Montanans saw a side of Gov. Brian Schweitzer they don’t often see Tuesday night, said the state’s Republican Party chairman — that of partisan attack dog.

“He took it up a notch in the partisan department,” said Erik Iverson. “What struck me about (the speech) is it’s not the Brian Schweitzer he tries to portray back here in Montana, where he runs with (Lt. Gov.) John Bohlinger being a Republican, and working in a bipartisan fashion.”

The Democratic governor spoke Tuesday evening at the Democratic National Convention in Denver, where he talked up presidential candidate Barack Obama’s energy policy and blasted Republican candidate John McCain as a proponent of a worn-out policy beholden to the oil industry.

Schweitzer’s brief speech was the last of many speakers leading up to the evening’s top address by Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y.

“I think that (Schweitzer’s) role was to be the partisan attack dog, heading into Hillary Clinton’s speech,” Iverson speculated. “His role was to go on the offensive and get the crowd riled up heading into Hillary’s speech.

“It’s like Brian Schweitzer came to Denver and got intoxicated with partisanship, by the high altitude up there. That was a full, frontal attack on John McCain.”

Most of the evening’s speakers — including several other governors — took their shots at McCain.

Iverson also said that Schweitzer’s description of Obama’s energy proposals sounded a lot like the congressional Republicans’ plan, which includes more domestic oil drilling, nuclear power, conservation, renewable energy development and technology investment.

“That’s the Republicans’ plan,” he said. “That’s the plan that House Republican Leader John Boehner (of Ohio) has been pushing and that’s John McCain’s plan. The plan he was attributing to Barack Obama is the John McCain plan.