Some concessions to Robert Bennett (R-Utah) on oil and gas leases was needed-
Here is the story. Senate GOP releases hold on Interior nominee. Politico. Salazar probably had to agree to look into offering tghe oil and gas leases next to the national parks that the courts and he had killed. Grrrrr.
The New York Times has a story what this is really about — Senator Bennett’s political survival in a state where the Republican Party is increasingly “conservative”. The Utah Republican Party is generally controlled by people for which development is everything and the beauty of the state means nothing, and lately they have been getting kind of nutty.
Senator Bennett’s Hostages. Editorial by the New York Times.
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Ralph Maughan
Dr. Ralph Maughan is professor emeritus of political science at Idaho State University with specialties in natural resource politics, public opinion, interest groups, political parties, voting and elections. Aside from academic publications, he is author or co-author of three hiking/backpacking guides, and he is President of the Western Watersheds Project.
“lately they have been getting kind of nutty” You’re being way to charitable to the wall-to-wall wacked-out closet-neoNazi scum that controls Utah. You need to visit a shopping mall in say Brigham City; look around at the cloned crowd; and think about what mindset had to have driven that level of alien genetic uniformity in the heart of what was supposed to be the American West and the implications. Utah goes way beyond weird.
Milkarooni,
I grew up in Utah and Idaho, and I am a member of that dominant religion. I understand the critique, and can make it myself; but would like it stated a bit more nicely.
My parents were liberal Mormons. That is not a euphemism for “Jack Mormon.” I didn’t realize it, however, for a long time.
As for the rest of my relatives, I’m not sure they understand the craziness that is creeping into the Republican Party.
Whenever I drive through Utah and listen to Mormon Church owned radio, I get to listen to right wing talk nuts like Hannity and Limbaugh interspaced with adds for the Mormon Church. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to get the message the church leaders are broadcasting to the faithful.
To me, this is just more evidence of how weak-willed the “great” Obama has turned out to be. I am reminded of the lion in the Wizard of Oz.
I’ll try to be a bit more civil. I just get very irritated with it, too long as a mud-person.
If you drive through any rural area in the Interior West, and I imagine the South, you hear the same hate radio.
LDS, Baptist, or Catholic, it hardens their hearts and sews shut their minds. It brings out the bad parts of these religions, and grafts them into a fascist political movement.
They turn into hateful people in slightly different ways.
I just received a book by David Neiwert. The Eliminationists: How Hate Talk Radicalized the American Right.
I suggest folks read it, and follow Neiwert’s blog, Orcinus