Cutting Sign in the Wilderness of Washington

Rainbow trout, Montana

I can track stuff.

I'm not great at it (I am no Kalahari Bushman, I can assure you), but I'm, better than most city boys, and the folks who know me well know I watch some very small, but meaningful things here in the wilderness of Washington, D.C.

I mention this because a while back someone emailed me about health care legislation.

It was all coming unstuck right? Senator Baucus (D-MT) was a turncoat, and Senator Grassley (R-IA) was leading the good Senator from Montana around by the nose.

It was all going to hell, right?

No.

I suggested he listen to more Loggins and Messina.

Eh? What was I on about?

My email back was short and simple:

There's a fellow by the name of Jim Messina who use to run Baucus' committee. Now he's Obama's Deputy Chief of Staff and working directly with Axelrod.

All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost.

I'm not sure if he got my reference in the last line (it's Tolkein), but I'm pretty sure he now thinks I am deeply connected. (Note: I am not).

Why would he think I'm psychic? Simple: this little story from this morning's New York Times :

Mr. Obama’s trip out West later this week — to promote his health care plan in states like this one [Colorado] and Montana — is going to include a few hours of trout fishing in Montana. Jim Messina, the president’s deputy chief of staff, who grew up in Montana and Idaho and is a wildlife enthusiast, will be taking him.

Mr. Messina disclosed the president’s plan while talking at a conference of Western Democratic leaders here, discussing Democratic gains in the region over the past six years. Mr. Messina was talking about issues of concern to Western voters, among them providing access to hunters and fishermen to federally protected land.

“Access to public land and transportation are two issues that were politically salient in the West before they were anywhere else,” he said at the Project New West conference. “I am going to have the great opportunity later this week: I’m going to take the leader of the free world fishing. And I plan to talk a little bit about public access.”

Mr. Messina, in an interview, declined to say where in Montana he would take Mr. Obama fishing, citing security concerns. Asked whether Mr. Obama was a practiced fisherman – and in particular, whether he had hidden his interest in the sport during the campaign the way he might have hidden his interest in, say, golf – Mr. Messina deferred questions to the White House.

My friend knows I used to work on western public lands access issues, and so he will read more into this story than he should. Rest assured, however, it's all news to me. I am not connected.

That said, I have been in this town a pretty long time, and I believe good things can happen when there are short chains of trust.

Senator Grassley likes and trusts Senator Baucus. They run the Senate Finance Committee together, trading chairmanships depending on what Party is in power. Baucus likes and trusts Jim Messina. Barack Obama and David Axelrod like and trust Jim Messina. Jim Messina likes to fish. Everyone has a reason to try to get along and make this work. And not just on health care. On public lands too.

Remember a few months ago, when the lunatics were suggesting Barack Obama was going to end hunting and fishing in America? Not happening. Not going to happen.

Now the same black-helicopter crowd is saying health care is dead and/or the new health care legislation is going to kill everyone you love.

Not true, and no it's not.

So, having said that, here's a question for you: Do you think any of the right-wing blogs will favorably note that Barack Obama is going trout fishing?

Do you think any of them will note that Barack Obama is putting hunter-angler access to public lands front and center on his agenda (for at least one day)?

George Bush never did that.

And here's another question: When was the last time you went fishing?

When was the last time Glenn Beck, Bill O'Reilly, Ann Coulter, Lou Dobbs, or any of the right wing bloggers out there went hunting or fishing?

I read a lot of them, yet I never hear or see much about any time spent in the field.

Dick Cheney went (canned) hunting, of course. And he is a good angler.

But George Bush? Nope.

He did not go hunting once in eight years in office. He never expressed the slightest interest in improving access to America's public lands.

But Barack Obama is putting that front and center -- at least for a day.

And then, sometime soon, he is going to sit down and talk health care policy in a small circle of trust.

Do I think all of this is a good sign? I do.

But we shall see.


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