Environmentalists' opposition won't derail confirmation, senator says

By Ellen Miller
Special to the Denver Rocky Mountain News

Gale Norton will be a superb secretary of the interior no matter how tough of a confirmation fight environmentalists mount, Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell said Saturday.

"She knows how to find the balance" to manage public lands, Campbell said in a telephone interview from Tombstone, Ariz., where he is taking a short vacation, riding his favorite Harley-Davidson around the desert.

"She'll be terrific," said Campbell, who was interviewed for the job.

Although Norton's nomination came as a surprise to many, it did not to Campbell.

He said President-elect Bush is too concerned about retaining control of the Senate to appoint a sitting senator to a Cabinet post.

"If I'm in it, it's safe for the four years of his term," Campbell said of his Senate seat. "Otherwise, any Republican (Gov. Bill) Owens would appoint would have an election in two years. The Senate's at 50-50, and they wouldn't take the chance."

Campbell said he also was approached about a possible nomination as secretary of labor, but he wasn't interested.

He anticipates a brawl for Norton's confirmation in the Senate but predicts she will be confirmed.

"The enviros want only an extension of the Democratic Party at Interior, so anybody Bush appoints would get a fight," the Democrat-turned-Republican senator said. "They'd be upset no matter who it is."

He predicts Norton, a moderate, pro-choice Republican, won't antagonize Western Democratic senators.

"What the enviros want is some flaming liberal, and they're not going to get one," Campbell said. "Gale will do a terrific job."