MATT GOURAS Associated Press Writer
HELENA U.S. Sen. Jon Tester returned to the state Legislature Monday to speak before his former colleagues, highlighting ethics and criticizing President Bush’s plan for Iraq. Tester, D-Mont., said the president’s plan to “escalate” the war in Iraq is the wrong direction to take. After his speech, he told reporters he agrees with others in the U.S. Senate who want to require Bush to come to Congress before “actually starting any escalation.” Last week, Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., called for a change of course in Iraq and said he should not have voted for the war. “The president needs to put forth a plan that will work,” Tester said. Tester, who ran on a platform of ethics reform in beating Republican incumbent Conrad Burns in a very tight race last November, spoke before a joint session of the Legislature. He commended colleagues for work they did in 2005 when Tester was the state Senate president, and said he plans to take ideas learned in Montana, such as open government and expanding health care, to his new job. “And while the task before me is daunting, I that the lessons and values I learned in Montana will serve me well as I work hard to represent Montana every day in Washington,” Tester said. He urged the Legislature to adopt brewing plans for voluntary full-day kindergarten statewide. The idea, shot down in the 2005 Legislature, is expected to meet with resistance in the Republican-controlled state House. Tester also took a shot at the “revolving door” in Washington D.C., where former public officials and their staff members take high-paying lobbying jobs. Last week, Burns announced he is taking a job with a lobbying firm. “I am proud to support the most sweeping ethics reform legislation in a generation,” he said. Tester said he hopes the federal legislation, being debated this month, will ban gifts and travel paid for by lobbyists, require lobbying disclosure, and increase the power of the congressional ethics panels. On Iraq, Tester said “we cannot afford the status quo. Max and I are firm in our resolve to chart a new foreign policy based on political and diplomatic, as well as military, options.” Tester noted many of the perpetrators of the 9/11 terrorist attacks are still at large. He has said catching those terrorists should be a priority. “In the meantime, we find ourselves mired in a bloody and open-ended conflict in Iraq,” Tester told state lawmakers. “After $300 billion that’s over $2 billion a week and the loss of more than 3,000 American lives, including 14 Montanans, we must reexamine our strategy and foreign policy priorities.”
