Soon after taking office, new Sen. Jim Risch, R-Idaho, buttonholed Oregon Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden, beginning his third term in office.
Risch pitched one of his campaign promises; he sounded out Wyden about the idea of trying to begin regional discussions to settle the salmon debate. Wyden seemed interested, Risch said.
But now Risch isn't. Now that several environmental groups have sued over a compromise roadless plan Risch crafted as governor, Risch says he has no interest in talking about salmon, at least until the lawsuit is settled.
A month after the lawsuit, Risch hasn't cooled down over the legal challenge.
"I've got a lot of skin in that game," Risch told the Statesman editorial board Wednesday. "I want to see if collaboration works. If it doesn't work, then we'll go back to how we used to do business."
Risch's frustration, while understandable, is still an overreaction. "Collaboration" is not unanimous with "unanimity." Ask Sen. Mike Crapo and Rep. Mike Simpson. After years of consensus-building work on Idaho wilderness bills, they haven't won over all their critics. It is a little unrealistic to expect to craft a management plan for 9.3 million acres of roadless lands and not hit some criticism.
And I'm guessing that any regional salmon "collaboration" would be less than unanimous as well. It'd still be good to start the discussion; "how we used to do business" isn't treating Idaho's salmon all that well.
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The only reason they're in court in the first place is because the politicos were rejecting the science, playing politics, and generally taking unreasonable positions. Now that Judge Redden has pretty much agreed and settled what is a level playing field, I'd think it would be in their best interests to negotiate unless they want Courts running the BPA.
The Bush administration, like every administration,
waste years & never accomplish anything. Same old story, bait & switch, slight of hand, shell game. I would think the current financial crisis would wake people up.
Why do the Ameircan people continue to go for it?
We'll go for the same thing again, years of republicans bashing democrats until they fail, & reublicans are back in control tearing dopwn everything the other party did, just like the democrats did with Bush & republicans did with Clinton, & democrats will do when the republicans get control again. This is good for America?
Eliminate both parties, take all money from campaign fiance, fights over, get back on track as a nation with government working for US, not the party in control, & contributors.
How much does it cost US to watch these two parties play these games while destroying the nation? The nation!
Risch is a dead beat who would sacrifice America for the republican party, get rid of the liar & cheat, he's in the pocket of contributors. Demand full financial disclosure by all our representatives & their families, audit all government officails, treasury, FED, SEC, get rid of the two parties, & this financial will clean itself up. Obama couldn't swing a dead cat without hitting a tax cheat to appoint to Treasury Secretary & what all else.
Why buy bad assets, buy the mortgages of homeowners who have proven they can live with in a budget. Banks are making demands as to what we buy so they can make more money after making trillions & running US to ground. Why are we allowing ourselves to be held hostage? We're going to pay down the national debt, not the corporations who made bank running it up while we paid taxes they evaded through campaign finance.
It's our money, pay off our mortgages, & we'll have money to spend every month, create jobs, people with jobs will then buy houses. Banks will have money, not the money they wanted for bad assets but that isn't our fault ro problem. When they start losing interest on loans paid off, they get busy, & sell some house to people with new jobs created by our spending. You can't expect people who don't have jobs to buy houses even if the banks do have our money to loan, that would be asking for more failure.
Isn't that the line our representatives use when handing out tax cuts to corporations, they create jobs? If we're creating jobs by paying off our mortgage with the stimulus, we get the tax cuts. What's the problem, doesn't it make sense when a taxpayer, not a contributor is telling our representatives how to do it?
Our representatives accept campaign finance from the same corporations who pay financial & economic experts who wrote the stimulus. Our represnettaives dress it up with pork, & pass it. Accountants like Otter's tax commission appointee suggest can't be bullied, write tax law, hand it to our representatives who take campaign contributiors, representatives pass it into law. The same accontants that corporations hire! How can you bully the people who write the law & how can we expect representation?
How many millions in taxes did corporations, {in the words of Otter's appointee at the tax commission} who hire accountants heavy into tax knowledge & can't be bullied, evade? We as individuals absorbed those taxes & how do we drive 70% of the econmy when we're paying all of corporate unAmerica's taxes? How do we pay to build the infrastructure these corporations need tpo move their product, electrical grid to supply power?
Otter is appointing everybody under the sun to every position imaginable until he can run Idaho any way he sees fit. If the tax commission isn't warning enough I don't know what is? Idaho taxpayers are in for a surprise in a few years, when they figure out how much $ they were duped out of.
What is so hard to understand? Our representatives didn't write, didn't even read the stimulus, they agreed or disagreed according top party affiliation so as to bash the opposition. Their contributors are being represented, not US.
Dude
get a blog.
The length of blog or response is a good indication
of how much you actually think about what your write, dude. Dude, duuuudee, is that it? I could go on but you wouldn't comprehend, dude.
Be my guest
Bore 'em silly in the comment section. Pretty soon you'll gain a rep, people will look at the name and gloss right over it. A good writer will contemplate his audience. Unless of course he's the only one reading which will become a self fulfilling prophecy.
As obtuse as greyghost and others get...
I much prefer the Statesman's unmoderated approach that allows me the choice to "gloss right over it" to the overtly politically correct moderation at the 43rdstateblues.com that won't allow legitimate discourse.
As obtuse as greyghost and others get...
I much prefer the Statesman's unmoderated approach that allows me the choice to "gloss right over it" to the overtly politically correct moderation at the 43rdstateblues.com that won't allow legitimate discourse.
Yeesh
Ok, I reckon I don't know what that has to do with having a tree fall when no one's around but as I have control of neither, I'll file your comment in the appropriate place.
It's obvious why they won't let you 'discourse' over there.
You want to do it twice as much as you should...
Campaign finance manipulates dudes into
a haze. Even if you read something consisting of three words or more & comprehend it, it's a good bet your mind has already been made up for you by someone else.
It's democracy, representation, bought through campaign finance, at your expense. $53 trillion on the books & counting. Dudes glossing over life while paying millionaires to become billionaires stealing trillions from another soon to be homeless dude.
Glossy eyed dudes believe the homeland is secure with $53 trillion on the book. Dudes are easy to steal from, already have a rep., & are living up to it with every penny taken.
Don't be no Sisyphus.
If you have to use the library's computers for more than 2 days, all hell breaks loose?
Carry on bravely, I have time limits here.
----------
To read is wonderful. To comprehend art. Falling back to whatever you believed in is NORMAL.
Risch reminds me of Grumpy in Snow White...
"I don't know what it is, but whatever it is, I'm agin' it!"
Minnick could possibly be Sleepy, but what about Crapo and Simpson?
"I've got a lot of skin in the game"?
What skin is that exactly? I think the biggest issue here is that Risch doesn't like to be challenged on anything. I remember watching him get steaming mad in the legislature if someone challenged him after he had decided what was right for everyone. He'll see if collaboration work? What, until someone challenges him on something?
Please Jimmy, Please
enlighten us, how did you, "used to do business."
I don't think Caesaritis will work in D.C.