330 sLAde goRton: A hALf centuRy in poLitics
area had been appropriated by the federal government in 1943 as a secu-
rity buffer for its A-bomb project. Patty Murray desperately wanted it
designated a national monument. Her attempts at achieving a compro-
mise between the counties and conservationists had all failed. Gorton was
siding with irrigators and property rights advocates, fighting a vociferous
battle to stave off federal control. Resorting once again to a rider, he said the
administration’s plan was indifferent to the real-world needs of farmers.^20
Babbitt promised to make “every provision I reasonably can” to give
locals a say in managing the monument. Gorton scoffed. But no rider
could stop them now. Idaho Congresswoman Helen Chenoweth-Hage
shared his chagrin, fuming, “This president is engaging in the biggest
land grab since the invasion of Poland.” Using the Antiquities Act of 1906
with a vigor that might have “dee-lighted!” Teddy Roosevelt, one of Gor-
ton’s heroes, Clinton had designated nearly 4 million acres of land in the
West as national monuments. On June 9, 2000, he added 200,000 more,
sending Al Gore to make the announcement in a state that might prove
crucial to his veep’s hopes for the presidency. Gorton predicted the photo-
op would make page one of The New York Times.^21
While the greens were pillorying him, Gorton glowered that they
showed their true colors by ignoring his “40-year track record” of environ-
mental activism, including billboard-control legislation, King County’s
landmark Forward Thrust initiatives and higher vehicle fuel-economy
standards. From his seat as chairman of the Interior appropriations sub-
committee, he had secured $10 million for the Mountains to Sound Green-
way project and was the major architect of a land-exchange along Inter-
state 90. Now he was looking for at least $8 million to help a conservation
partnership protect 16,000 acres of privately held timber land in the Cas-
cades. Long Live the Kings, a group dedicated to salmon and steelhead
restoration, said Gorton had appropriated tens of millions for salmon re-
covery. Congressman Brian Baird, a Democrat from Vancouver, criticized
the Sierra Club’s TV ads for not crediting Gorton for his work to preserve
land in the Columbia River Gorge.^22
In June a senior Sierra Club official felt obliged to stand next to Gorton
at a news conference as the senator announced his plan to push higher
emissions standards for sport-utility vehicles. Bill Arthur, the club’s North-
west regional director, was unimpressed. “His record is pathetic. Every
six years he puts on the green lipstick and tries to get a date with the
public.” The tribes’ attack ads featured environmental themes, leading off
with a charge that Gorton had “bargained away our state’s natural beauty
to polluters.”^23