Wampum

Late last fall, just days before the Congressional vote on the Homeland Security bill was to take place, the Midnight Rider struck, anonymously tacking on the now infamous Eli Lilly get-out-of-jail-free provision on the end of the massive bill. Many legislators who opposed the new language exempting Lilly from thimerosal lawsuits felt obligated to suppport the bill in the name of "national security", and had it not been for the elegant machinations of the Senators from Maine retracting the wording in new legislation, Lilly executives in Indiana would be far happier today than they currently are, as the lawsuits continue to work their way successfully through the courts.

This time, the target of the Midnight Rider was the Interior Department spending bill of billions in much needed funds for wildfire fighting and forest management. One has to wonder, what does the Interior Department's accounting of the missing funds in thousands of Indian trust accounts, set up to hold the revenues of leases for mining, drilling or grazing on Indian land, have to do with funding Smokey the Bear?

Obviously, the Midnight Rider believes the two to be linked, as the new language quietly inserted during the House-Senate conference committee will delay the federal court-ordered accounting by yet another year, to Dec. 31, 2004.

The lawsuit, currently known as Cobell v. Norton (formerly Cobell v. Babbitt), has been drawn out by two Administrations and totalled millions in legal fees for all members involved. Three top officials have been cited for contempt, and dozen of mid-level Interior bureacrats sanctioned for offenses ranging from destruction of documents and computer files to obstruction of the investigation and harrassment of the plantiffs. The DC district court justice overseeing the case, Reagan-appointee Judge Royce Lamberth, has become so frustrated with the Interior Department than many feel he will be removed from the case due to a growing lack of impartiality. I'm sure that some will argue that the new Republican-backed measure in the Interior funding bill is one more of a thousand cuts meant to send Judge Lamberth over the edge, so that a new, less "invested" judge will take over the case.

Western lawmakers, many of whom support a quick resolution to the Trust Fund case, expressed dismay that they're being forced to choose between firefighting funding and the needs of their Indian constituents:

House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo, R-Calif., in a letter Monday to House Appropriations Committee Chairman Bill Young, R-Fla., said that he is strongly opposed to the language or any other measure to "delay the resolution of the Indian trust-fund accounting problem and the court case for years."

Pombo says that the language, inserted without his knowledge, "removes any incentive for the Department of Interior to go forward with an accounting or settlement while Native Americans will wait years more for their monies."

However, Keith Harper, attorney for the NARF (Native American Rights Fund) cut to the heart of the issue, one which has plagued a Congress manipulated and bullied by Tom Delay and his cronies:

"This is beyond sneaky...this happened in the dead of night."

The Midnight Rider strikes again...