Willamette River United Act

We heard U.S. Rep. Darlene Hooley was going to be floating down the Willamette River this week and wrote about it in advance in this week's EW. But is seems some anti-war activists were more interested in pushing their cause than in hearing about Hooley's proposed legislation to direct fed bucks to river towns for various improvement programs. One anonymous Corvallis protester left us a message saying he was "very offended that she would not even discuss the central issue of our times."

OK, but Hooley's a poor target for protesters. She opposed the war back in 2002. She voted for the vetoed emergency spending bill last spring that included a timetable for withdrawal. More recently she has supported legislation that calls for withdrawal, and bans permanent military bases in Iraq.

Let's not belittle her efforts to spend some federal money on local projects that improve our environment and our connections to the Willamette River.