Ken Salazar Hopes to Walk in Teddy Roosevelt's Footsteps

Take a walk around Interior Secretary Ken Salazar's ornate office overlooking Washington and two things stand out: a bust of Theodore Roosevelt, the father of American conservation, and a book of ranches featuring the Salazar spread in Colorado. The symbolic connection is not lost on Salazar, who, as was Roosevelt, is a longtime conservationist, hunter, and outdoorsman. "One of the reasons I took the job was because conservation is such an important agenda for me personally," Salazar says. But now, after scoring a big victory in 2009 with the creation of three new national parks, designating over 1,000 miles of scenic rivers, and tucking away 2 million acres of wilderness, Salazar and the administration are looking to Roosevelt for inspiration as they fight opposition to the president's conservation agenda, including adding more wilderness areas. "Conservation should be an American bipartisan issue," says Interior's boss, who later this month plans to unveil 100 new projects, two in every state, as part of the America's Great Outdoors Initiative of President Obama. "The U.S. led our Earth in conservation when Roosevelt became president, and to me that's very much at the crossroads of decisions that are being made today in Washington, to see if that conservation agenda will move forward."...more

Yup, every since the Republicans took over the House, Obama and the enviros point to Roosevelt, even Nixon, to now say their issue is "bipartisan". Do they really think one President who brought us the EPA and had to resign his office, and another President from a wealthy east coast family and who brought us the Forest Service, are all they have to cite to win Republican votes in the Congress? Unfortunately this has worked in the past, so stay tuned.