December 11, 2024
 Cormorants perched above the water, on an estuary along the Oregon coast. (Image/Oregon Fish & Wildlife) |
An image from the Oregon Weekly Briefing, a year ago. Good odds that the cormorants are back again.
Worth a note on a fine spring day in most of the Northwest.
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CHRIS CARLSON Carlson Chronicles |
A black-hearted Republican friend called recently and asked “are there any Republican governors in Idaho’s history, or anywhere for that matter, you thought did a good job?â€
“Sure,†I responded.
“Then name them. I’m getting bored with your continuous haranguing about how lousy a job Butch is doing. You may be right, but say something positive about any Republican governor once in awhile,†he advised.
After pondering this advice for a bit, I decided my friend had a point.
During my 66 years there have been three exceptionally good, well-qualified, progressive and constructive Republican governors who left the state of Idaho in great shape. They did little harm and much good. C.A. “Doc†Robbins from St. Maries (1947 to 1951); Phil Batt from Wilder (1995-1999); and, Robert E. Smylie from Caldwell, (1955-1967).
Looking across the nation but understandably focusing more on the west, several others come to mind: Washington Governor Daniel J. Evans (1965 to 1977); Oregon’s Tom McCall (1967-1975); Utah’s Jon Huntsman, Jr., (2005 to 2009); Montana’s Marc Racicot (1993 to 2001); Nevada’s Paul Laxalt (1967 to 1971); California’s Pete Wilson (1991 to 1999); and, Alaska’s Jay Hammond (1974 to 1982).
Of that entire distinguished group, Hammond was my favorite. Here’s why.
• An incredible ability to see over the horizon, down the road, into the future. From his first elected office as an independent in the House of Representatives in the very first session after Alaskabecame a state in 1959, Hammond recognized the need to conserve some revenue from the development of Alaska’s abundant resources not just for a “rainy day†fund but also to put it into a fund that the Legislature could not touch, a fund designed to give each Alaskan an annual payback for their commitment to the State. (more…)
With all the talk about Montana Senator Max Baucus leaving Congress at the end of this term, there's talk in some quarters about his prospective replacement as chair of the Finance Committee: Ron Wyden of Oregon.
It's a little remarkable, since the senator Wyden replaced - Republican Robert Packwood - also held the job, and waited longer for it than Wyden has. It made Packwood a major-clout senator, and would do the same for Wyden (considerably more than his current chair, significant as it is, at energy and natural resources).
What might that mean? There's a fine Ezra Klein (Washington Post) blog entry from a year and half ago, newly re-posted, profiling Wyden, that gives some sense of that.
It keys off his account of a joke Wyden staffers periodically tell each other: “You got a problem? Ron Wyden has a comprehensive, bipartisan solution to fix it.â€
Further down, Klein's observation: "Wyden’s office is a small outpost where the natives imagine how Congress would behave in a parallel universe."