OK, so Minnesota is the Land of 10,000 lakes

[mindem]

and all those lakes and streams are really important to tourism. What does Chip Cravaak, the GOP idiot who replaced Jim Oberstar do, he votes to repeal the Clean Water Act. I keep thinking that some day I will quit being shocked at the outright stupidity of these half-wits but they always manage to top themselves. How the hell is it humanly possible to be so constantly uncaring and nasty??

[iwishiwas]

1. I would be surprised if they did not do something stupid.

[RC]

2. Some day, if we survive long enough, right-dinger nutery will be classified as a mental issue.

Then we will be able to do something about it.

[bulloney]

3. In Ohio, its largest inland lake--Grand Lake St Marys--has taken a hit in its tourism

because of lax enforcement of environmental regulations. The lake's watershed has some of the highest concentration of livestock and poultry in the state, but they basically let things go laissez-faire because "We can't regulate farming - it's the state's largest industry." So says the Farm Bureau and their puppet commodity and livestock organizations.

Tell that to the people whose lives and businesses have taken a big hit by the algae-choked body of water that's now Grand Lake St. Marys. They're working to clean it up by spending millions on alum and other treatments.

[mindem]

5. The never think of the consequences

of their deregulation fixation. They are so driven by their twisted ideology they can't think straight. Time and time again the put the well being of their party ahead of the well being of their constituents -- you'd think somewhere along the way moderate repukes would start speaking up and start reining them in.

[Odin2005]

14. That sounds like it's because the Big Ag lobby is more powerful than the Tourism Lobby, there.

It's much more evenly matched, here. Most of the best farming land is away from the area with the most touristy lakes, anyway, so those 2 groups tend to not come into conflict here unless some duck-hunting group gets pissed off at the farmers for some reason.

The big confrontation in recent years in Minnesota has been between the tourism industry and the mining industry. There is lots of copper, gold, silver and heavy metals in the ancient 2.7 billion-year-old rocks of north-central Minnesota, but we have a lot undeveloped wilderness up there, including a national park.

[LuvNewcastle]

4. Looks like a contributor wants to pollute

one of those lakes. I'm sure that's why he voted that way. Republicans exist to make rich people richer. The only time they vote for environmental conservation, it's because some company has done something egregious to his district and the people are hopping mad over it. Unfortunately, that's also true with too many Democrats.

[Brickbat]

6. I live in the Fighting Eighth and I am FURIOUS that I have to put up with Chip Cravaack. He is such

a nightmare.

[jwirr]

7. Me also. This is terrible. When is it we can hope to get him out of there? nt

[mindem]

8. I think I saw somewhere

that the dem who had the seat before Oberstar - from Ely I think - just announced he was going to run.

[Brickbat]

12. I think you're thinking of Rick Nolan, who held the 6th for a couple of terms before getting

fed up with politics under Nixon.

The venerable John Blatnik had the 8th before Oberstar.

[hfojvt]

9. In about 16 months, still a very long time

lots of people are listed as potential candidates, like this guy http://www.duluthmn.gov/clerk/council/ccmembersbios/ccmemberanderson.cfm
or this woman, who appears to be running, but doesn't seem that strong to me, since she ran in the 6th district in 2010.
http://tarrylclark.com/splash

politics1 lists several others as well.

[Brickbat]

13. I will not vote for Tarryl Carpetbagger. And I know a lot of other people won't, either.

[hfojvt]

15. I think that would be a problem for anybody

with only two years in the district. That's why I thought the Duluth guy looked better, particularly as an at-large commissioner.

[mac56]

10. me too, furious too

[Odin2005]

11. That's going to piss off the rich conservatives with lake homes here.

The wealthy Paleo-Conservatives here tend to very pro-environment because they don't want "their" lakes dirtied.