DuBois column: You Are About To Be Spiked

 

You are about to be spiked

Tracy Stone-Manning is President Biden’s nominee to be Director of the Bureau of Land Management and her nomination hearing was recently held before the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. It didn’t seem like a big deal, as she was just one of four nominations to be considered by the Committee that day.

In her testimony, Stone-Manning spoke of her experience on the staff of the Governor of Montana and on the staff of Senator Jon Tester (D-Montana). She introduced her husband of many years and said both her parents had been military retirees and instilled in her the honor of being a public servant. All intended to leave the impression she was a family person from a patriotic family to boot.

Not having any of this was John Barrasso (R-Wyo) the Ranking Republican on the committee. He and the other Republicans were concerned about her voluntary work, while in college, for the radical, violence-prone group EarthFirst!  However, the two issues they are pressing in opposing her nomination are a) a suspicious loan from a political donor and b) her involvement in a threatening letter to authorities about tree spiking in a forest.

The loan was from developer Stuart Goldberg and was for $60,000 (some reports say it was for $100,00). It included an interest rate of 6 percent when the going rate at the time was 11 percent. It also occurred while she was an employee of Senator John Tester (D-Mont.). Eight years prior to the loan, while Stone-Manning was the executive director of the Clark Fort Coalition, she made what she called the “perhaps unprecedented” act of supporting a project of Goldberg’s company.   The Republicans accused Stone-Manning of violating the ethics rules of Senate. That rule requires reporting of any gift over $250 by any Senate staffer and a loan was considered a gift under the Senate rules.  

The tree spiking was a much more important politically. Stone-Manning testified she was approached by an Earth Firster and asked to mail the letter to the Forest Service. Stone-Manning said she rented a typewriter, edited and retyped the letter, and sent it to the Forest Service. The letter was threatening in nature, as it stated the Forest, “is home to the Elk, Deer, Mountain Lions, Birds and especially the Trees…You bastards go in there anyway and a lot of people could get hurt.” Stone-Manning said she only did the letter because she “didn’t want anybody to get hurt.”  She also testified that she had never been a “target” of the investigation.

Then up pops one Michael Merkley, an investigator in the tree spiking case. Merkley, a retired special  agent for the Forest Service, wrote a letter to the committee asserting Ms. Stone-Manning was “not an innocent bystander.” He wrote the investigation led his team to search the Missoula residence where Ms. Stone-Manning and other members of Earth First! had lived, and a grand jury served subpoenas “on persons suspected of having knowledge of the incident, including Ms. Tracy Stone-Manning.” Merkley reported that Ms. Stone-Manning throughout his investigation was “vulgar, antagonistic, and extremely anti-government” and refused to provide the hair, handwriting and fingerprint samples ordered by the grand jury until threatened with arrest. 

Senator Barrasso said, “BLM’s work is too important to be led by someone who covered up for ecoterrorists, lied to the Senate and supports extremist views most Americans find reprehensible. The Senate must reject this nomination.” Even Minority Leader Mitch McConnell went to the senate floor and stated the President should withdraw her nomination and all ten Republicans on the committee signed a letter to the President requesting the nomination be withdrawn.

All this was to no avail as the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources has just voted 10 to 10, on a strict party line basis, to advance her nomination to the full senate. If she retains the support of all Democrat senators, and with the Vice-President available to break a tie vote, she will become the next Director of the Bureau of Land Management.

What do you think the outcome would have been if the nominee was a male, who while attending college had lived with members of a local militia group, and who had rented a typewriter, and edited and retyped a letter to the FBI threatening to booby trap a federal facility?

If confirmed by the senate, Stone-Manning will become the key person to implement President Biden’s policy to drastically curtail energy production on federal lands. She will also assume a leadership role in carrying out the President’s policy to set aside and permanently protect one-third of our land and waters.

This debate is not just about some tree spikes in an Idaho forest. This debate is about a spike aimed directly at the heart of the West.

Until next time, be a nuisance to the devil and don’t forget to check that cinch.

Frank DuBois was the NM Secretary of Agriculture from 1988 to 2003, is the author of a blog: The Westerner (www.thewesterner.blogspot.com) and is the founder of The DuBois Rodeo Scholarship and The DuBois Western Heritage Foundation

This column originally appeared in the August editions of the NM Stockman and the Livestock Market Digest.