Centerblue.org

Sometimes the best Democratic strategy really is to just sit back and let your opponent destroy himself. That’s what Senator Burns’s Democratic opponent Jon Tester must be thinking in Montana after a serious gaffe by the Senator has set his campaign ablaze with withering criticism from newspapers and firefighters trying to put out a massive fire.

Burns confronted a group of firefighters in Billings on July 23rd and told them they were doing a “piss-poor job,” according to an official state report. He even pointed to one firefighter who was resting and said, “See that guy over there? He hasn’t done a god damned thing.” The well-respected Hotshot firefighting crew he criticized had travelled 2,000 miles from Staunton, Va., to help dig fire lines for a week around a 143-square mile fire.

Burns, who is already in serious trouble because of his ties to convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff, has a record of saying really nasty things. As per the article:

In 1999, Burns issued a written apology after referring to Arabs as “rag heads” during a speech while commenting on oil prices. In 1994, Burns repeated a story that included the word “niggers” and commented that living with blacks in Washington, D.C., was “a hell of a challenge.” He also onced asked a woman who was wearing a nose ring what tribe she belonged to.

Last year, the senator denied a flight attendant’s claim that he told her she could “go home and be a mother” if her airline job were eliminated.

Burns has apologized for his comments about the firefighters, saying the encounter was a “non-event.”