Pombo: How Do You Spell H-y-p-o-c-r-i-s-y?

In a recent email that Richard Pombo sent to his supporters, he echoed a theme that he used against Pete McCloskey in the primary and is hoping to utilize against Democratic activists.

By helping out over the next three weeks, you can help Richard fight back against the liberal outside forces trying to tell the 11th district who their Congressman should be.

Now, the residents of the Central Valley are, perhaps quite rightfully, suspicious of interlopers who would come into their community and try to tell them how they should conduct their affairs. Nobody likes being pushed around by an outsider. Just ask the residents of Washington and Colorado.

For six years now, the residents of Washington have been trying to gain wilderness designation for an area known as the Wild Sky.

Since 2000, [Sen. Patty] Murray has pushed for protection of the front range of the Cascades, sharp peaks and deep forested valleys west of Stevens Pass.

She has, with [Rep. Rick] Larsen, fashioned a Wild Sky Wilderness bill. Unlike other such preserves, the 106,000-acre wilderness would extend from rugged peaks down into the lowlands, protecting 20 miles of salmon-spawning streams.

The legislation has won kudos on both sides of the political fence. […]

Senate passage has been unanimous, with conservative Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, using Wild Sky as an example of the consultation needed in crafting a wilderness bill.

But in the House, one man -- [Richard] Pombo -- has worked to see that Wild Sky doesn't see the light of day.

A longtime property-rights advocate, the California congressman has argued that areas where roads have been built or trees cut do not qualify for designation under the 1964 Wilderness Act. The Senate-passed Wild Sky Wilderness includes a few miles of old logging roads.

Meanwhile, the State of Colorado has similar problems with Richard Pombo. Statewide bi-partisan efforts to designate Rocky Mountain National Park as wilderness area are meeting with broad public support. There is only one politician in Colorado who is arguing against the wilderness bill:

[Colorado Congresswoman] Marilyn Musgrave opposes wilderness designation for Rocky Mountain National Park. Why? Because she's in the pocket of Richard Pombo, Chairman of the House Resources committee. This is the same guy who helped Jack Abramoff and Tom DeLay keep the the petri dish of capitalism and forced abortions in place in the Marianas Islands.

Now Pombo is telling Musgrave that she's against wilderness designation for the park. And it's screwing over Colorado.

“I quite frankly don’t understand,” said Suzy Blackhurst, communications coordinator for the Estes Park Convention and Visitor’s Bureau. “Every local authority has said they want it. Why are they discounting that?”

Here’s where the story gets weird. Apparently the problem that Pombo has with the Rocky Mountain Wilderness designation is this:

Outside magazine’s online edition (May 2005) described his [Pombo’s] insistence on allowing mechanized access to areas designated wilderness.

“No fan of wilderness designation, he also sent his committee members a stern memo suggesting that wilderness bills would not get past his desk unless they allowed for ‘mechanized access,’ which includes vehicles like logging trucks.”

Let’s get this straight. Wild Sky in Washington doesn’t qualify as wilderness area because it is not virgin wilderness; it has some old logging roads that cut through it. At the same time, Rocky Mountain National Park cannot qualify as a wilderness area because it does not allow for “mechanized access” for logging trucks. Are you scratching your head over Richard Pombo's "Catch 22" logic?

Meanwhile, the wishes of the majority in both states are being held hostage to the whims of one man from another state, the same man who says, ”By helping out over the next three weeks, you can help Richard fight back against the liberal outside forces trying to tell the 11th district who their Congressman should be.”

hypocrisy: n. insincerity by virtue of pretending to have qualities or beliefs that you do not really have

Tags: CA-11, Richard Pombo, Wild Sky Wilderness, Rocky Mountain National Park, Marilyn Musgrave, Jerry McNerney