Another Reason For Larry Craig To Go

With all of the furor over Larry (I’m Not Gay) Craig and the surfacing of the arrest tape where he tries to justify his finger-tapping behavior by saying he’s a “fairly wide” guy and he needs room to sit down on the head (or something – I’ll let you write your own snark for that one…I won’t go there), I think this is an opportune time to look at his performance in Congress as opposed to public men’s restrooms.

We knew he didn’t support hate crime legislation on behalf of LBGT individuals or anything that ensured or protected their rights (as noted here), but it also turns out that Craig is an enemy of the environment. And while I know that isn’t headline news for a Repug, it’s a more noteworthy issue in Idaho, a state that depends on intelligent use of resources to balance the twin needs of making it livable for its residents and generating commerce to make people want to live there and sustain communities.

This takes you to information on how Craig has been rated by interest groups according to Project Vote Smart (dating back to 2000), and when it comes to the environment, he received 0 percent ratings from the American Wilderness Coalition, Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund, League of Conservation Voters, and the American Land Alliance, and he received pitiably low ratings from other nature advocacy groups.

However, Craig scored ratings of 100 percent over the same period from something called the American Land Rights Association, and all you have to do is check the upper left corner of their site and see the “Proud member of Townhall.com” label to know what this group is all about.

For example, these people have gone ballistic over a bill, H.R. 3287, sponsored by U.S. House Dem Raul Grijalva of Arizona which proposes the expansion of the Pajarita Wilderness and designation of the Tumacacori Highlands Wilderness in Coronado National Forest, Arizona (presumably as off limits for development) and for other purposes. Their supposed argument is that it would create a refuge and source of traffic for illegal immigrants (the last action taken was on Aug 6th: the bill was referred to the Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests, and Public Lands).

I’ll admit that I’m not as knowledgeable on this issue as others may be, but the charge that Rep. Grijalva would knowingly do something to encourage the traffic of illegal aliens is so insulting that it almost invalidates any need to investigate this matter further.

So anyway, this is the group that shares common cause (if you’ll pardon the expression) with Larry Craig. And I think the fact that he owes his allegiance to these crazies speaks volumes regarding his judgment, which, as noted above, is equally unsound on other matters also.

And actually, this is meant as a preface to tie into this post by Devilstower at The Daily Kos about more “imperial hubris” by Bushco in that they’re using the Utah mining disaster as an excuse to try and gut the so-called Stream Buffer Zone Rule enacted in 1983 that prohibits coal mining activities from disturbing areas within 100 feet of streams (the post also notes what we can do about that).

Also, here’s another related news item that snuck under the radar a couple of weeks ago, and that is the Wolfie-instigated removal of references to the climate crisis in a World Bank report on investment on industry and infrastructure.

As important as the other issues are swirling around Larry Craig at this moment, I think the condition of our planet and Craig’s related negligence trumps all of them.

(Also, I have a comment to make about Craig that really doesn't fall into any of these catergories and is really geeky, but here goes; his U.S. Senate page uses inline frames as opposed to floating template pages - God, Larry, that's so nineties! But I'm sure that, among many, MANY other things, will be changed when the "good Larry" takes over, and you can watch more about him below.)