Mr. Craig McClure, the Lake County Democrat Central Committee chairman, wrote a letter recently that criticized Sen. Daines for his opposition to holding hearings and votes on Obama’s anti-gun anti-Second Amendment Supreme Court nominee Justice Merrick Garland.

As vice president of the Polson Pachyderm Club, I obviously see the matter from a different perspective. First, both parties historically have refused to hold hearings on the opposing party's presidential nominees to the Supreme Court in an election year. The media has reported this as the “Biden Rule” and aired it countless times. And, yes, this is the same Joe Biden who is presently our Democrat vice president. Are Mr. McClure and his fellow Democrats the definition of hypocrites?

Sen. Daines should be commended for having the backbone to take a position supporting Montana values, to which the Second Amendment is crucial. I suspect most of the so-called Republican senators are actually RINOs. For example, Sen. Grassley, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, invited Garland to have breakfast with him this week. Sen. Jeff Flake, another Judiciary Committee member, will also meet with Garland as well as Sens. Ayotte, Murkowski, and Portman.

Mr. McClure claims that an online poll in Flathead County showing 38 percent oppose the Garland Senate hearing and 62 percent supporting it proves that Sen. Daines is not doing his job. If the survey is an accurate measure of Montana values, then we would have mostly Democrats in the Montana House and Senate and we would have oppressive California, Chicago and New York style gun laws in Montana.

I commend Sen. Daines for being a Republican senator with the moral strength and will power to stand up for Montana values instead of being a RINO and closet Democrat sympathizer.

—Norm Johnson, Polson