Heckuva job

Becoming a one-party Republican state is a good way to ensure that basic governmental services will not be provided:

Montana National Guard soldiers are deployed around the Yellowstone region, where they say they have rescued dozens of people from this week’s severe floods and ushered travelers along ravaged roads. The FEMA administrator is now in the state, surveying the destruction. Montana Red Cross officials are operating evacuation centers across the area.

But one key figure is not on the ground at this historic disaster: Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte (R).

Gianforte’s office has said he left for a personal trip outside of the country with his wife before heavy rains deluged southwest Montana, washing away bridges, sweeping buildings into rushing rivers and closing entrances to Yellowstone National Park — the region’s premiere tourist attraction and a pillar of its summertime economy. Gianforte’s spokeswoman has declined to disclose his whereabouts or specify when the Republican will return, saying in a statement on Wednesday only that he would be “returning early and as quickly as possible.”

At least Michael Brown tried to do his job. Gianforte has just remained on vacation, perhaps also getting some additional training on how to beat up reporters who question his gross incompetence.