You can argue about whether Gov. Brian Schweitzer had a point last week when he said that Republican rhetoric is harming Montana's business reputation, but you can't seriously expect the rhetoric to stop.

Complaining about taxes and government regulation is what Republicans do. Asking them to stop would be like asking Democrats to quit advocating higher taxes for the rich and better services for the poor. Ain't gonna happen.

And the facts really don't matter. The governor argued Friday that Montana's economy is one of the most quickly growing in the nation, with record low unemployment. So how can anybody contend that the state's tax and regulatory environment needs to be changed?

Easy. Republicans say the economy is good precisely because of earlier Republican-driven tax cuts. And if those cuts were good for Montana, more cuts obviously would be better.

(What if Montana's economy were languishing? Simple. More tax cuts, of course.)

For many people, one of the more frustrating aspects of political discourse in both parties is that no matter the situation, ideology trumps everything else. Regardless of the problem, with the proper spin the solution is obvious, at least to the true believer.

The good news is that none of this is new. The people driving the economy through the cyclical swings of the political pendulum have been listening to conservatives bemoaning big government and progressives fretting about the little guy for as long as anybody can remember.

It's doubtful that more of the same is going to influence their decisions very much.