Six Congressional Boneheads

Editorial from the St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Sunday, May 24, 1998

AMERICAN RIVERS

Missouri and Illinois have contributed six new profiles in
boneheadedness - members of Congress who vetoed the designation of
rivers in their districts as American Heritage rivers.

Last week, Rep. John Shimkus, R-Ill., joined the bipartisan roll that
includes Reps. Jim Talent, R-Chesterfield; Kenny Hulshof, R-Columbia; JoAnn Emerson, R-Cape Girardeau; Pat Danner, D-Smithville; and Ike
Skelton, D-Lexington. The bunch of them caved into a fact-free, fax war
led by the conservative property rights group Liberty Matters.

It's one thing for a member of Congress to respond to the legitimate
concerns of constituents. It's another to capitulate to the imaginings
of ideologues.

When President Bill Clinton announced the rivers program in 1997 it
sounded as innocuous as tapioca. The idea was for the federal government
to help improve the environmental health of 10 historic rivers and their
surrounding communities. Local communities would nominate rivers and
suggest ideas for improvements. The federal government would supply a
"navigator" to guide community plans through the shoals of the federal
bureaucracy.

Initially, groups like the American Farm Bureau Federation praised the
program, observing that "local community-based programs are the backbone of the initiative." Local communities signed on, including St. Louis 2004 which thinks the historic designation will help with the creation
of bike paths and greenways.

But Liberty Matters warned ominously of "aerial photography and
satellite surveillance" and dark federal motives. The Farm Bureau began
backpedaling. What used to seem bottom-up was "top-down" in the eyes of
the Illinois Farm Bureau.

The White House was flabbergasted by the misrepresentations, pointing
out that the program is 100 percent voluntary and local. No foreign
governments. No United Nations. No black helicopters. No new
regulations.

But the politicians were running for cover one step ahead of the faxes.
Reps. Hulshof and Talent wanted the Missouri River off the list. Rep.
Shimkus wanted his part of the Illinois River scratched.

Fortunately, St. Louis and the 50 communities along the Upper
Mississippi are unaffected by the congressional objections. But the
Missouri and Illinois river communities have lost out because misguided
leaders couldn't navigate the flotsam and jetsam of bogus information.