Idaho governor nominated as Interior secretaryEnvironmental groups not happy with pickWASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush picked Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne on Thursday to be his new interior secretary, selecting a pro-development Western Republican to push for more oil and gas drilling from the Gulf of Mexico to Alaska's North Slope. snip: "During his career in Congress, Gov. Kempthorne earned a paltry 1 percent lifetime LCV score. Enough said," declared Tony Massaro, a senior vice president of the group. Todd True of Earthjustice law firm said that as Idaho's governor, Kempthorne "led the charge to strip protection from 60 million acres of America's last wild forests and he's consistently fought against protection for wildlife like grizzly bears and salmon." http://www.cnn.com/2006/POLITICS/03/16/kempthorne.bush.ap/index.html |