Wampum

As I was busy doing family stuff most of the day, I didn't get around to reading the latest in the WaPo's War on Cheney, Leaving No Tracks, until this evening. The details on Cheney's involvement in the Klamath River case was gut-wrenching, I as was very familiar with how the government's action devastated native fishing in the region (a point the WaPo happened to leave out - I guess fishermen are fishermen, whether Indian, and thus doubly "protected" by the Interior Department due to the Trust relationship.)

While the report is fairly damning, huge details are left out, details which would send all but the most cynical and jaded into the streets in protest. No mention of Sue Ellen Woodridge's former boss and current husband's sentencing hearing today,in which the judge threw out the recommendations of both the defendant and the DoJ, and doubled the prison tmie to ten months. The article mentions that Cheney was "aided by loyalists who owe him for their careers," but makes no mention of one of the highest placed loyalists, Tom Sansonetti, head of the Bush-Cheney Transition Team for Interior, and Assistant Attorney General for the Environment and Natural Resources Division, the department which is supposed to have legal oversight over Interior. Sansonetti was not only from Wyoming, but he was chair of the state GOP while Cheney was in Congress, and ran for the seat when Cheney was appointed Defense Secretary under Bush I. Sansonetti was beat out on the fifth ballot by Craig Thomas, who went on to become a Wyoming Senator. Sansonetti was Thomas' first Chief of Staff, and later, campaign manager.

There's a lot more there, and I'll dive into all tomorrow, when allergies and heat exhaustion lessen, and I've a clear head.