We hear a frantic clucking sound

 
The idea of former Rep. Richard Pombo representing a district that includes Yosemite and Stanislaus national forests and the San Joaquin River from its headwaters to the Mendota Pool on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley revivifies the ancient political cliche about foxes in henhouses. Pombo, former chairman of what was known during the "Gingrich Revolution" in Congress as the House Resources Committee (its former name, Natural Resources Committee restored after Pombo and the Republican majority were defeated in 2006), operating out of his family's Pombo Real Estate Farms in Tracy, successfully killed funding year after year for the CalFed process to try to fix the Sacramento/San Joaquin Delta; supported three bills to gut the Endangered Species Act; tried to put a new freeway to the Bay Area through his family's land; and was defeated in his former seat because constituents were sick of his corrupt involvement with Jack Abramoff and Indian casinos...and that's just for starters.
Pombo proposed legislation to sell about a quarter of National Park Service land to mining companies; he advocated oil drilling at the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge; he blocked legislation to created the Wild Sky Wilderness area in Washington STate; coordinated efforts to gut the ESA with an astroturf group called Save Our Species Alliance, a front for an Oregon-based flak operation called Pac/West Communications, which hired Pombo after he lost reelection; the League of Conservation Voters identified Pombo in 2005 as one of the "Dirty Dozen" most environmentally hostile members of Congress; Rolling Stone Magazine described him as an "Enemy of the Earth;" and in 2006, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a liberal watchdog group, named Pombo one of the 17 most corrupt members of the House.
With Pombo back in Congress, we could expect to see a bill to "give Yosemite back to the Indians" (and corporate gaming interests). We could see Pombo leading the Valley congressional delegation in a shrieking, corporate-funded, incessant campaign to assert and preserve utterly fictitious "private property rights" in federally subsidized, state-governed water from the Delta to west-side agribusiness. We could expect him to lead a campaign to deny the very existence of heavy metals and salts in the drainage of west-side agriculture.
Some say, on the other hand, it would better to have Pombo out in public view than sneaking around the backrooms, black bag in hand.
Badlands Journal editorial board

12-30-09
Fresno Bee
Pombo may seek Radanovich seat...John Ellis
http://www.fresnobee.com/updates/v-print/story/1764029.html
After Richard Pombo narrowly lost a 2006 re-election bid in the 11th Congressional District to Democrat Jerry McNerney, he went back to work on his Tracy cattle ranch.
Now, the 48-year-old Republican is thinking about a return to Congress — in George Radanovich’s 19th Congressional District.
“I started getting phone calls last night,” Pombo said today. “Obviously, I haven’t made my mind up on it at all, but it is something that I am considering.”
Already, former Fresno Mayor Jim Patterson and state Sen. Jeff Denham, R-Atwater, have said they will seek to replace Radanovich, and Fresno City Council Member Larry Westerlund has been calling potential supporters about a run.
But the addition of Pombo would add a whole new dimension to the race. He was a seven-term lawmaker in Washington D.C. who rose to become chairman of the House Resources Committee, which writes environmental laws.
Earlier this year, Fresno County agricultural interests frustrated with Radanovich contacted Pombo about running. Pombo said he declined at the time because he did not want to challenge a sitting Republican.
But with Radanovich’s announcement Tuesday that he will retire after this term, Pombo said he is now seriously considering a run for the seat.
“I don’t miss the politics,” Pombo said. “I miss the policy side of it. Obviously California needs some help.”
Pombo said he expects to make a decision within in the next week.