It wasn’t that long ago that Governor Brian Schweitzer was warning tea party legislators that he would veto bills that were clearly unconstitutional (or, like the spear hunting bill, SB-112, frivolous).
Maybe he’ll stick to his guns on that. Let’s hope so.
Unfortunately, he’s now, reports the Missoulian, defying the federal government in the best tradition of the tea party:
…on Wednesday [Schweitzer] encouraged ranchers to kill wolves that prey on their livestock - even in areas where that is not currently allowed - and said the state will start shooting packs that hurt elk herds.
This is grandstanding of worst kind. Wolves are not having a serious, perhaps not even a discernible, impact on our supply of protein, domestic or wild:
Despite the bitter public divide on the issue, attacks on livestock by other, unprotected predators such as coyotes far exceed damage from wolves, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture statistics. But the lack of state control over wolves because of their endangered status has frustrated both livestock owners and elk hunters, who complain that their hands are tied by federal protections.
There’s no wolf predation crisis; no emergency.
But hunters, ranchers, gun nuts, and people who just don’t like the federal government, consider Endangered Species Act protection for the gray wolf as contrary to the laws of man and God. These people demonize the wolf in the best manner of Little Red Riding Hood and the National Rifle Association. So Rehberg, Tester, Baucus, and now Schweitzer, are tripping over themselves and each other in their eagerness to demonstrate their provincial approach to wildlife management.
That approach, of course, is political science, not biological science.
And I expect little more from Baucus, an attorney and rancher, Tester, a musician turned farmer, and Rehberg, a rancher and developer.
But I do expect more from Schweitzer. He’s a bona fide scientist, and he knows better. Instead of grandstanding and encouraging people to shoot first and ask what’s legal later, he should be standing up for respect for the law and science. This is not one of his finer moments.