LA Weekly

Idaho Governor Dirk Kempthorne once hired industry lobbyists to summarize public comments on whether to preserve roadless wilderness areas. The biggest contributor to his 2002 campaign for governor was the Potlatch Corp., one of the worst polluters not only in Idaho but in my home state, Minnesota, where it was fined close to a million this winter for pollution violations. Kempthorne's second biggest contributor was Coeur D'Alene Mines, which the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers recently blocked -- at the last minute -- from dumping toxic gold mining waste into a pristine Alaskan lake.

Now Kempthorne has replaced the Abramoff-tainted Wise-User Gale Norton as Secretary of Interior. Predictable, yes. Tolerable, no.

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