Just sitting here reading a Democratic response I won't print to a Republican commentary I didn't print. That Republican response, in turn, was to comments by Brian Schweitzer that I didn't print. What's striking is not that I don't have room to print all these charges and counter-charges -- that's a commonplace in a small weekly. More significant is how little value there is in it all.

I get far more good submissions for guest columns than I can print from Montanans with all sorts of notions and political persuasions. Many of these fine columns sit in the computer for weeks waiting for space to open up; many never even get in the paper because they become dated before I can squeeze them in.

But this supply of good commentary rarely includes the broadsides from the two big parties. While some individual legislators write good stuff -- Jim Elliott comes to mind -- the stuff that comes from the parties is nearly always narrowly partisan, accusatory in tone, pedestrian in style and devoid of ideas. No wonder so many people find political parties irrelevant.