Talk about blatant self-interest in politics.
Meet bar owner Alan Hale (no relation to the late father-and-son actors), a Tea Party Republican in the Montana House of Representatives.
Hale, who hails from the rural town of Basin, is the lone legislative opponent of beefing up Montana's notoriously lax laws regarding drunken driving.
He believes proposed tough DUI laws would "destroy a way of life" and harm small businesses (like his) and people needing to drive home after drinking.
He ignores the fact that Montana ranks near the top in per-capita drunken-driving deaths.
Damn, he even fought earlier legislation banning people from drinking in driver's seats, a handicap because of the long distances to get to bars in rural areas.
Meanwhile, you might want to avoid driving or walking near the mountains of the Continental Divide.
That's where Hale's customers drink and drive. (3 APRIL 2011)
