It happened with the port deal and now it's happening with the Forest Service land selloff. Republicans who initially came out against the Bush administration's public land sale are now softening to Bush's controversial proposal.
Just this week, four former U.S. Forest Service chiefs came out against the sale of 300,000 acres of US Forest Service lands -- OUR LANDS -- to make up for rural school funding cuts that Bush brought about himself.
Former chiefs Max Peterson, Dale Robertson, Jack Ward Thomas and Michael Dombeck, said "Selling off public lands to fund other programs, no matter how worthwhile those programs, is a slippery slope." The former chiefs called it "an unwise precedent."
But some Republicans -- who were against the plan only a week ago -- are now beginning to cave. Republican Senator Larry Craig of Idaho, who at a hearing last month loudly condemned the forest sale plan, says he has now moved toward a more neutral position. And Senator Pete Domenici, a New Mexico Republican and chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources committee, said he now has an open mind until he reviews the deal.
This is not unexpected. Again and again we've seen Republicans slowly being bullied into accepting the Bush administration's most offensive proposals, all the while abandoning their own voters' wishes in order to stay in lock-step with the Bush/Cheney agenda.
And it's important to remember that this has never been about the president's concern for rural school kids. As Josh Kardon, chief of staff to U.S. Senator Ron Wyden, remarked, "I am beginning to suspect that the administration is working overtime to keep land sales the issue that everyone debates, so that the public never focuses on the massive loss of funding for rural counties." These are cuts that fall to the Bush administration, which has been flushing away hundreds of millions of dollars every week in Iraq.
If you have a representative or senator who originally condemned the land selloff, don't think you are safe. Contact your congressional reps and senators and tell them that YOU have not changed your mind -- this is a bad proposal and it must be stopped.
Also be sure to submit a public comment to the US Forest Service by March 30. Read this diary to find out more about how you can comment.