Supposedly the battle for Secretary of Interior, the most important position in my mind, comes down to Mike Thompson (with Pelosi's backing) and Raul Grijalva (with enviros backing).
With the recent decision to allow guns in national parks, the Interior position takes on special prominence. Mike Thompson is the WRONG choice for Interior!
This blue dog Democrat is a charter member of Safari Club International (folks who go and hunt rhinos etc). You can see his photo at a Safari Club event here (where he was named legislator of the year):
www.scifirstforhunters.org/static/photolibrary/index.cfm?action=ViewPhoto&albumid=6&startrow
=1
Mike Thompson has received significant contributions from Safari Club International. Mike Thompson is a member of the National Rifle Association.
Do you expect he will reverse the position on guns in national parks?
Sadly, Obama has shown a disinterest in the environment beyond Energy issues. And he is on the record as indicating that one of the most important qualifications for Interior is that that candidate be a "sportsman".
"I think that having a head of the Department of Interior who doesn’t understand hunting and fishing would be a problem," Obama said. "And so my suspicion is that whoever heads up the Department of Interior is probably going to be a sportsman or sportswoman." link
That makes me sad. I would think that better criteria would be, for instance, a solid science background and understanding of ecology, rather than about how to kill fauna.
Besides his pro-gun positions, Mike Thompson is a conservative Democrat. This means his standard approach to environmental problems is to "let the market work". In this vein, he pushes for quasi-market-based solutions such as money for conservation easements and tax incentives for landowners to comply with the Endangered Species Act. (In other words, paying off landowners to follow the law, rather than promoting commonsense regulations and safeguards that would require them to, say, not knock-down eagle habitat.)
While there is nothing necessarily wrong, per se, with these approaches, it has been the environment that has often borne the brunt of Bush's callous policies. The appointment of a conservative, pro-gun vineyard owner (who therefore has historically sided with agriculture over wildlife) is simply not acceptable.
Please go to change.gov and let the Obama team know: NO to Mike Thompson! Yes to Paul Grijalva!