Rehberg's BAC

Here are the results of Congressman Denny Rehberg's blood alcohol analysis. According to the report, the analysis was done at 12:58 a.m., approximately two and a half hours after the crash reportedly occurred.

It shows his BAC was .054 at the time of the test.

Clarification on “stonewalling”

I just wanted to clarify a Twitter post I made earlier, but first a little background…

A lot of Denny Rehberg’s political enemies have been trying to make hay out of Thursday’s tragic boat accident, which left five people injured, including one staffer who suffered a serious head/brain injury.

I’ve received multiple messages and Twitter posts insinuating that the Montana media is not doing an adequate job of exposing some unstated but alleged wrongdoing on behalf of Rehberg. There is a certain faction of Rehberg’s political rivals who want the press to blame Rehberg for what happened out on the lake last week.

There just aren’t enough facts to determine what, exactly, actually happened out on that lake that night.

Earlier today I posted a Twitter message mentioning the fact that I felt there was an unusual degree of “stonewalling” surrounding the facts in this case. That comment stemmed from the fact that I and other reporters were not having our calls returned by authorities from the Flathead County Sheriff’s Department, FWP, or the county attorney’s office. I have since talked to the county attorney’s office. As far as I know, no Montana reporter has received any comment from Barkus’ attorney.

I just don’t want my post to be misconstrued to suggest that anyone from Rehberg’s office has been “stonewalling” the press. Erik Iverson and Jed Link have done a good job of keeping the press informed.

Audio from press conference re: Reberg boat crash

Here's a link to a WMA download of today's telephone press conference with former Rehberg chief of staff Erik Iverson. Iverson, a longtime family friend of the Rehberg's, was at the hospital in Kalispell where Rehberg was undergoing surgery to repair a broken ankle.

Iverson confirmed that the two staffers who were on the boat with Rehberg were Dustin Frost, Rehberg's state director, and Kristen Smith, Rehberg's health care policy advisor. Iverson did not give any information about the Smith or Frost's condition. He also did not comment on the condition of Sen. Greg Barkus or Kathy Barkus.

Read tomorrow's Great Falls Tribune for the latest information on this incident.

More photos of Rehberg boat crash site

These photos are courtesy of Montana Public Radio Flathead reporter Katrin Frye, who was on the scene this morning. Tune into MTPR Capitol Reporter Emilie Ritter and Flathead Reporter Katrin Frye's report at 5:30 p.m. for more on the accident. Be sure to read tomorrow's Great Falls Tribune for the latest.

Rehberg stable after serious boat crash on Flathead Lake

For those of you who follow The Lowdown closer than the Tribune Web site, here's the latest report on Rep. Denny Rehberg's late-night boat crash, including some links.

Congressman Denny Rehberg and state Senate Majority Whip Greg Barkus of Kalispell are in stable condition at Kalispell Regional Medical after sustaining injuries in a late-night boating crash on Flathead Lake Thursday.

According to Fish, Wildlife and Parks regional director Jim Satterfield, Rehberg, Barkus, and three adults were injured when the 22-foot motorboat they were riding in crashed on the rocks on the shore near Wayfarers State Park on the north east end of Flathead Lake.

According to a Washington Post report, Barkus’ wife, Kathy, and Rehberg’s state director, Dustin Frost, were among those injured in the crash. The identity of the fifth passenger, also a Rehberg staffer, has not been released.

The crash happened sometime after 10 p.m. Campers who were near the scene heard the crash and called 911, Satterfield said. The boat, a fiberglass hulled inboard motorboat, was completely out of the water and resting at a steep angle among cliffs and rocks on shore.

Responders from the Big Fork Fire Department were first on the scene, Satterfield said. Three people were flown to the hospital by helicopter, however department officials didn’t know if Rehberg was among those who were transported by air. The others were taken to the hospital via ambulance. All five are in stable condition.

Satterfield said FWP boating accident experts are investigating the incident along with the Flathead County Sheriff’s Office and the Montana Highway Patrol.

“We’ll be looking at how fast the boat was going, who was driving, whether alcohol or drugs were involved, whether they have the proper number of life jackets on the boat. Those are the things we look at when we have a routine boating accident like this,” Satterfield said.

Satterfield said it could be several days before more information on the accident is released.

The park remains closed while officials investigate the scene.

Jed Link, Rehberg’s press secretary, issued the following statement around noon Friday:

“Last night Congressman Rehberg and two members of his staff were passengers in a boat that was involved in an accident on Flathead Lake near Bigfork. Denny is in stable condition and is doing well. His thoughts and prayers are with everyone involved. We will continue to provide information as it becomes available.”

State Sen. Gary Perry, a good friend of Barkus, said he had just heard about the crash and was getting ready to go to the hospital. Perry, from Manhattan, said he knew little about Barkus' condition.

“It's a tragic accident,” Perry said. “We're praying for him.”

Rehberg has conducted 16 listening sessions around Montana during the congressional break and was scheduled to be in Cut Bank and Shelby today. Both of those sessions have been canceled. On Friday, Rehberg announced seven more sessions for next Tuesday through Thursday. Rehberg was in Great Falls on Tuesday along with Sen. Jon Tester for a ribbon-cutting ceremony for Benefis Health System's new $85 million Patient Tower.

MT Dems to Baucus: “Public Option at minimum”

Montana Maven covered the bulk of the details here, and I wrote about it here. But I wanted to post a little background and make sure everyone had a chance to see the actual documents (links below).

Here’s some background from Montana Maven:

It has been one week since 8 Montana Democratic Central Committees delivered their resolutions for single payer or a strong public option in a health care bill to President Obama and Senator Baucus at the Belgrade Town Hall Meeting in Montana on August 14. More central committees were holding meetings to vote on their own resolutions and the count is now at 18. (Out of our 56 counties in Montana, 11 counties do not have a central committee and 10 are pretty much non-functional, so these 18 represent a whole lot of activists). Many chairs of the committees, like myself,had been frustrated much like our founding brothers because "our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury and neglect". Yes we had all received the same form letter from the Baucus office even when we asked very specific questions.

Here’s a link to one of the letters Maven references in the last couple of sentences. Here’s the nut graf from the letter in question:

At our monthly meeting on July 9, the Carbon County Democratic Central Committee came to the unanimous opinion that health care reform in America must contain, at a minimum, the offering of strong public option. We believe that a strong public option as part of a larger federal health insurance exchange is the MINIMUM measure necessary to facilitate any type of meaningful reform, and cost containment. Although not as ideal as a single payer option, a strong public
option is a feasible compromise, and has broad public support both nationally and here in Montana. In order for a strong public option to effectively result in reform and cost containment it must include the following components:

• National coverage
• Available to all Americans
• Portability
• Publicly run and administered with full transparency and accountability to congress
• No exclusions for preexisting conditions

Eighteen of the state’s 45 Democratic central committees signed on to a “unified statement” basically endorsing the ideals listed above. Here’s a link to a full copy of that statement.

Here’s the press release that accompanied the unified statement.

That’s all.