Another D.C. Columnist Finds Refuge in Glacier

By Kellyn Brown, 9-01-10

Since I recently pointed out the New York Times’ David Brooks’ commentary on his recent visit to Northwest Montana in which he said the locals were more disgusted than usual about the state of affairs in Washington, D.C. it’s only fair to include another scribe’s take on her recent vacation to the area. Slate’s Liza Mundy mostly counters Brooks’ argument and said that during her trip to the Glacier National Park area, “we told anybody who asked that we were from Washington, and nobody expressed even the most remote interest.” She continued:

Based on my own limited set of encounters, the mood seemed not so much anti-Washington as un-Washington, or, more precisely, Washington-free. There may be some Tea Partiers seething, for sure, and of course the economy is foremost in people's minds everywhere, but for the most part, it did not strike me that people were thinking much about politics.

Mundy does mention that newspapers in the area run plenty of political stories, but more of them focus on local politics, such as the status of wolves. And she even mention’s the Beacon’s police blotter, which she said is “invariably more interesting to read than yet another story about the fate of the new banking consumer protection agency, important as that fate may be.”

I guess the only conclusion that can be drawn from the opposing opinions is that Northwest Montana is an attractive refuge for at least a few weary D.C. columnists. [End of article]