the giAnt KiLLeRs 167
row if you want to pick for your country, pick mine.” Gorton picked Bud-
get. It would put him in the thick of things for most of his career in the
Senate, with Domenici as mentor and friend.
The son of Italian immigrants, Pietro Vichi Domenici worked in his
father’s grocery business after school. A smart, athletic boy, he earned a
degree in education from the University of New Mexico and pitched one
season for the Albuquerque Dukes, a Brooklyn Dodgers farm team. “I
had a great fast ball but walked way too many. Every now and then the
manager, who was the catcher, would get so mad he would tell them what
I was going to do so they could hit me and give me a lot of shit.” Domenici
pitched it right back, a lifelong trait. He taught math at a junior high be-
fore attending law school. Afterward, he quickly became active in politics,
heading the Albuquerque City Commission before winning election to
the Senate in 1972. Domenici managed to be a loyal Republican while
remaining tenaciously independent. “His collegial, bipartisan approach
belied a fierce determination to get his way and won admiration from all
quarters”—grudgingly from the White House.^9
Gorton shared Domenici’s concerns over deficit spending. Gorton was
for a strong military, having been a colonel in the Air Force Reserve, but
he was against giving the Pentagon a blank check. During his first term,
Gorton was frequently at odds with his president over budget priorities.
The White House found him to be an annoyingly independent thinker.
“Slade was articulate. He liked to be part of getting things done, and he
already had legislative acumen,” Domenici says. “He quickly became a
player. If I had to choose five people to bring into the back room with Bob
Dole—where 50 percent of the business is done around here—I wanted
this guy with me.”
Gorton also won a slot on the Small Business Committee and the chair-
manship of the Merchant Marine Subcommittee. Gallingly to the tribes,
he was named to the Select Committee on Indian Affairs. Early on, he
successfully sponsored an amendment to the Lacey Act, which was en-
acted in 1900 to prevent transportation of poached fish and wildlife across
state lines. Gorton’s amendment elevated violations of state or tribal fish-
eries laws to federal felonies. The move filled a law enforcement gap but
the tribes were wary. The Washington State Department of Fisheries and
the National Marine Fisheries Service had already launched a sting opera-
tion that in 1982 led to the arrest of 72 Indians for illegally catching or
selling salmon and steelhead. David Sohappy Sr., a longtime fishing
rights activist from the Yakama Tribe, and his son, David Jr., were sen-
tenced to five years in prison by Jack Tanner, the first African American