FIRST AND ONLY ON NEWWEST.NET

Environmentalists see the Blue Tide as more of a Green Tide, and they not only have their hopes up, but their sleeves rolled up.

A huge coalition of green groups, 98 in all, has just finished a massive analysis of the current regulatory situation governing the U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service amd prepared a lengthy quick fix list to President-elect Obama's transition team.

Based on this action-packed letter, Obama's choices for Secretary of the Interior and Secretary of Agriculture will have a lot of homework to do long before they start work in January. [more]

BROTHERS MAKING THEIR MARK FOR COLORADO

The Denver Post is reporting this morning that Senator Ken Salazar (D-CO) is now the leading candidate for Secretary of the Interior. If so, he has bypassed early leaders Congressman Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) and Interior Deputy Secretary John Berry.

The Post also reports that Congressman John Salazar (D-CO.), Ken's older brother, has been on the short list for Secretary of Agriculture, but now he is more likely to be appointed to his brother's job in the U.S. Senate by Colorado Governor Bill Ritter, also a Democrat [more]

KEEP THOSE GUN MAVERICKS UNDER CONTROL

If you've followed my recent columns on gun rights, you know that I have a big bet on the table--not an all-in bet, hopefully, but really big!

Our new administration and Congress has a lot of anti-gun baggage, but I've argued, unsuccessfully so far, that two colossal political realities will keep the Blue Tide from seriously pursuing any new gun laws.

So convinced am I of this that during several email exchanges, online and offline, with gun nuts, I bet them no gun bill would get through Congress any time during the next four years. So Mr. President-elect and Ms. Speaker of the House, please come through for me. Don't make me a big loser.
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Diary of a Mad Voter: Joan McCarter

Democrat Jim Roscoe, a home builder, marathoner and former ski patrolman who has never run for public office ran for the open District 22 seat in the state House against Republican Charles Stough, a recent transplant. Roscoe won in the general election in a complete squeaker, by just four votes--2,991 to 2,887. But then it got kind of hinkey. Joe Albright, Teton County Democratic State Committeeman, explained what happened in an e-mail: [more]

WE NEED THIS GUST OF FRESH AIR

Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post and several bloggers are naming Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.) as a "leading contender" for Obama's pick for Secretary of the Interior. This cabinet position usually goes to a westerner, and Grijalva would be an excellent choice.

He current chairs the House Resources Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands and has been an outspoken advocate for protecting national parks, wilderness and wildlife habitat in the West, recently opposing the Bush Administration's plans for oil and gas leasing and coal mining in critical areas and resisting deep cuts in national park budgets. [more]

Column: Politics

No matter your feelings about gay equality and marriage, the issue is firmly political. It’s the civil rights movement of our day, and can no longer be relegated to a fringe few --especially after the passage of Proposition 8, which bans gay marriage, in California ten days ago.

Donors from many states gave money to help pass Prop. 8, but Idahoans donated more than $400,000 to pass it, second only to Utah in out-of-state contributions.

Several publications, including Pride Depot, are calling for a boycott of businesses on the donor list.

A national day of protest called “Join the Impact – Promote Love and Equality in Your City” on Saturday aims to bring national attention and a collective experience to people who want to claim their support for gay marriage and their objection to the California initiative.

In the Rocky Mountain West – at least in the states where New West publishes - there are 19 events scheduled for tomorrow, all at 11:30 Mountain Time, which are listed here. [more]

According to the presidential election results, Wyoming and Oklahoma shared the distinction of giving the highest percentage of votes to John McCain, at 65 percent and 66 percent respectively. Wyoming recorded the lowest percentage of support in the nation, at 33 percent, for Barack Obama.

Even Wyoming's arch conservative neighbor Utah went slightly lighter on McCain, 63 percent and slightly heavier on Obama, 34 percent.

But does that make Wyoming the country's reddest state? More troubling, is there a degree of racism in the Wyoming electorate? [more]

All Three Wyoming D.C. Spots Stay With GOP

Bolstered by a last minute appearance by Vice President Dick Cheney, Former Wyoming treasurer Cynthia Lummis handily defeated Democrat Gary Trauner Tuesday in the most expensive U.S. House race in Wyoming history.

By 10 p.m. Tuesday with more than 98 percent of the ballots counted, Lummis held an insurmountable 20,000 vote lead, 50 percent compared 43 percent for Trauner.

Not even the 10,000 votes gained by Libertarian David Herbert, a potential spoiler, could have changed the fate of the two-time Democratic candidate.

Lummis joined GOP U.S. Senate candidates Mike Enzi, the incumbent seeking his third term, and John Barrasso, an interim appointee vying to replace the late Sen. Craig Thomas, in a clean sweep of the state’s three Congressional seats. The election marked the first time in more than a century that both Wyoming U.S. Senate seats and its single U.S. House seat have been up for grabs.

And true to recent form, all three remained in GOP hands. [more]

Here in Montana, and across the Rocky Mountain West, the election of Barack Obama represents the startling culmination of social, cultural and political changes that have been underway in this region for many years. You've heard a lot of this by now: the Mountain West, increasingly populated by amenity-seeking coastal migrants and Latino immigrants, and with an independent-minded electorate that's resistant to Republican over-reaching on social issues, is no longer solid red, but rather "in play." And if the breadth of Obama's victory ultimately rendered the electoral votes of Colorado and New Mexico and Montana and Nevada superfluous, the deeper significance of the changes remain.

It certainly didn't play out the way any pundit might have predicted a couple of years ago. Obama, for starters, is hardly the "Western" candidate that many Western Democrats imagined would be the standard-bearer for the inevitable breakthrough. "You guys have a nice deal around here," Obama said in Missoula last spring, with all the wonder of a first-time tourist. He joked about going fly fishing (a river runs through it, after all!), but it's hard to picture him in waders.
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FIRST AND ONLY ON NEWWEST.NET

Anybody who has been following the cyber-firestorm over pro-Obama statements and campaign contributions made by Dan Cooper, president and co-founder of Cooper Firearms of Stevensville, Montana, knows that as part of the collateral damage, life has gotten hectic at Sportsman's Warehouse.

After the story broke on October 28 in USA TODAY and became the subject of my column on NewWest.Net five days later, gun owners angry with Cooper besieged Sportsman's Warehouse's 66 superstores and corporate headquarters with threats of a boycott if the company didn't stop selling Cooper's products. Then, gun owners angry with gun rights activists calling for the boycott went into those same stores threatening their own boycott if America's Premier Outfitter didn't continue selling Cooper products.

You got to feel for Sportsman's Warehouse, obviously caught in the middle of a controversy they didn't create, so I called CEO Stuart Utgaard. He was anxious to clear it up for us. [more]