Sen. Vincent demonstrated leadership, not 'selfish betrayal'

Guest commentary:

It was interesting to read the letter from David Passieri of St. Ignatius regarding Sen. Chas Vincent carrying the bill for the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes water agreement, which was passed. He said it was political suicide for Chas due to “selfish betrayal”.

He seemed to think if one was “conservative”, they must oppose that measure. I have always thought myself as pretty conservative in many areas, except for now I hear some conservatives say that if you don’t agree with them 100 percent, then you are not a conservative. Does that mean they don’t want me ever to vote Republican, or maybe I am a Republican In Name Only? 

Are they intending to win national elections by chasing away all those “RINOs” and allow only “true” conservatives in their party? That’s a winning formula? Who defines what a true conservative is?

I do want to congratulate Sen. Vincent in him carrying this bill, and getting it passed, as unlike Mr. Passieri, we here in Lincoln County have learned what happens to us, our money and our local economy, when decisions are left to the Federal Courts, as Mr. Passieri obviously preferred. 

That was the only alternative to this bill. We here have seen the Federal Courts decide repeatedly against resource usage, and the end result would be the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco deciding the issue.

If one doesn’t think that the Ninth Circuit would probably be 100 percent on the Tribe’s side, then they have not followed the court’s decisions. We here in Lincoln County have seen how they decide, and have paid the price.

So, we should all thank Sen. Chas Vincent for avoiding this, and getting an agreement, no matter if we think it’s good or not. We can be assured that the alternative of eventually having the Ninth Circuit being the deciding body would be much worse for us all, except for the Tribes. So, even though I don’t believe that the compact is very good for us, the alternative would no doubt be much worse.

Thus, I thank Sen. Vincent for carrying this bill, as it was the best that would be able to be accomplished. I believe in representatives of the people getting things done, over the federal courts telling us what to do.

I call that leadership by Sen. Vincent, not selfish betrayal.

- Wayne Hirst,

Libby