Yesterday, Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne was challenged by Glenn Beck on CNN about why he listed the polar bear as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. Kempthorne responded:
Well, I’ll tell ya, unfortunately I have to follow the law.
Kempthorne caught himself and added, “Or fortunately.” After highlighting his record trying to cripple the Endangered Species Act as a Republican senator from Idaho, Kempthorne said with a smirk, “I cannot ignore the law. I have a Constitutional requirement to, uh, uphold the law.” Watch it:
Kempthorne’s interview with Beck, a global warming denier obsessed with the ferocity of polar bears, is only the latest in a long string of exclusive Bush administration interviews with right-wing sympathizers.

Republicans hates laws. Worse than that, they hate the previous generations of Americans who passed laws. Hopefully this will make a good sound bite in an election.
May 17th, 2008 at 9:48 amThis is a terrible video
May 17th, 2008 at 9:50 amYeah, it is a horrible video. And yes, repugs hate that they have a Constitutional responsibilty to uphold the law.
May 17th, 2008 at 10:03 amFollowing the law is generally a hardship for Republicans.
May 17th, 2008 at 10:04 amWhen people like Beck and Kempthorne call themselves conservative you know its a lie, I wish they would just say what they mostly resemble: Earth haters
May 17th, 2008 at 10:09 amwhy does it say “follow the courts” now?
May 17th, 2008 at 10:13 amGeez another Bush cronie who feels he is above the law. Republican party the Arrogant party. They just don’t see it. They really think it is about polar bears and can’t see that the polar bear is just one indicator of man’s continuing destruction of the planet. The answer from the Christian Right is more prayer, oh, and send them more money.
May 17th, 2008 at 10:23 amRethugs generally are contemptuous of environmental law, but this video is worse than a cheap ninja overdub from chinese to farsi.
May 17th, 2008 at 10:26 amLooks like the clip has been recut to appear to say “follow the courts”. Pretty sloppy job of editing. More GOP revisioning history?
May 17th, 2008 at 10:35 amLooks like the clip has been recut to appear to say “follow the courts”. Pretty sloppy job of editing. More GOP revisioning history?
Retracted.
Just a lousy clip poorly recorded, compressed and uploaded.
May 17th, 2008 at 10:39 amPlastic Man is the whole country’s problem now, not just Idaho’s. Hahahahahahahahahahahahaaaaa!!!!
May 17th, 2008 at 10:43 amThanks Z, for foisting this moron on the nation! I know you voted for him….to get the hell out of your home state!
May 17th, 2008 at 10:45 amWhy does Kemp Dickthorne hate the planet?
May 17th, 2008 at 10:46 amRUC, I was so happy for Plastic Man when he got his new job! Except, we now have Plastic Man 2.0 in our new Governor, Butch Otter. Ugh.
May 17th, 2008 at 10:47 amIt wouldn’t be a terrible thing to clap Glenn “The Aryan” Beck in stocks for 24 hours.
May 17th, 2008 at 10:48 amThat wouldn’t be a bad idea for all the Bushevik/Rightie fhuktards…
@ # 13, RUCerious Says:Why does Kemp Dickthorne hate the planet?
May 17th, 2008 at 10:46 am
Are You Serious?
May 17th, 2008 at 10:50 amcuz that’s where the smart money plays…follow the sheckels, the dinero, the loot…
Republican idiots cannot seem to understand that the plight of the polar bear is an indicator similar to a canary in a mine.
May 17th, 2008 at 10:52 amWhat shocks me is that a BushCo minion actually admitted that he’s supposed to follow the law.
That’s new for them, isn’t it?
May 17th, 2008 at 11:23 amTP: Please correct your typo in the headline lead.
Should be “Inferior Secretary…”
Thank you.
May 17th, 2008 at 11:31 amTed Kennedy has been rushed to the hospital with stroke like symptoms.
May 17th, 2008 at 11:39 amA Bush crime family member, who,”unfortunately, he has to follow the law…” What a bizarre concept: funny, Bush and Cheney are both above the law, what’s so different about this bird? The law is a terrible thing to waste…
Ship the lot of them down to Paraguay come January 2009…
May 17th, 2008 at 11:42 amBasically they want to drill on the north slope for oil, yet theirs probably only 13 years worth of oil at 5% of our required oil. Its better to leave that oil in the ground for strategic reasons.
This here now, me me me, profit rape pillage, mine mine mine and drain the earth now screw you all leaves little for the future
May 17th, 2008 at 11:43 amStrictly speaking this guy is an incompetent. I mean what kind of sycophantic, boot licking Bush appointee gives in and follows the law? It is like he did not even TRY to make the usual Bush Admin effort to lie, subvert science and some how get some taxpayer money into the hands of a Republican kiss-ass. Frankly I am disappointed.
May 17th, 2008 at 11:45 amWell, I’ll tell ya, unfortunately I have to follow the law.
Well , seeing that you’re a Republican , that would actually be a 1st
May 17th, 2008 at 11:49 am…………
BECK (on Polar Bears): “They eat people! For the love of Pete, they’re big, angry bears. They eat people. Not that I say we go out and kill all of them, but I mean, it doesn’t seem to be a problem here. Senator, I can’t take the — I can’t take the lies anymore!”
errh-hrrrmm:
Churchill, Manitoba, the “Polar Bear Capital of the World,” was established in 1717. Since that time, only two townspeople have ever been killed by polar bears, despite numerous encounters–one in 1968 and one in 1983.
May 17th, 2008 at 12:06 pmThis here now, me me me, profit rape pillage, mine mine mine and drain the earth now screw you all leaves little for the future.
Sounds like Daffy Duck in AliBABA Bunny at the final scene:
http://www.theclassictoons.com/6/ali-baba-bunny/
Scroll and watch till the end from the 5:30 mark
“Consequences, Schmonsquences, as long as I’m rich”
[I fu(king LOVE the internet]
May 17th, 2008 at 12:16 pmAt the speed of a thought I can re-kindle a brain state.
Dirk? You have got to be kidding me! Well I suppose it is a little better than Rusty Kempthorne or Chip Kempthorne.
May 17th, 2008 at 12:23 pmCan Kempthorne and Beck be cell mates in the CLOSEST PRISON???
I’m sorry, that should be MENTAL INSTITUTION!
May 17th, 2008 at 1:05 pm5th Estate Says:
BECK (on Polar Bears): “They eat people! For the love of Pete, they’re big, angry bears. They eat people. Not that I say we go out and kill all of them, but I mean, it doesn’t seem to be a problem here. Senator, I can’t take the — I can’t take the lies anymore!”
Colbert is funnier with his bear “Threat Down” skit.
May 17th, 2008 at 1:17 pmBeck is just drool-dropping pathetic, as usual.
Hey, Zooey,
May 17th, 2008 at 1:46 pmSorry for my density, but why Plasticman? I know he routinely scored 0% from the League of Conservation Voters, but can’t find anything about your local nickname.
And it is this same right wing neo-fascist corporate media that destroyed Hillary Clinton’s campaign with near total negative coverage going back almost a full year, which also boosted Obama’s campaign (but now that Clinton’s political obit is written, they’ve turned on Obama, currently known as “the appeaser” to Nazi’s).
May 17th, 2008 at 3:50 pmOur elections are run from the editor’s and publisher’s offices of the major television networks and newspapers.
Prediction: John McCain will be the next president of the USA.
It is ‘Unfortunate’ that the Bush Administration and Republicans can’t bring themselves to follow the law.
May 17th, 2008 at 4:10 pmSome LUNATIC kassandrasduplex Says:
“Prediction: John McCain will be the next president of the USA.”
BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Oh Stop, please, you embarass yourself.
BHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Thanks for the belly-laugh though, I needed that.
May 17th, 2008 at 4:30 pmCan any of you trolls out there,tell me why if drilling in the
May 17th, 2008 at 6:24 pmANWR is so IMPORTANT and VITAL to our National Security,then why was for years the oil recovered,sent down the pipeline to Prince William Sound and then sold directly to Japan?
We NEED to add INTELLIGENT Republicans to the Endangered Species Act . . .
May 17th, 2008 at 7:54 pmDamn laws. I mean without them we could’ve decimated the wildlife and ruined the ecosystem causing havoc and natural upheaval that would’ve probably caused the end of the human race or caused us to scurry underground where thousands of years from now we would evolved into the Morlocks. But noooooooo … we have laws to protect animals, the environment, human rights and people. Like I said: Damn laws
May 17th, 2008 at 8:59 pm