OPINION/COMMENTARY

Federalizing Invasive Species

Political observations are something to be avoided because of all the baggage they generate but sometimes they cannot be avoided. Granted there are good and bad Democrats and Republicans. It is however, a fact that most recent Democrats support animal rights activities, endangered species programs, Wilderness, non-management of public lands or natural resources, non-use of natural resources, government land acquisition, and more national authority for the Federal government. I say this as a dispassionate observation of fact. Currently, Republicans are perceived to be somewhat less enthusiastic about these matters but alas this is a mirage. Today the Republicans control the White House, the US House of Representatives, and the US Senate. One would think that property owners (from dog owners and farmers to homeowners and rural residents), natural resource users (from home builders and loggers to miners, ranchers, hunters, fishermen, trappers, car drivers, and businessmen), public land users, and supporters of specifically limited government would be less threatened by government but such is not the case. For whatever reasons, the Republican appointees in the US Department of the Interior and the Republican Senators and staff in the US Senate are little different than their current or recent Democrat counterparts regarding animal rights, environmental extremism, larger and more powerful Federal government, and all the other topics I have mentioned. But this article is not about the AWOL Republican legislators ignoring needed reforms. It is about the environmental ACTIVIST Republican majority in the US Senate and the US Department of the Interior. It is about wording placed surreptitiously in the current Senate version of the Transportation Bill by no one knows who. It is about US Department of the Interior Republican appointees that compose the wording and are little more than environmental stooges for those that would destroy this nation. It is about Senators and Senate staff that will not return calls about the wording. It is about seeing the Republican Senators and US Department of the Interior Republican appointees as Democrats-Lite and not as any alternative to the environmental and animal rights legislative fiascoes of the last 35 years. They believe they will get more votes by throwing environmental bouquets to those like the Sierra Club and the Humane Society of the US who would gladly cut their throats tomorrow. They are in the midst of a fight and they think their role is to be nice to both sides. Hello, is anyone home? In short this is about the stealth amendment of the US Senate version of the US Transportation Bill to include the creation of a Federal responsibility to eliminate INVASIVE SPECIES....

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