10 Questions for Tim Sheehy

As a boy, I loved hanging out in Gramp’s workshops and tagging along on jobs just to watch his gentle nature in how projects were created with his skilled hands and under his patient guidance. He was the epitome of “measure twice, cut once.”

His harshest criticism of one of his work crew who rushed a job was: “Kinda got ahead of himself, didn’t he?”

I thought of Gramp when I heard that Tim Sheehy, very well financed and curated U.S. Senate candidate, made a surprise announcement that he resigned as CEO of Belgrade-based Bridger Aviation. He threw himself on the sword of the firm needing a fully focused chief executive, a priority second only to his unfettered ambition which has propelled him since his privileged days in a wealthy Twin Cities-area Minnesota family.

From a public relations perspective, he can now present himself as even-more committed as an assurance to those voters who don’t seem to mind that Montana’s congressional delegation would be totally a group of multimillionaires if he were to be elected (not to mention the governor). These affluent political ladder-climbers are keen to trade the power of their personal finances for the power of elected office — and can pay for it.

So that now Sheehy says he’s “all in,” as a public service let’s pose 10 questions for Tim Sheehy:

• 1. Tim, what’s the full story behind the Glacier National Park incident, and did you go to the hospital with an open wound to your arm from a discharge from your .45? They make god-awful holes and break bones. If you still had a secret round of some caliber in your arm from Afghanistan, it would have been nice for the doctors to remove it.
• 2. Why have you been so secretive about your family’s wealth generated by your paternal grandfather in the Twin Cities — who you essentially denied knowing in a podcast interview.
• 3. As a combat-injured sailor, how do you feel about the disparagements of military personnel by Donald Trump — who you so proudly support — to include referring to them as “suckers and losers,” saying of the late John McCain, a Vietnam POW, that, “I like people who weren’t captured,” and publicly chastising Gold Star parents for publicly opposing him?
• 4. The citation accompanying your Bronze Star attests to your bravery and small-team leadership. It notes the award was made on June 24, 2014, four months before you left your active-duty assignment in Hawaii in October 2014. Why was it seeming re-awarded in August 2015 in a publicity-requested ceremony by U.S. Rep. Ryan Zinke, also a Navy Seal, when you were presented your Purple Heart? Perhaps it was the start of your public unveiling?
• 5. You’ve said you want to abolish the Department of Homeland Security which has a wide swath of responsibilities based on the need for federal agency coordination and communication in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attack. They include emergency disaster response; transportation security; antiterrorism protection; maritime security; intelligence collection and coordination; coordination of federal response to domestic disasters and emergencies, and, of course, border, customs and immigration enforcement. Precisely, how would you continue these responsibilities after abolishing DHS?
• 6. The U.S., Europe, Australia and some Asian countries are beset by illegal immigration. What informs your understanding of the primary causes? Do you agree with Trump’s assessment that border-crossers comprise “a military invasion” composed of “drugs, criminals, gang members and terrorists” or that perhaps crime and political violence in native countries, changes in subsistence agriculture and climate change, and gross historic economic disparity are somehow involved?
• 7. Do you believe that either the federal or state government should determine the legality of abortion or should the decision rest solely on an individual woman’s decision?
• 8. You continue to engage in, frankly, silly hyperbole. For example, in Rural Montana magazine you said, “We’re seeing electric vehicle mandates trying to take away our pickup trucks and put Montanans in a Prius.” You insult the public’s intelligence and lend credence to suspicion that your factual knowledge is shallow and you’re more comfortable in name-calling and talking points than actual substance. (OK, this is a statement and not an actual question. Sorry.)
• 9. What informs your knowledge of Russian President Putin’s cherished goal of re-forming the old Soviet Union’s supremacy over its former satellite nations and parts of Europe to include Poland and the Baltic States as happened in the aftermath of World War II?
• 10. After expressing financial support to Ukraine, how do you consider it today and do you think Trump could solve the conflict in a day?
• 11. OK, I admitted No. 10 was not a question, so this makes up for it: Does your knowledge of the Hamas-Israeli conflict in areas designated internationally as Palestine include the history of region going back to the Ottoman Empire, post-WWI, the removal of Palestinians from ancestral lands to make room for the State of Israel (that continues today), and the difference between the Hamas political entity and the Palestinian people – or do you think this is another one-day solution? (We know you share near-everyone’s concern this is a monumental human tragedy for both the Israelis and the Palestinians.)

That’s enough questions for now. Next we can deal with the historic role of public education in American history, ask you to identify a currently seated Democrat in Congress who you admire, specifically describe what you mean by “woke crap,” who do you think won the 2020 presidential election, and why do you call yourself a “political outsider” when you’ve got the full political weight of Steve Daines and his Senate campaign fund along with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s endorsement?