In the Northwest: Bush as defender of nature? Now that's a fish story
By Joel Connelly - Seattle Post-Intelligencer Columnist - Friday, August 22, 2003

The Bush II administration, preparing for the 2004 election, has set out to greenwash itself. The president will stop by the Ice Harbor Dam today in a bid to identify himself as a champion of restoring salmon habitat.

It's no wonder the term "fish story" was developed as a synonym for exaggeration or the tall tale.


Last year this administration -- under prodding from its political strategist Karl Rove -- ignored recommendations by hydrologists and biologists, and sharply increased water going to irrigators in Oregon's Klamath Basin.

As a result, last September, low river flows resulted in the mortality downstream of 33,000 chinook and coho salmon and steelhead trout -- one of the biggest fish kills in the history of the West.

Is the administration, as it claims, seeking a "balance" in environmental management?

Hardly. What's apparent is how much at odds Bush II is from 20th-century Republican administrations.

Theodore Roosevelt created Alaska's Chugach National Forest largely to protect the famed migratory bird habitat of the Copper River Delta from being bespoiled by mining barons.

Bush II has pulled the Chugach out of protection of the U.S. Forest Service's "Roadless Rule."

Dwight Eisenhower, just before leaving office, created what was then the Arctic National Wildlife Range in the Brooks Range and along the coastal plain of the Beaufort Sea.

Bush II wants 1.2 million acres of America's greatest wildlife refuge thrown open to oil and gas drilling....


The presidential fish story today should feature gorgeous "visuals" for Bush and his supporting cast.

The public should, however, ask a question made famous by an old lady named Clara Peller in a Wendy's commercial: "Where's the beef?"

Read the Whole Fish Story...

Many Thanks to Joel Connelly for this telling Column!