So, the Gorge Commission's budget has been cut. Where's the Columbian's demand for resignations and firing of those who cut it?

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It wasn't that long ago that I've forgotten.

A little over 10 years or so ago, the budget of the Columbia River Gorge Commission was whacked by about a third to a half.

Led by then Rep. Marc Boldt (R-17) and current Sen. Don Benton (R-17) on the Washington side, and Sen. Ted Ferrioli (R-John Day) on the Oregon side, the budgets for both states, which have to match, was cut as a way to get the Commission's attention.

The Gorge Commission had increasingly shared the Columbian's view that the people of the Gorge are a nuisance, and the phrase through out the Scenic Act, that is, "visually subordinate," actually meant "totally invisible."

They took months to approve projects as mundane as painting your house (The reader, of course, is aware that the Commission must approve a request to say, paint your house if you live in the Scenic Area. They and they alone can approve YOUR choice of colors.) and far too often would implement an overly restricted series of policies NOT called for by the Act's language.

Then, of course, there was the debacle of the Bea House; a house approved by the Commission only to be stupidly and arrogantly challenged by both the Commission and our local stain on journalism.... positions utterly destroyed by a 9-0 State Supreme Court decision.

The reaction by the democrat newsletter that is this rag?

Howls of outrage. It's one of the many reasons why this waste of pulp has never endorsed Sen. Benton, and why they've only recently endorsed Marc Boldt. In fact, Tom Koenninger demanded Boldt's resignation, moronically suggesting that Boldt "resign before the people do it for him."

Over the years, the stupidity of that position has become self-evident.

Slashing the Commission's budget as a teaching moment proved to be wildly successful. Attacking those who orchestrated that move proved to be hideously moronic.

In short, that the fishwrapper believes that the people of the Gorge should be bulldozed out (with the appropriate re-planting of trees) so that OUR side of the Gorge could go back to its natural, pre-people state (OUR side of the Gorge anyway... I wonder if the rag has noticed an interstate freeway on the Oregon side of the Gorge...) so that it could remain the post card that THEY want to look at... but would never dream of living in with all the restrictions and assaults on their freedoms that they have to put up with, is not a universally-shared view.

In fact, voters here locally would have no problem if the Commission were abolished.... let alone have their budget cut.

All of which begs the question: Where's the faux outrage? Where's the demands for resignations? Where's the barrels of ink, the screaming, whining and moaning.... the generalized idiocy of Tom Koenninger trying to bully people and destroy them politically?

Where is it?

It's no where.

Now.... why is that?

The answer is simple. THIS time, the legislature cutting this budget were all controlled by... democrats.

THAT is the difference. The state democrats OWN the despicable rag that is our paper. They SLASHED this miserable rag's business and occupation tax in the midst of a $10 BILLION budget deficit... so they now OWN this steaming pile of garbage... and as a result, they have cemented their position as being beyond criticism or question... because this rag knows that the legislature giveth, and the legislature taketh away.

Combine that with Koenninger's utterly rank hypocrisy, and the result speaks for itself.

One need look no farther than the Gorge Commission's despicable efforts to steal operations dollars out of money's MEANT for economic development and recreation planning dollars.

And that the money in question STILL hasn't been paid out on an Act in place since the REAGAN ADMINISTRATION is a testament to the weak representation of the 3rd Congressional District since the Scenic Act was put into place.

So, why is it that this garbage heap of a paper isn't hammering Baird, that cow Murray, and ol' round heels Cantwell for failing to get the money into the Gorge that the Act calls for?

Here's a bulletin, morons: our elected representatives don't give a damn about the Commission, either. If we were to wake up TOMORROW and discover that the Gorge Commission no longer existed... most of us wouldn't give a damn... much like we wouldn't give a damn if your paper ceased to exist.
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