Governor's offer sparked outburst

What really happened during Montana's 60th legislative session? To a degree, that depends on your perspective of things.

Votes are all on record. The administration's proposals and the "official" positions of state agencies are documented. The press does its best to report all of this to the public, who then formulates viewpoints based on what they read, what they see and what they hear.

Some things get missed along the way. Sometimes the truth about why things happen gets lost in the shuffle. Perhaps this article can clear up a few questions about some of what happened during our most recent implementation of democracy.

On the 88th legislative day, I swore at Gov. Brian Schweitzer in a Republican caucus meeting. It made national news and caused quite a stir. The language was certainly inappropriate, and for that, I did apologize to the governor personally, and to the House of Representatives and, again now, to the people of Montana for the use of profanity.

Why was I so angry at the governor? That's simple and straightforward — he directly asked me to betray my entire Republican caucus, something I would never do.

Just before 7 a.m. on that day, I received a phone call from a member of the governor's staff requesting that I meet with the governor to discuss the impasse between the Senate (Democrats) and the House (Republicans).

The governor asked me to convince a few Republican legislators to support a motion to pass his budget out of the House and, in return, he would graciously allow one of my bills to be amended and passed to his liking. Then, according to him, I would get the credit for passing the bill and all would be well. (Never mind that the substance of his proposal was extremely disagreeable to begin with).

In very specific words, I then asked him if what he wanted me to do was simply "talk to my caucus members about this directly". He said yes. I then said this: "Governor, I will talk to my caucus members about this," which I did — I talked to all 50 of then at once, not exactly what he had in mind, I'm sure.

His attempt to get me to betray my caucus would not, by itself, prompt me to swear at him. However, his direct intimidation of certain Republican legislators was another matter. On that very morning, I learned of another such set of threats towards some of my colleagues. Enough was enough.

I don't react well to people who threaten my family, my friends or the people I represent, and that includes my colleagues.

The governor's claim after the fact that "he thought we had a deal" was his attempt to cover his own actions. There was never a deal between us. The entire episode was unfortunate, yet indicative of the lack of meaningful communications up to that point between the administration and the legislature.

The governor and I briefly and cordially discussed the situation the next day (with a member of the press present) and we put it to rest.

Did his actions justify my actions? What would you have done? You can determine that on your own. Some people would have held their temper better, and I'll do my best not to lose mine again.

One thing is certain — it had absolutely nothing to do with term limits or partisanship. It had everything to do with defending my colleagues as their majority leader.

Rep. Michael Lange, R-Billings, was the House Majority Leader for the 2007 Legislative Session.