Details of the Democrats' energy plan are here. The Republican response, snarky even by the increasingly snarky standards of the GOP E-brief, advises, "Please contact your local news media and alert them to exactly what this plan is - a campaign tactic."

Thanks for the heads-up, guys. Although I must admit that it isn't exactly clear what's wrong with campaigning on a plan to fix one of the most serious problems Montana faces. Isn't that what campaigns should be about?

Oh, now I get it. If you read down a bit further in the GOP response, you find this: "We can't help but be a bit Skeptical of the the [sic] so called energy plan offered by the Democrat candidates since the sponsor of the plan is the infamous Ken Toole, author of the 'buy back the dams' billion dollar bad idea."

That's one bad idea that's sounding better all the time. And anyway, if one bad idea disqualifies a citizen from ever advocating any other ideas, then we had all better shut up.