GOP shoots itself in the foot again

Why does the Montana Republican Party continue to do things that make our state the laughingstock of the nation? The recent move by Republican House leadership to issue a dress code has caused a firestorm on national networks, major papers and social media. What were the GOP leaders thinking when they issued a dress code right out of a high school handbook.

I don’t know if the new speaker of the House, a young attorney from eastern Montana, Mr. Knudsen, received bad advice or just didn’t think this dress code through. I have been a Republican since the Reagan years, but I’m really shaking my head over this blunder. I have raised three daughters ages 26, 24 and 18. I instilled in them to be respectful of others and conduct themselves in a respectful way. I have faith in my girls that they know how to dress properly for a special public event without an edict. In this the 100th year since Montana women were granted the right to vote, why now are we treating are women House members like junior high students, telling them how to dress? Why is the GOP, which wants less government, writing silly rules? This only falls right into the other party’s spin of “war on women.”

The major media, which tends to lean left, is loving this. Just this afternoon on the Web I read stories on this dress code on national press. One article I read by Reuters wire service on this code had 759 comments in an hour. I read all the comments from all over the nation. All the comments but one were anti-dress code. The comments were less than flattering about our state.

Unfortunately Speaker Knudsen is not off to a good start. He really needs to do away with this dress code now or the media will keep this uproar going. I’m sure the Legislature has better things to do. —Dennis Flagen, Dayton