Caving in to Richard Pombo

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?”

Musgrave even admits what Richard Pombo has got to say means more to her than what the citizens of Estes Park say. This was in the Estes Park Trail Gazette in August:

“I don’t know exactly the reasons why they are holding this up,” said Wertz.

The answer may lie far from Colorado.

“I talked to the chairman of the Resources Committee (Richard Pombo, R-CA) regarding what does wilderness designation mean,” said Congresswoman Musgrave. “The Resources Committee says that when something is designated a wilderness area it restricts access. We need to be well aware of what designation means.”

It means that Pombo's buddies aren't going to be able to log the life out of it!

Opposition to wilderness designations because they will restrict access is a recurring issue within the House Committee on Resources.

Republican California Congressman and rancher Richard Pombo, who is currently running for re-election, is the chairman of the House Committee on Resources. Pombo and members of the Committee have often been criticized for being opposed to legislation that would expand wilderness areas.

Outside magazine’s online edition (May 2005) described his 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.”

Pombo and the committee favor a multiuse policy for national parks.

Meaning: drill it, mine it, log it, so that corrupt special interests from outside of Colorado make billions, while Marilyn Musgrave's constituents pay the price.

Marilyn and Wayne Allard came up with some lying smoke and mirrors crap, but Mark Udall called bullshit. Save Rocky Mountain National Park from Marilyn Musgrave!