When Vice President Dick Cheney and his Oregon pals go fishing, no limits apply.
February 3rd, 2010
Clearwire | For a communications company, it doesn’t listen too well.8 comments
January 27th, 2010
Oregon School Activities Association | Stop spelling “T-E-A-M” With an “I.” 0 comments
January 13th, 2010
Schubert Flint Public Affairs | Prop. 8’s fear mongers return to Oregon for Measures 66 and 67.3 comments
January 6th, 2010
Associated Oregon Industries | Claiming free speech to stomp unions.3 comments
December 16th, 2009
Lewis & Clark | Trafficking in B.S.18 comments
December 9th, 2009
Port Of Portland | What’s a public agency got against peaceful dissent?1 comment
November 18th, 2009
Bureau Of Transportation | One more mouth to feed.12 comments
November 11th, 2009
Washington Co. DA’s Office | Abusing a domestic violence law.28 comments
November 4th, 2009
University Of Oregon | Who’s killing Rudolph?7 comments
October 28th, 2009
Metro | A blowhard answer to global warming? 6 comments
 IMAGE: WW Photo Manipulation |
[July 4th, 2007]
As revealed last week in a four-part Washington Post series detailing the veep's power, Cheney's bureaucratic meddling led directly to the West Coast's largest-ever fish kill when 77,000 Coho salmon perished on Southern Oregon's Klamath River in 2002.
But the Roguish root cause of this piscine Wounded Knee was closer to home. As the Post reported in a small piece of its series, it was Oregon's own former U.S. Rep. Bob Smith of Medford who turned Cheney's attention to our fair state.
A Republican, Smith represented Southern Oregon in the state's 2nd Congressional District from 1983-95 and 1997-99. Now a Medford-based D.C. lobbyist, his clients include the city of Medford and Oregon farmers.
In 2001, as the Northwest faced its worst drought in decades, federal scientists concluded that diverting Klamath River water to irrigate farms would harm protected fish. In stepped Smith, who served with Cheney in the 1980s on the House Interior Committee, to call in a chit to help his farmer clients.
Story continues below
advertisement
Smith did not return a phone call from WW seeking comment. But he told the Post that Cheney "saw, as every other person did, what a ridiculous disaster shutting off the water was."
As reported in the Post, Cheney reached far down the chain of command at the Interior Department to twist the arms of low-ranking bureaucrats, who in turn prodded the National Academy of Sciences to reverse course. And, voilà, a month later, the academy issued a new report finding "no substantial scientific foundation" for cutting off water to the farms.
In March 2002, federal officials opened the irrigation head gates. The salmon kill devastated the local fishing industry, and the decision was later overturned by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals for violating the Endangered Species Act.
Quite a result, considering Smith told the Post he wasn't sure initially he'd find help in Washington for "a small place in a small corner of the country."
RECENT COMMENTS ON “When Vice President Dick Cheney and his Oregon pals go fishing, no limits apply.”
That dangling participle made my head hurt.
In a recently found addendum to a hidden codice of the constitution--written on the back of a signing statement: Congress shall make no law respecting Dick Cheney's free exercise of absolute power.
Jo Becker and Barton Gellman of the Post live and work 3000 miles away, they have an excuse for their ignorance of western geography. What is your excuse?
There is no credible scien...
Easy fix. They'll just take the Coho off the endangered species list...
