If you know one thing about GOP U.S. Senate hopeful Mike Lange, it probably involves swear words.

Lange shot to household-name status last spring after he let loose a mouthful of obscenities in a fiery speech before a gathering of House Republicans near the end of the turbulent 2007 Legislature. Republicans later removed him as their leader.

Around the same time, it came out that a Billings bank was foreclosing on the smoothie business Lange and his wife had run for years.

But the fact that Lange weathered that storm -- and is running a credible campaign for statewide office today -- should tell you something else about the Billings-bred union pipefitter: He's a bulldog, unafraid to speak his mind, undeterred by challenges that could melt weaker constitutions.

"Quitting doesn't get you anything," he said in a recent interview. "You can't just throw your hands up because it gets tough."

Lange is one of five Republicans running for the chance to unseat Democratic Sen. Max Baucus. The other candidates are Kirk Bushman, an industrial facilities designer from Billings; Anton Pearson, a truck driver from St. Regis; Patty Lovaas, an accountant from Missoula; and Bob Kelleher, a Butte attorney. The election is June 3.

Lange's has been a life of hard but rewarding work. He said he is running for the U.S. Senate because he wants to take his perspective as a regular guy to the nation's top lawmaking body, which he says is too influenced by big money.

Born in Billings, Lange, 47, spent part of his childhood on military bases as his dad, who was in the U.S. Air Force, pursued his career. When Lange was in junior high school, the family moved back to Billings. There, Lange excelled in football at Billings West High School. He took a football scholarship to Rocky Mountain College for a year before transferring to what was then Eastern Montana College (now Montana State University-Billings), where he pursued academics and competitive weightlifting with equal vigor. After three years of college, Lange applied to be an apprentice with the pipefitters union.

"There were 500 applicants; they took 12 of us," he said.

That was 28 years ago. Lange has worked as a pipefitter ever since -- a job that has often taken him away from his family as he traveled Montana and the nation following work. His first job was working to build the coal-burning power plants at Colstrip. He's also worked at industrial plants in Butte and all three refineries around Billings. He's worked on nuclear plants out of state; Lange even moved his family to Washington, D.C., once for about six months as he worked to build a computer-chip factory in nearby Manassas, Va.

Billings has always been the home base, and, luckily, Lange said, there always seems to be enough industrial work in Montana to keep this state's union pipefitters close to home.

Lange cuts an unusual political profile. He is a former president of the Pipefitters Union Local 30. The pipefitters' North American parent union was the first to endorse Democrat presidential candidate Illinois Sen. Barack Obama. (Lange does not.)

Lange began his political life as a Democrat opposed to abortion. He made -- and lost -- a bid for a seat in the state Senate in 1996 as a Democrat.

What pushed him from the Democratic Party, he said, wasn't his stance on abortion, but his livelihood as an industrial tradesman. Lange said he felt the party was too closely aligned back then with environmental groups at odds with the kind of industrial development that kept guys like him employed.

But he is also a former board member of the Magic City Fly Fishers and says that industry and the environment -- particularly Montana's prized hunting and fishing environments -- can co-exist.

Despite his proud union membership, Lange and his wife have run a small business and similarly understand the pressures of management. They also have a keen understanding that just because you're "the boss," doesn't mean you're raking in profits.

Last May, the Langes had to refinance their house to pay more than $77,000 to a bank that foreclosed on their Billings smoothie business, called Jus' Chillin'. The foreclosure forced them to shutter the business after seven years.

After switching political parties and mounting a second, failed attempt for the Montana Legislature, Lange won his first race in 2002. His record as a freshman lawmaker was vintage Lange: a mix of bills embraced alternately by both Democrats and Republicans. Lange carried a successful bill that gave new protections to injured workers. He sponsored another that preserved money to maintain Montana's state-owned fishing sites. But he also sponsored a bill that made it easier to build large industrial plants.

He also established himself as a scrappy, quick-tongued politicker. By his third legislative session in 2007, Lange had moved up to House majority leader, a position that proved tricky in such a narrowly divided group. Once again, Lange showed his independence. As lawmakers from both parties talked about giving tax breaks to homeowners, Lange sponsored a bill to give breaks to renters, too. The measure galloped through the House with bipartisan support, but died in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

In the contentious 2007 Legislative session, Lange was among the small circle of leaders from both parties who failed to agree on a state budget -- a stare-down that forced a special session in May.

Near the end of the regular session, Lange addressed House Republicans and told them Gov. Brian Schweitzer had approached him about a budget compromise deal. Lange told his fellow GOP that the governor could "stick it up his ass" and launched into a two-minute soliloquy that included many more salty expressions. The entire speech was caught on camera and the profanities quickly became headline news. Lange's speech is still available on the Internet, where it has been viewed more than 33,000 times. (If that sounds like a lot, consider that another Internet video of a cat eating with a fork has attracted ten times as many viewers.)

Lange's take on federal issues is a unique blend of conservative-leaning Republican and Democratic ideas, with some positions entirely his own. He opposes free-trade agreements like NAFTA, which he says export good-paying American jobs. But Lange also said that one reason American industry struggles to compete with companies in Germany and Japan dates back to the post-World War II policy of helping to rebuild those countries. U.S. policies from the 1940s to the 1960s gave companies in those nations an advantage, he said. Today, despite more generous tax-supported social-welfare programs in those countries and more strenuous environmental laws there, American business can't compete.

Lange, who has a son in the U.S. Army, said he'd like troops out of Iraq in a year and a half, and said the United States must hold the Iraqis accountable for running their own country. He said current defense spending at 48 percent of the federal budget is "unsustainable," and recommends cutting defense spending and other targeted cuts.

Lange also said the government must stop spending out of the Social Security and Medicare trust funds.

"We need to make some changes; it's going to take some work," he said.

Mini Bio

Name: Michael Lange.

Office sought: U.S. Senate.

Office salary: $169,300 annually.

Political party: Republican.

Age: 47.

Birth date and place: June 15, 1960, Billings.

Home: Billings.

Occupation: Journeyman pipefitter.

Family: Wife Debbie and four children: Todd, 22; James, 21; Samantha, 16; and Ariel, 16.

Education: Billings West High graduate. Attended Rocky Mountain College and Montana State University-Billings for two years. Completed pipefitter apprenticeship.

Military: None.

Political experience: Served as Republican floor leader in 2005. Elected to Montana House in 2002, 2004 and 2006. Lost a race for the House in 2000. Running as a Democrat, Lange lost a race for the Montana Senate in 1996.

Web site: www.langeforus senate.com.