"Do you want higher office?" asked Lou Dobbs, host of the CNN nightly news show.

The question came and went before Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer could duck or answer on national television Tuesday evening, because Dobbs immediately followed by asking Schweitzer, "what made you run for governor?"

"It's the best doggone job in America," Schweitzer quickly responded. "We have 920,000 of the best-educated and hardest-working people in America … Why wouldn't you want to be governor of Montana?"

It was an interesting turn in the latest national media exposure for Montana's first-term Democratic governor.

The appearance on the "Lou Dobbs Show" apparently resulted from a Schweitzer quote that appeared in USA Today, getting picked for the "quote of the day" on CNN.

"I have a 72-hour rule," Schweitzer said in the story. "If I stay in Washington for more than 72 hours, I have to bathe myself in the same stuff I use when one of my dogs gets in a fight with a skunk - stuff to get the smell out."

Dobbs called on Schweitzer live from Helena for a segment titled, "Not the Party Line."

"This is a system that most people think smells pretty bad," Schweitzer told Dobbs after commenting on partisan politics and excessive influences of money and lobbyists in Washington, D.C.

"It's state governments that have to get things done," Schweitzer said. "We balance budgets, we deliver programs. And in Washington,

D.C., it seems like they like to talk about things, raise money from constituency groups,

because they're shrill. I don't think that's good public policy."

Schweitzer said Montanans thought it was unusual, but he picked a Republican, John Bohlinger, to be his running mate.

"In Montana, we find ways to work together," he said.

Schweitzer went on to pitch Montana's attributes, even asking Dobbs to come visit sometime.

Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by e-mail at jmann@dailyinterlake.com