After Getting Burned at the Polls, a Legendary Temper Burns Even Hotter

Reported for CQ by Manu Raju.

The sweeping Democratic victory in the Nov. 7 elections apparently took quite an emotional toll on Republicans — especially Sen. Conrad Burns of Montana.

Burns, who narrowly lost his re-election bid to Democrat Jon Tester, is known for having a short fuse. Still, the venom in Burns’ reaction Tuesday to a question about the status of the Interior appropriations bill in the lame-duck session was surprising.

“I’m not going to negotiate my problems with the goddamn press,” Burns snapped. “Goodbye! Goodbye! Goodbye!

“You don’t run this place. You think you do. But you don’t,” added Burns, who chairs the Appropriations Interior Subcommittee.

A number of Montana news outlets reported similar incidents during the campaign. For example, the senator was criticized at one point for telling a group of firefighters that they had “done a poor job” in combating a 92,000-acre fire.

He later told a representative from the state’s natural resource agency, “See that guy over there? He hasn’t done a goddamned thing. They sit around. . . . It’s wasteful.”

Burns later apologized for that remark.
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