Wampum

McCain is not only being (acting?) intractable on Bush's torture plans, but he's making a stink over another thorn in the side of the Administration, settlement of the Indian Trust Fund dispute.

McCain blasts administration for inaction on Indian case
By Billy House
The Arizona Republic
Sept. 18, 2006 12:00 AM

Sen. John McCain gave an earful Thursday to President Bush's nominee to be the assistant secretary of Indian Affairs at the Department of the Interior, blasting as "incomprehensible" the administration's inaction on a proposed settlement to the 10-year-old Indian trust case.

The Arizona Republican, overseeing a hearing of his Senate Indian Affairs Committee, told the nominee, Carl Artman, that it's been five weeks since he and Sen. Byron Dorgan of North Dakota, the top Democrat on the committee, met with Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

McCain said he and Dorgan presented "what we believed to be a reasonable solution."

Of course, most Indians involved in the Trust Fund Case don't view McCain's fixation on his pulled out of a hat $8 billion settlement figure to be a "reasonable solution".

At issue in the case is billions of dollars in land lease and mineral royalties owed by the government to Native American landowners in Arizona and across the nation because of government mismanagement over their trust accounts.

Lawyers for the lead plaintiff, Elouise Cobell, have alleged that Indian landowners are owed at least $100 billion in royalties tied to farming, grazing, mining, logging and other activities on tribal lands.

Despite the $100 billion number, last year, tribes involved came up with what they determined to be a fair number, about $27 billion. McCain has be heavily criticized by tribes for his unwillingness to even discuss increasing the amount to reflect reality.

See, McCain is slated to give up his Chairmanship of the Senate Indians Affairs Committee, so that he can take the helm of the more "prestigious" Armed Services Committee (just in time for WWIII?) But he would like to have at least a few coup on his belt, and what better than to have solved the decade old Trust Fund dispute, particularly in a way which protects both his Congressional peers and their industry (oil, gas, mining, forestry, etc.) financial overlords?