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With a stroke
of the presidential pen 1700 wolves were sentenced to die. Never mind that these same wolves have been
brought back from regional extinction due to forty years of dedicated work by
conservationists. For the sake of just
two congressional votes, president Obama was willing to allow the slaughter of
a species. The manner in which, for the first time, this nefarious legislation
was slide through should send a dire warning to all who value the remnants of
our constitution.
The
wolf has for centuries been unfairly demonized by the ranchers and cattlemen of
the mid west including Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming. Due to legislation in the 1800's and 1900's
bounties were introduced that literally wiped the North American wolves from
the mid-western landscape. By the 1920s, not a wolf howl was heard south
of the Canadian border in these parts of the country.
Similarly,
just fifty odd years before these same ranchers had also eradicated the
American Indian.
But
legislation to protect and reintroduce the wolf to these areas came in the form
of the Endangered Species Act. (7 U.S.C. - 136, 16 U.S.C. - 1531) This Act is Federal
legislation passed by congress in 1973 and signed by Richard Nixon. The Act
allowed for the protection of individual species from development,
construction, public works, and evil ranchers
Over
the years the Endangered Species Act has been despised by developers, business
entities, and ranchers since it has been an effective "trump card"
for environmentalists. Merely to be considered for permits this Act caused
exhaustive and expensive studies by any business wishing to move into the
breeding grounds or habitats of threatened species. And if that business could
not establish that it created little impact then no permit to build was issued.
This caused huge, lengthy, and very acrimonious law suits between big business and
environmentalists. Thanks to the Endangered Species Act environmentalists had
big business well in hand. From the
Delta Smelt to the Least Tern, from the Snail Darter to the Wolf, the
Endangered Species Act has been reviled by big business. Their frustrations have again risen and they
have created a cunning new method for by-passing the Endangered Species Act and
the Constitution. Eliminate the courts.
It
would be nice to still consider the constitutional checks and balances of the
executive, legislative, and judicial branches to be effective, but these have
been eroded during recent presidencies to, now, be effectively moot. With an administration that has no courage of
its conviction but desperate for a showing of success, a Congress continually ignoring
the will of the voters, and a judiciary in the bag (see: Justice Steven's dissenting
opinion, re: Citizens United.) you would think that new levels of cunning would
not be needed. But here is where a new
danger lies. The lobbyists have now by-passed
all three branches of government and their inherent checks and balances as
required by the Constitution. Review by the courts has been mandated away.
Conveniently
buried in the exigent circumstances of the recent federal budget battle was a
rider or attachment to that budget. The rider took away protections for the
Wolf by requiring only the wolf to be delisted from the Endangered Species Act
within 60 days. This means that the
ranchers are then free to reap slaughter on the defenseless animals.
"Zero
", boasts Ron Gillett, spokesman for the Idaho Anti-Wolf Coalition, when asked in an LA
Times article how many wolves should be spared.
Gillett further stated, his reason for killing wolves was that the
wolves were killing elk before he was able to do so. Therefore, he and the rest of the Idaho ranchers needed to
kill all the wolves, so they could kill more elk. Hmmm.
Gillett failed to note that, unlike the ranchers, wolves kill a smaller percentage of the elk population, do so only to eat, and kill only when hungry and/or in need of feeding their pack. Additionally, ranchers are reimbursed the full adult at-market value for any cattle or live stock killed by wolves even if it is a calf or a yearling.
The
rancher's savoir, however, came in the form of a desperate and pliable
president, two loyal wolf hating congressman, and the best friend of desperate
presidents and greedy senators; the rider.
Riders,
attachments, and /or earmarks need to be properly viewed as what they are;
underhanded circumvention's of democracy.
The use of riders has grown almost exponentially in recent presidencies.
Rarely do they have any relevance to the legislation they are attached to right
before a presidential signature. What do wolves have to do with a federal
budget? Since these riders are not
subject to the process of the legislature they amount to the side deal between
the individual legislators and a president, usually on behalf of some special
interest alone.
Repeatedly this administration has found itself
painted into a corner on passing any meaningful legislation. Notable examples
have been Health Care, the Finance Reform Bill, extension of the Bush tax cuts,
"Don't Ask; Don't Tell", and the past Federal Budget crisis. In all of these
cases Obama was committed to passing these bills despite republican opposition
but without any political capital of his own the rider has been our president's
only method to, one-by-one, get needed votes.
And the price of the mortita has been steep. With respect
to the last budget the GOP included riders
seeking to ban federal funding for Planned Parenthood ,block Environmental Protection Agency
efforts to regulate greenhouse gases and hamstring the implementation of
Democrats' recent legislative achievements, including a new Consumer
Financial Protection Bureau and health care reform law. Several made the
cut. The remainder will be back by Aug 2.
The
dirty deal that will kill 1700 wolves came from the result of adesperate
president, hungry to pass any federal budget, and two congressmen who well
understood his weakness. With time
running out to effect a budget pleasing to Republicans president Obama sat just
a few votes short. Senator Jon Tester
(D-Mont ) and Rep. Mike Simpson ( R-Idaho) were obviously mindful of previous
gifts from Obama to their other congressional brethren. In exchange for votes on
his Healthcare bill Obama had given Nebraska preferential deals
and to pass the Finance Reform bill even democrats got a great deal. These two congressmen played their cards, and
their president, once it was obvious Obama was now, "all in" on his proposed
budget. And the price for seeing their
cards, i.e. their vote, was to de-list only wolves from the Endangered Species
Act.
Few
congressmen knew of this rider and the ones who were approached to vote against
it could not do so as this would have been a vote against the emergency budget.
But
that was not good enough for Sen. Tester and Rep. Simpson. They knew that their last-minute extortion
was worthless without a new, and constitutionally horrifying, trick.
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