Rep. Jim Gibbons didn't try to get a whistleblower fired, a Gibbons spokestress says. Gibbons, who thinks he's gubernatorial material, had nothing to do with the ouster of a Earle Dixon, a Bureau of Land Management guy who was blowing the whistle on icky contamination at a mine site. Rather, a letter from Gibbons urging that the site's management be transferred away from Dixon and to the state BLM director was prompted purely by the congressman's keen interest in seeing the polluted site cleaned up more quickly, Gibbons' spokestress explains.(AP)
Sure, the Gibbons letter was cited in a memo titled "Rationale/Reasoning for Removal of Earle Dixon as project manager." But judging from the rationale/reasoning emanating from Gibbons' office, why, that's just a coincidence.
Sounds reasonable. The mining industry, so crucial to Jim Gibbons' sense of self, has by one estimate contributed about $130,000 to Gibbons' congressional campaigns over the years. But the political committee for the specific good corporate citizen in question, Atlantic Richfield, has contributed a mere $2,500 to Gibbons. And this was just a defunct copper mine. It's not as if the entire mining industry might have had an interest in letting the BLM know that they better not upset any apple carts lest the industry sick it's pet congressman on the agency.
So, barring further revelations, Nevada voters should believe that Jim Gibbons was more interested in cleaning up pollution at a mine site than he was in protecting the pocketbook of a huge mining conglomerate specifically or huge mining conglomerates generally. Then, if Gibbons is elected governor, Nevada voters will have the leadership they deserve.
Love the last sentence, "Have the leadership they deserve." This is almost true.
However, it is the leadership they selected! At every election, the "leaders" are the ones selected by the VOTERS!
It never ceases to amaze me how 30% of the registered voters, representing, what, 15% of the population?, elect people that just aren't really looking out for their intrests. Then there is a hew and cry about big business running things.
Funny (actually terribly sad), how people will not take responsibility for doing little or no research into their selection of "leaders" and then feel ripped off later. Duh!
Posted by: joe | 02/09/2006 at 09:04 AM
The last sentence reminds me of H.L. Mencken: "The American people know what kind of government they want, and they are about to get it good and hard." Not an exact quote -- filtered through an aging brain -- but the idea is there.
Posted by: Dwayne Chesnut | 02/10/2006 at 07:51 AM