Enviros wolf sellout may be for naught

But, we're seeing teh stupid exposed.

Western Congressmen are already trying to gut a deal brokered between the Obama Administration and environmental groups on how much protection, and at what administrative level, wolfs in Greater Yellowstone would get.

I blogged about what was wrong with that settlement here. At the time, I said I could understand the fear that Gang Green, and even a group like Center for Biological Diversity, more willing to legally confront the government and less suck-up to the Democratic Party, had that Congress would go further.

Well, that fear was real. And, this could be yet something else to which a budget settlement is made hostage, too.

That said, a group that did NOT sign off on the agreement gets it right, and always had it right:

"From the outset, it was clear that nobody from those Congressional offices had made any promises," said Summer Nelson with the Western Watersheds Project. "This settlement is not going to appease them."

Normally, someone like Kieran Suckling of Center for Biological Diversity is this smart, too. Why he and his group signed off on the agreement in the first place, I don't know. Ditto for other non-Gang Green groups.

Seriously, though. Signing "on the premise" of a Congressional deal is NOT the same as signing "on the agreement" of a deal.

Especially when it's not just Congress we have to worry about:

It is unclear whether the Obama administration will take a stand against the bills to give the settlement time to work. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar told Tester he supported the Montana senator's legislation during a March 9 appearance before the Senate Appropriations Committee.

It's clear that the Obama Administration, while more environmentalist that W's, is less so, overall, than Clinton's. Yes, the EPA is doing some good things, but on species protection? Yeesh. Kenny Boy Salazar was going to disappoint from the day he was appointed.