Blaming Cheney for die-off is far-fetched

July 12, 2007

According to the Eugene Register-Guard editorial of July 5, Vice President Cheney was guilty of “secretive meddling in the Klamath situation” which, as stated in a different part of the editorial, caused a “die off of more than 75,000 salmon in the Klamath Basin” in 2002.

The die off, of course, happened in the lower reaches of the Klamath River, not in the Klamath Basin, and as much as anything was caused by the massive diversions of water from the Trinity River, which is a main tributary of the Klamath.

But what was Cheney’s “secretive meddling?” At the request of Republican Congressman Bob Smith, Cheney contacted someone in the Interior Department and asked them to get a second opinion from the National Academy of Sciences. Holy Moley!! How could he get away with that? And even worse, the NAS found no scientific foundation for cutting off the water. How dared they disagree with government biologists, environmentalists and commercial fishermen?

And, of course, it is all Dick Cheney’s fault.

“Three dozen Democrats from Oregon and California, including Congressman Peter DeFazio, do not need hearings to determine Cheney’s role in the die off. They need psychiatric counseling to determine why they want to blame everything that they don’t agree with on Dick Cheney.

David Kirkpatrick

Klamath Falls