Ken Salazar was picked for Secretary of the Interior all of three days ago to terrible reviews from the grassroots. Since then, we've seen a bit of speculation why Raul Grijalva didn't land the post, despite having the backing of environmental groups, conservation scientists, Latinos, American Indians, and progressives.
In an interview today, Congressman Grijalva had some ideas himself about why he wasn't selected. Below are the details and three ideas for how you can thank the Congressman for his efforts.
I'm not the first to propose three cheers for Raul Grijalva. Demarcated Landscapes raised a glass and others certainly have as well.
A couple of pieces are out today investigating why Grijalva was not the pick. In an interview published in the Arizona Daily Star today, Grijalva thought that being "too assertive" on the issues "possibly" played a role:
Where did your bid go wrong?
"It was a Catch-22 for the transition team. They had to get someone from the West, preferably a Latino with environmental creds, you know, with some record on these issues. I thought up to that point, we had really good support nationwide from Indian country. We were always there in the hunt. When I look back, I'm going to figure out what the deficits were that kept me from getting picked. We are a little more assertive about some of the issues than others. That possibly played a role."
He reveals that the lobbying against him from the ranching and mining industries was intense:
Were there any groups opposed to you, like energy, mining or ranching?
"Yes."
Was it overt, or did you learn about it all through the grapevine and under the table?
"You got it."
You can read into this what you want, but it seems that faced with the prospect of a Secretary of the Interior who meant business about protecting and managing public lands in the public interests, the industry lobbyists went all out to attack Grijalva.
To get a sense of what was going on behind the scenes, an Arizona columnist reports that an "anonymous (and largely baseless) list of allegations against Grijalva" was sent to media around the country. According to the columnist, the "worst" of these was that Grijalva had a DUI decades ago, and she agrees with Grijalva's suspicion that Obama caved to the industry lobbyists:
The worst accusation? The congressman got a DUI decades ago. The horror! The horror! (Of course, our president-elect admits he experimented with cocaine and other drugs, so the idea that a DUI would have put him off Grijalva seems dubious.)
In the end, I suspect the Rev. John Fife got it right early on.
The retired former pastor of Southside Presbyterian Church is as savvy a political observer as any in southern Arizona.
He kept saying powerful interests - including the gas, oil and mining industries - would do everything in their power to block Grijalva.
That makes the most sense of any theory. Our congressman clearly would not cut deals to sell out public lands. He would not back down - no matter how powerful his opponent.
That level of dedication and determination isn't evident in the other would-be nominees - or in Salazar, for that matter.
Could Obama have caved to monied interests already? If so, I'd like my vote back, please.
Before you start suggesting that Grijalva wasn't chosen because he lacked managerial experience, listen to Grijalva's response to that question:
You've been an elected official most of your career. Do you think your lack of management experience hurt you, since Salazar had a lot? He was attorney general and head of the Department of Natural Resources in Colorado.
"I thought that was a non-issue. The agency has 70,000 people and you can appoint a management team, while I would define the positions, set direction and set priorities for where I want to go."
"No management experience" is code for "we don't like him and need a reason to cover ourselves."
This appointment didn't go well for conservation of species and habitats. I haven't had the energy yet to add to my previous criticism of Ken Salazar, but the response among conservationists who know about Salazar has been quite negative (see comments here).
For his part, Raul Grijalva turned down a position on the powerful and prestigious Ways and Means Committee so that he could stay on the Committeee on Natural Resources and continue to chair the National Parks, Forests and Public Lands Subcommittee. About this decision he said:
Why didn't you take the Ways and Means assignment from Speaker Nancy Pelosi? They write the tax laws — that's a lot of power.
"My committee. You come to Congress for the things that you care about — resources, education and labor. Ways and Means is prestigious and powerful. It ain't my cup of tea."
Instead, Grijalva laid out an agenda for public lands in the coming months:
"We will look at the work force in the National Park Service and in public lands in general. The understaffing, the low morale, the politicized science, the land mismanaged to the point where we were having trouble with retention of employees. People are leaving. That is the backbone of the Park Service, the Forest Service, the BLM.
"One thing we are pushing is that we sent a letter to the transition team, the president-elect, we want a big chunk of the stimulus package for public lands. We have a big backlog of maintenance — roads, trails, etc. It would be like the Civilian Conservation Corps in the New Deal. At other times, it's hard to come up with money for these projects other than from a stimulus package."
I think it should be obvious why I and so many others thought that Grijalva would have made an outstanding Secretary of the Interior. The most plausible explanation for why he was not appointed is that the President-elect didn't want to take the heat from the extractive industries. This is disappointing but not particularly surprising given the President-elect's apparent lack of interest in or knowledge of land and wildlife and biodiversity issues. I'm glad, though, that Grijalva will be be staying put on his subcommittee to keep looking out for public lands
There are three ways we can acknowledge Rep. Grijalva.
- Send him an email and promise to support him as he works on conservation issue. There is a form to email him here. There will be work to do in the next four years, more than some might have imagined a few weeks ago.
- Send him a few dollars. He has 129 donors on Act Blue right now. Chip in $5 as a thank you for showing how a progressive conservationist with a spine behaves.
- Support his proposal for the stimulus package to fund repair of our parks and public lands by submitting comments to change.gov.