WASHINGTON, D.C. – Thirty-five years ago, in that golden age when a president could engage in White House trysts without worrying about it, one of those presidents endorsed the idea of a self-financing fund to raise money so the government could buy land. It was a popular idea, so popular that it soon became law, […]
Politics
Posted inSeptember 28, 1998: A senator for the New West in the race of his life
God to Helen: ‘Do I know you?’
The fall of 1998 will undoubtedly go down in history as a record year for confessions of infidelity – followed by professions of contrition – from politicians. The latest comes from Idaho Rep. Helen Chenoweth, the ultra-conservative Republican, who recently admitted to a six-year affair with a married, former business partner. The Idaho Statesman decided […]
Posted inSeptember 14, 1998: We are shaped by the sound of wind, the slant of sunlight
On The Trail: Election 1998
Around the corner from the Cheyenne Club in downtown Cheyenne, Wyo., Democrats are throwing together a campaign to unseat incumbent Republican Gov. Jim Geringer. Their man is 48-year-old John Vinich, a 24-year veteran of the state legislature from the town of Hudson who filed for governor just five minutes before the deadline. In the Republican […]
Posted inAugust 31, 1998: Excavating Ecotopia
New Mexico Greens here to stay
When New Mexico held a special election to replace the late Republican Rep. Steve Schiff this June, people compared the race to a mud-wrestling match, only less dignified. The Republican was Rhodes Scholar Heather Wilson; the Democrat, millionaire Phil Maloof. He mailed videotapes in black boxes questioning Wilson’s ethics, and she countered with a flier […]
Posted inAugust 31, 1998: Excavating Ecotopia
These legislative riders sit low in the saddle
WASHINGTON, D.C. – In Pale Rider, a 1985 third-rate version of the movie Shane, Clint Eastwood plays the slow-talking, straight-shooting gunman (and clergyman to boot, credibility not being this flick’s strong suit) who saves settlers from a big mining company. The riders being discussed hereabouts are pale enough, but not one of them would discomfit […]
Posted inAugust 17, 1998: Living out the trailer dream
Pat Schroeder: Tougher than Teflon
Colorado can be proud of sending Democrat Patricia Schroeder to the House of Representatives in 1972. There, she battled the Old Boy network with wit and, more important, grit. Two years ago she retired, and now she’s published a book, 24 Years of House Work … and the Place is Still a Mess: My Life […]
Posted inJuly 6, 1998: Riding the Wyoming 'brand'
Riding the Wyoming ‘brand’
Editor’s note: A year ago, High Country News carried a lead article by Wyoming journalist Paul Krza (pronounced Cur-zay) titled, “While the New West booms, Wyoming mines, drills … and languishes.” The theme of his story was that an alliance between the state’s ranchers and minerals-energy industry had turned Wyoming into a low-tax, low-wage, anti-environmental […]
Posted inJuly 6, 1998: Riding the Wyoming 'brand'
Democrats struggle to regain a foothold
Note: This article is a sidebar to this issue’s feature story. I remembered it as always the biggest rally before the general election, over at the Slovenski Dom, the Slovene lodge’s meeting home in my hometown of Rock Springs. Democrats from Sweetwater County, the party’s big, reliable stronghold in Wyoming, showed up to drink beer, […]
Posted inJune 8, 1998: Don't fence me in
Thirty days left for politics, petulance
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The year is almost over. If you’re computing the time between now and Dec. 31, broaden your horizons. We are talking here about the legislative year, which ends on Oct. 2, liberating congresspersons to return home to campaign. Even subtracting weekends, this would leave almost 100 days for Congress its wonders to […]
Posted inMay 11, 1998: The working West: grassroots groups and their newsletters
‘Meltdown’ continues at state agency
Goodbyes are getting more and more frequent at the Montana Department of Environmental Quality. When attorney Ashley Olivero resigned from the agency at the end of March, describing a “museum of degradations inflicted upon the rank and file DEQ employees,” she joined seven other staffers who have angrily quit since the agency was formed three […]
Posted inFebruary 16, 1998: Private rights vs. public lands
The Land and Water Fund waits to be tapped
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Last year, something unusual occurred hereabouts, and though the extraordinary event did not go unnoticed, its extraordinariness was insufficiently appreciated. What happened was that the United States Congress lived up to an obligation. Though not unprecedented, this proximity to honor was rare enough to have deserved more attention than it received, especially […]
Posted inFebruary 2, 1998: Looking at dams in a new way
The scandal culture reaches Bruce Babbitt
WASHINGTON, D.C. – In a rational world, one would not have to wonder whether a special prosecutor might be appointed to investigate the doings of Bruce Babbitt, endangering his tenure as secretary of the Interior. In this world? Well, we’d better take a look. In the great scheme of things, it matters little whether Babbitt […]
Posted inJanuary 19, 1998: After the gold rush
A ‘liberal’ court gets some breathing room
Western conservatives in the U.S. Senate tried to add language to a spending bill last fall to neutralize an old nemesis – the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. But the senators, facing heavy opposition in the House of Representatives, had to compromise: a commission will review the appeals court system and the San Francisco-based […]
Posted inNovember 24, 1997: Restoring a refuge: Cows depart, but can antelope recover?
Montana congressman sweetens a buyout
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Mysterious are the labyrinthine hallways of the Capitol; who knows what spirits lurk therein? Down those twisted tunnels and curved corridors are things that go bump in the night. Some of those bumps can vibrate all the way to Montana. One dark, murky night – indeed, it may have been Halloween night […]
Posted inOctober 27, 1997: Deconstructing the age of dams
A deal is no longer a deal in Washington
WASHINGTON, D.C. – There was never a whole lot of certainty in these parts, but not long ago you could count on a couple of things. One was that a deal was a deal. The other was that once you had killed something, it stayed dead. No longer. Remember Bob Dole’s “takings” bill, the one […]
Posted inOctober 13, 1997: The land is still public, but it's no longer free
The Mountain West: A Republican Fabrication
How Republican is the Mountain West? That’s sort of like asking, “How wet is the ocean?” Many readers of High Country News weren’t even born in 1948, the last time a Democratic presidential candidate carried every one of the eight states in the Mountain West – Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and […]
Posted inJuly 7, 1997: While the New West booms, Wyoming mines, drills ... and languishes
Republican riders toppled
Facing growing disgust from the American public as well as inner-party revolt, Republican congressional leaders abandoned riders that stalled a flood relief bill for more than a month. President Clinton vetoed an early bill because it contained several unrelated measures – one of which would have opened public lands to road building. He blamed Republican […]
Posted inJune 23, 1997: On the trail of mining's corporate nomads
Politics here consists of hating the East
WASHINGTON, D.C. – As the leaders of the world’s great powers prepared to meet in the American West last weekend, events of great import, perchance even of historic significance, were occurring in some nations’ capitals. But not in this one. Western civilization may be at a turning point, but Washington doesn’t care. Washington is sex-obsessed. […]
Posted inMay 26, 1997: The sacred and profane collide in the West
A Republican wins it
For the first time, a Republican will represent ethnically diverse northern New Mexico in Congress. Bill Redmond won the May 13 special election to replace Rep. Bill Richardson, who left office to become this country’s ambassador to the United Nations. Democrat Richardson had represented this district since its inception in 1982. Redmond, a minister, credits […]
Posted inMay 26, 1997: The sacred and profane collide in the West
Flood bill awash with anti-environmental riders
As Congress rushes to pass a flood-relief bill, lawmakers are tossing controversial pieces of legislation into the mix in hopes of floating them through unnoticed. The bill itself would provide $5.6 billion in relief money to flood victims and ranchers who lost livestock to bitter winter weather. But the worst of its riders could send […]