"A Costly Exercise in Futility"

The President, continuing his fantastic record for preserving our environment in measured, reasonable, and safe ways, has unlocked the closed forests from the Clinton administration and opened them to road construction, infrastructure, and the logging industry.

The Bush administration on Thursday overturned one of the most significant land conservation measures of the Clinton presidency: a ban on roads, logging and development on 58.5 million acres of national forests. The move could open large pristine areas to industry. The so-called roadless rule had affected 31% of all national forest land, mostly in Alaska and the West — an area about one-third the size of Texas.

President Clinton had put the far-reaching initiative in place in the final days of his administration. The Bush administration suspended it soon after taking office. Thursday's action was the final step in abandoning it.

Clinton had to push this initiative into his later days because of the Republican special-interest groups that had built up surrounding him during his Impeachement trial, but nonetheless it was pushed through, enacted, and quickly abandoned by Bush. The policy was intended to preserve the last vestiges of untouched forest for recreational use and environmental solvency. Bush's expensive plan that clearly cows to commercial special interests above the interest of natrual preservation and maintenence, has struck mixed cords among those states it affects the most:

Since the Bush administration first outlined its proposal last year, all six Democratic governors in the West — representing Arizona, Montana, New Mexico, Oregon, Washington and Wyoming — have criticized it to varying degrees. Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal called the new rule "a costly exercise in futility."

Wow- what a statement: "costly" [expensive, expanded, convuloted Big government; destructive beyond potential repair] "exercise" [completely elective action] "in futility" [devoid of meaningless, positive results."

This is a perfect phrase for the Republican mandate, and should be their bumpersticker in the coming elections.