Sen. Burns misrepresented Montanans

It was only after they got a break from the fire line that U.S. Forest Service firefighters from Virginia, sent to help control the Bundy Railroad fire, north of Pompeys Pillar, felt the biggest blast of hot air. Montana Sen. Conrad Burns irrationally lit into weary crew members from the Forest Service's Augusta Hotshots after encountering them at the Billings airport, awaiting their flight home. He chastised them for doing a "poor job" fighting the fire.

After his unprovoked attack on the firefighters, Burns reiterated his criticism to a representative of the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation. "See that guy over there?" Burns said. "He hasn't done a God-damned thing. They sit around. I saw it up on the Wedge fire and in northwestern Montana some years ago. It's wasteful. You probably paid that guy $10,000 to sit around. It's gotta change."

Burns' remarks were characteristic of the kind of know-nothing blather you sometimes hear from the local malcontent in a bar or coffee shop. In this case, Burns claimed to be voicing concerns expressed by some local ranchers. Landowners affected by the fire might be excused, amid stress and loss, for feeling frustration and not understanding why more couldn't be done to corral a powerful force of nature. But for a U.S. senator to launch such an attack based on his own, sketchy impressions or the uninformed venting of self-appointed experts calls into question Burns' judgment. His belief that a firefighter could be paid $10,000 for a week's work is proof that Burns is completely out of touch. The only people we know paid exorbitantly for doing nothing wear suits in Washington, D.C., not yellow shirts on the fire line.

Fighting a major wildfire can be a massive undertaking most akin to a military campaign. It takes tremendous manpower, equipment, supplies and logistical support. Danger is inherent and, to most people, obvious. The work can be backbreaking and exhausting, but the hardest work almost always is accomplished out of public view - certainly beyond the line of sight available from anyone's air-conditioned ranch house, the local bar or the Billings airport. Perhaps "on the Wedge fire and in northwestern Montana some years ago" Burns saw firefighters at rest, between shifts on the fire line or in transit, but it's obvious he's never been close enough to a fire to see anyone work.

None of this is to suggest there isn't room to question or criticize firefighting strategies and tactics. As a senator, it's entirely appropriate for Burns to do so - although, with his complete lack of expertise on the subject, Burns might do well to ask more questions and offer fewer opinions. In any event, the firefighters who do the grunt work of combating fires aren't the ones Burns should question. They follow orders. Firefighting policy and major decisions are made at higher levels. If Burns has concerns, he should direct them to the top of the chain of command. Then-Gov. Marc Racicot used the massive Montana fires of 2000 as a springboard to criticize forest management practices; he wasn't altogether correct, but he at least directed his criticism to the president and the higher levels of his administration.

Burns' confrontation of the Virginia firefighters was akin to a war critic berating returning soldiers at an airport for doing a poor job in Iraq. Or, as one Forest Service official put it last week, "It was like General Patton going to a hospital ward and criticizing a wounded soldier for doing a poor job of fighting."

Burns has a penchant for saying the wrong thing - including some insensitive, uninformed and sometimes racist things, often poorly cloaked as humor. His harsh criticism of the firefighters was especially unwarranted, uninformed and unforgivable. He should be ashamed.

Burns issued a boilerplate written apology days later, but only after learning an especially inflammatory, unvarnished version of his remarks chronicled by a state DNRC official were about to hit the press and after it became all too apparent that the scandal-plagued senator had further harmed his campaign for re-election to a fourth term in November.

Burns is in the midst of the toughest fight of his political life. It won't be surprising if this incident proves to be the self-inflicted knockout blow. Burns badly misrepresented the people who elected him when he administered his tongue-lashing in Billings. Burns desperately campaigns for re-election as a pork-barreler of the first order, someone who delivers for Montana. What he's delivered in this case is more embarrassment.

Montanans depend on and greatly appreciate firefighters for all they do, including the risks they take on our behalf. Without the resources to handle the largest fires on our own, we've often turned to crews coming in from other states and countries in our hours of need. They leave their families and communities and risk their lives to serve us. They deserve nothing less than our heartfelt thanks, not scorn.