The AMFF is probably hoping you’ve forgotten, but in what appears to be a naked money grab, the AMFF has finally announced Cheney’s appearance at a Washington D.C. fundraiser (via busterwantstofish):

Please join the AMFF on Thursday, November 12, 2009, for our Anglers All Presentation in Washington, DC.

The evening will also include an address by former Vice President Dick Cheney. Festivities begin at the Hilton in Washington, DC, at 6 p.m., and will include appetizers, wine, and dinner.

According to Buster’s Smithhammer, the cheap seats are $500; $10,000 gets you close enough to glimpse the cloven hooves.

The AMFF is free to do whatever it wants – including justifying Cheney’s appearance in some twisted manner – but then again, we’re free to suggest the AMFF has made a huge fucking mistake, and that it’s now clear the organization’s goals are separate from ours.

See you anywhere but Washington D.C., Tom Chandler.

Moments ago we spoke with Cathi Comar, the executive director of the American Museum of Fly Fishing, and learned that the Museum has gone ahead with their invitation to former Vice President Dick Cheney to attend their annual fundraiser dinner in the fall.

The decision was reached late last week but not made public until now. Cheney has accepted and will attend. Comar explained that the Museum board discussed the decision at length over the past several weeks and ultimately decided that since the Museum’s role was historical, their primary duty is to record and preserve artifacts of fly fishing history.

When asked about Cheney’s obviously negative impact on fisheries conservation, Ms. Comar replied that the Museum chooses not to take sides on political or environmental issues. “Although we work with conservation organizations,” she said, “conservation itself is outside of our role.”

The last quote is telling: “Conservation itself is outside of our role” – a statement that leads me to believe that money falls inside the museum’s “role” more than fly fishing.

And one certainly hopes Ms. Comar appreciates the irony of the museum’s focus on history; without all the desperate conservation efforts undertaken during (and prior to) the Cheney presidency era, fly fishing might well be history at this point.

Ms. Comar, know that in your pursuit of dollars and nudge-nudge, wink-wink “look who I’m standing next to” name-brand speakers, you’ve pissed off pretty much anyone who spent the last eight years fighting to reverse Cheney’s frequent assaults on our fish, wild places and water quality here in the West.

Cheney – more than any other single person – was responsible for the massive salmon kill on the Klamath in 2002 – a process outlined in the seminal Washington Post story titled Leaving No Tracks:

Cheney's 2002 Klamath Fish Kill

Law and science seemed to be on the side of the fish. Then the vice president stepped in.

First Cheney looked for a way around the law, aides said. Next he set in motion a process to challenge the science protecting the fish, according to a former Oregon congressman who lobbied for the farmers.

Because of Cheney’s intervention, the government reversed itself and let the water flow in time to save the 2002 growing season, declaring that there was no threat to the fish. What followed was the largest fish kill the West had ever seen, with tens of thousands of salmon rotting on the banks of the Klamath River.

Characteristically, Cheney left no tracks.

The Klamath case is one of many in which the vice president took on a decisive role to undercut long-standing environmental regulations for the benefit of business.

Interestingly, Marshall’s MidCurrent story suggests a letter was sent to all those who complained about the museum’s choices, but I’ve received no such letter (perhaps if I’d mailed in a donation with my complaint).

Naturally, the letter in question wholly sidesteps the issue:

In a board-approved letter to the many fly fishers who have complained about the Museum’s decision, Comar notes that the Museum has never allowed political reputations to influence its decisions about whether to include and display the fishing equipment of the various presidents or vice presidents.

The question isn’t one of simple popularity, and you’ll notice she’s equating collecting and displaying equipment with giving someone like Cheney a forum to speak.

Display some of Cheney’s gear? Fine. Historians will wonder how he could profess to enjoy the very thing he spent eight years trying to destroy.

Give him a forum to rewrite history on this subject?

You not only lost the logic train there, you lost me as a supporter. But then, since I don’t have much ability to contribute to the museum’s “role” (gathering cash), I gather my support probably doesn’t matter much.

See you anywhere but at the American Museum of Fly Fishing, Tom Chandler.

UPDATE: Buster Wants to Fish weighs in (more with killer graphics than words, but they make their point)

UPDATE: Ted Williams – who has led the protest from the start – weighs in on the latest news.

UPDATE: Alex at Hatches lists the “Top Five Cheney Exhibits” at the museum (funny stuff)

UPDATE: Eric Sharp of the Detroit Free Press weighs in (incredulously)

Williams – never shy about calling it as he sees it – put his scalpel-sharp prose to work on a satirical piece that almost had me shooting slaw dog out my nose, including the two passages I’ve excerpted below.

In the first, he’s speaking about the museum:

Then it hatched a form letter (at this writing under review by the vice president’s staff) in which it offers lengthy and incomprehensible excuses for inviting Cheney, while likening him to Jimmy Carter and Franklin Roosevelt. It then implores Cheney’s critics to “continue to support the museum and its mission.” I will certainly do so, and to prove it, I have redrafted the form letter for the museum, at no charge:

“Dear [name]: We need to generate revenue, so we searched hard and long for a guest of honor who would fill the room at our spring meeting. Finally, we hit upon Dick Cheney, arguably the most dangerous enemy of fish in our generation. What’s more, Mr. Cheney, who angles for trout in Wyoming in one of the rivers he hasn’t ruined with gas and oil extraction (which happens to run through his ranch) is an accomplished and safe fly caster. In fact, he hasn’t wounded even one of his fishing companions.

“We completely understand that applying green lipstick to this arch environmental villain, aptly dubbed ‘Darth Vader’ in fish and wildlife conservation circles, is outright whoring. But that’s the genius of our plan. This kind of prostitution is legal and no less lucrative than the standard, unlawful variety.”

Williams is not finished, and this next bit is my absolute favorite part:

“Please recall also our mission statement: ‘The American Museum of Fly Fishing promotes an understanding of and appreciation for the history, traditions, and practitioners, past and present, of the sport of fly fishing.’ You cannot deny that a major part of that history and those traditions is the systematic destruction of rivers by special interests and the politicians who front for them.

Can there be a better choice than traditional practitioner Dick Cheney—the man who gave the West the biggest fish kill it has ever seen when he attempted to wean Klamath River Chinook salmon from water, who trashed the Endangered Species Act, who virtually canceled the Clean Air and Clean Water acts, who suppressed science, who ruined the lives of dedicated resource professionals, and who ran Christine Todd Whitman out of the Environmental Protection Agency?

Want more? Read the whole article at the The Missoula Independent Online

Instead of suiting up to chase the BWO hatch I stumbled on last week, I’m stuck in the vise-like grip of the Keystone Cops of the Insulation Contractor World, who are here now – doing a job that should have been finished last week.

So who’s enjoying the benefit of all my ire?

I’m staring at an irritating story on the Ted Williams Blog about the American Fly Fishing Museum, who have apparently been asleep the last eight years while the rest of us fought tooth and nail to protect our remaining wild places from the likes of thankfully-soon-to-be-EX-VP Dick Cheney.

In a move I’d graciously label as “neuron-challenged” they’ve invited Darth Dick Cheney to be the guest of honor at their Spring meeting.

We can argue about Cheney’s politics all day long, but it’s damned difficult to defend his dismal environmental record, which included interfering with scientists doing their jobs, and singlehandedly engineering water policies which directly resulted in the largest salmon kill in recent history.

While I often reject the notion of an “old guard” vs “new guard” schism in fly fishing, this has all the earmarks of an awkward, tweedy, fly-fishing-as-old-money-and-we’re-all-tweedy-buddies feel to it.

Screw that.

Given his record (and without his fistloads of cash) Cheney would never get within a country mile of any group invested in maintaining a little wilderness filled with cold, clean water.

Invest a minute of your day on the Intertubes: contact the American Museum of Fly Fishing at this address (ccomar@amff.com, and be nice, but firm), and let them know that the salmon-killing Cheney isn’t your idea of a model fly fisherman.

As always, don’t be abusive; simply state firmly and unequivocally you think Cheney’s the wrong choice to speak.

Ms. Comar’s email is here: ccomar@amff.com. Remeber, be firm, but nice. Here’s what I wrote:

Ms. Comar:

I was distressed to hear that Dick Cheney was being considered for the museum’s Guest of Honor for the spring meeting.

As one of the fly fishermen who fought tooth and nail the last eight years to protect our coldwater fisheries from Mr. Cheney’s dismal environmental policies, I fail to grasp the logic of featuring him at an AMFF event.

Yes, he fishes, but his environmental policies have been hugely damaging to our fishing and hunting heritage, and after donating so much time and effort to fighting those policies, I feel his appearance is a slap in the face to fly fishermen all across America.

Sincerely,
Tom Chandler

See you on the Intertubes, Tom Chandler.