being given immunity:

“When you are given immunity, that means you probably committed a crime.”

It’s Russia all the time for the Trump administration. They cannot get much of anything else in the news to take the place of Russia.

I don’t remember if any member of an administration has asked for immunity this early in a new administration.

The Freedom Caucus:

There are a lot of moderates in the Republican Party who probably loved this Tweet from Donald Trump:

The Freedom Caucus will hurt the entire Republican agenda if they don’t get on the team, & fast. We must fight them, & Dems, in 2018!

Trump also singled out three members of the Freedom Caucus in his tweets.

The far-right members of the Republican Party have cost their party several elections over the years. It’s hilarious that the Republicans can’t come together when they have the majority.

It looks like the Republicans in Washington, D.C., are having a civil war – but what else is new…