HDPM you can keep your govenor

[Ed I]

WASHINGTON-Idaho gov. Dick Kempthorne, Presidents Bush's top candidate to head the Environmental Protection Agency, has cut his state's environmental budget three times and reduced enforcement of environmental regulations.

During Kempthorn's four-and a half year tenure as governor, Idaho's pristine air has gotten dirtier, more rivers have been polluted, fewer polluters have been inspected and more toxins have contaminated the air, water and land according to a Knight Ridder analysis of Idaho pollution data from EPA and state data.

In the same period, the nations air and water have gotten cleaner on average, and fewer toxins have been emitted, EPA officials said Monday in a draft report.

I don't know if any of this is true but it fits my sterotype of Idaho's Republicans, so please keep him.

[HDPM]

I don't know his exact responsibility for some of that stuff. However, he did step in here when local officials were about to take action against the worst dairy in the state. He made sure nothing was really done. He is against the endangered species act. He spoke out strongly against the EPA. His voting record in the Senate was awful per environmental groups, great per industry groups. He is much more conservative than Whitman. He is also in a bizarre spot career-wise. He quit a Senate seat he could have won for life. Which is nuts since being a senator is like the best political job ever. So he leaves that to be governor. Then he self-term limits himself and tries to support term limits. But the legislature dumped term limits. But now he needs a new job before his term expires. So he is looking at another step down. I don't care if it is called a cabinet position, it is a garbage job. And always a politcal dead end. But whatever, I guess that's his problem. His tenure as governor has also been difficult here, but not over the environmental stuff. For the most part here people just want to kill wolves and grizzlies and build some more dams. Although environmentalists are making inroads here, jobs and money still carry the day. He might have an unpleasant confirmation fight in the senate. If he steps down, the Lt. Gov will get the job. And Scalf's boy CL Butch Otter might have left congress to run for gov., but might not if he has to run against a republican incumbent. We'll see. But the Lt. Gov's race was hotly contested last year. Wonder why? Also, he was a big Bush supporter in the last election and I thought might get a cabinet position then. If he is appointed, environmentalists will hate him. But that is seen as a good thing by many R's.