This letter caught my eye a couple weeks ago. A better hack campaign letter I haven't seen in a while: http://www.timberjay.com/current.php?article=2482.

Going over this is pretty fun, but it is like analyzing the tome of a ten year old.

The writer obviously knows nothing about the BWCA. I'll let them in on a little secret...there aren't any roads. Having had some personal experience, creating roads to handle heavy equipment is not a quick process.I envision skycranes hauling in feller- bunchers. That might affect the profit margin a little. Then there was that little matter of the quality of the timber. Fallen logs, twisted snags, thousands of acres of blowdown at up to 60 tons per acre. Most of it damaged in some way. The companies buying timber have certain standards, and it doesn't include bark beetle infested pulpwood. That's a problem. Loggers need to get paid.

Next we see their endearing concern for the ecology of the place. First, the area contains some of the most fire prone vegetation in North America: conifers on rock. I can bore you with references, but suffice it to say this is one of the most naturally fire prone areas of the continent. It is a fire ecology. There is nothing out of the ordinary going on here. It was made worse by not letting fires burn there for a century. The place was meant to burn. The comment on the dying animals is hilarious, for they have been living with fire forever, and the area will now be a giant berry plantation with new, succulent growth for several decades. There will be a gain in populations for most species, and some newbies will show up.

The rest of the letter is typical party hack messaging. This is the theme the Grams campaign is trying to push up here, in vain hope that noone remembers his past, like his wifey-poo pleading guilty to violating election law: http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,44567,00.html or his sitting in the lap of the great Jesse Helms for six years.

Looking at the letter, I see a template handed out at the district repub meeting: "here's your talking points".

Don't forget who this guy really is. He'll do anything and say anything to get elected, but he is really an extremist right-winger wanting to sell everyone's soul ( and their social security)to the highest bidder.