It looks too cozy in the duck blind

By Todd Wilkinson
regional columnist and author

Outdoor men and women everywhere know the bonds of friendship that develop while sitting in a duck blind, or sharing a drift boat on a trout stream, or chatting around a roaring fire at night in elk camp – the kind of camaraderie that is engendered creates memories that last a lifetime and builds allegiances which can be thicker than water. Or, in this case, oil.

Recently at Amherst College, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anton Scalia was asked about a waterfowl hunting trip he took with Vice President and part-time Jackson Hole, Wyo., resident Dick Cheney.

Mr. Scalia seemed incredulous at the pointed assertion of the question — as incredulous as he had been three years ago when asked about the highest court in the land intervening, for apparent political ends, in anointing George W. Bush president of the United States.

In the coming weeks, the Supreme Court will hear a case involving Mr. Cheney's Energy Task Force, which set national policy for energy development on western public lands after meeting, in closed door sessions, with executives, and, in some cases, major campaign contributors, from the oil, gas and coal industries.

For many months now, Mr. Cheney has fought calls from environmentalists and other public interest groups demanding that he and his staff reveal what was said or written down in those meetings.

After the breathtaking scandal at Enron — and knowing that Enron's former chief executive and major Bush-Cheney campaign contributor Ken Lay met with the Energy Task Force and made policy recommendations that were adopted by the administration — critics are implying political quid pro quos and influence peddling.

Soon, the Supreme Court will hear arguments involving attempts to force the Energy Task Force to release all of its documents and hold them up to the light of public scrutiny.

In the meantime, Mr. Cheney, who has fiercely resisted handing the documents over, went on a duck hunt with one of the justices who will be deciding the case.

In response to a suggestion at Amherst College that perhaps Justice Scalia should recuse himself from sitting in judgment over a dispute involving his hunting buddy, Mr. Scalia replied smugly: "It did not involve a lawsuit against Dick Cheney as a private individual," he said. "This was a government issue. It's acceptable practice to socialize with executive branch officials when there are not personal claims against them. That's all I'm going to say for now. Quack, quack."

It's true that looks can be deceiving, but no matter how sarcastic Mr. Scalia is (the American public is owed absolute seriousness on such matters given issues of integrity at stake), this does not look good.

It would not look good if it involved a Democrat, say, rewarding large campaign contributors with stays in the White House's Lincoln bedroom, and it does not look good now with Republicans, where it appears the Bush administration is currying favor with energy companies (and, if one wants to expand the circle of suspicion further, to companies like Mr. Cheney's former employer, Halliburton, in receiving government contracts worth billions of dollars in Iraq).

Again, this could be a tempest in a teapot and Mr. Cheney may actually be owed an apology for the insinuation. Or it could be about a kind of overt political brazenness that extends from the remote valleys of the West and Alaska being targeted for oil and gas drilling all the way to the White House. Such things happened before in Wyoming, with the federal government a century ago awarding scandalous sweetheart oil-drilling contracts at Teapot Dome.

Citizens have a right to know what members of Mr. Cheney's Energy Task Force said and were told in closed-door sessions with energy companies.

We deserve to know what deals might have been cut, how the public lands map of the U.S. was carved up, and who precisely might be enjoying enrichment.

A recent story in The New Yorker explored the fuzzy lines of ethics concerning Mr. Cheney, the Energy Task Force, and Halliburton. Retired Air Force Col. Sam Gardiner, who taught at the National War College, is quoted as saying: "The system is sick. He (Mr. Cheney) doesn't see the difference between public and private interest."

Quack, quack — ha, ha. Give Justice Scalia credit for his witty repartee, but he still hasn't told us: Are we supposed to laugh, or is this joke on us?

Writer-columnist Todd Wilkinson lives in Bozeman, Mont., and is a correspondent to a number of magazines.