Just in case you’re curious on what Doc Hastings’s final fights are all about…

Wind Farms versus Eagles.

An environmental conundrum, I can assure you.  Harness the Wind, or let the eagle soar?
Oh, and… the never ending thing about Hanford… which will be there after his successor finally decides to retire in 20 years.

Things to ponder.

But Hastings, who announced recently that he won’t seek re-election after 10 terms, leaves a much more polarized Congress than he entered.

That’s, um, with the “Republican Revolution” of 1994.  Which was all cream puffs, if I recall right.

He was rated the House’s 72nd most conservative member by the National Journal in 2009, just before the tea party wave election of 2010. By 2013, he was ranked 175th most conservative.

Hey.  Let’s compare the political climate of the House for other retiring Representatives… John Dingell, who… has been there for… a while.

Rush Holt is retiring.  He is noted for having beaten a computer on Jeopardy.

There is no interesting piece of trivia for retiring Congress critter Doc Hastings.  Unless being played by a black man, accidentally, on Saturday Night Live counts?

I am curious on this sort of automatic comment.

The big news out of Congressman Doc Hastings on the matter of the shutdown has been that he has kept his mouth closed for as long as possible.  Eventually we do see that he is interviewed in local media, and I see that he keeps some kind of half hearted standard line — “Republicans just want to talk“.

From there, we see that from the chairman perch Hastings has in the Congress, he is basically required by partisan mandate to do this.  Hearings.  Into the government shutdown of parks.  Why, or why were these Parks barricaded?  And shut down?  With people — people who are very photogenic — bursting about to get into them.  Retired veterans coming to see monuments honoring our veterans.  Shut down out of these parks.  During a… um… government shut down.

Hastings, the chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, charged the Obama administration has unnecessarily closed parks and barricaded parks to make the shutdown as painful and visible as possible.
“The actions of the Obama administration have sullied our great national park system,” Hastings said.

Yes, this is called “Political Grandstanding”.  The further implications of this charge come in with a thread I’ve seen from the very start of this from Republicans — “The public will turn on Obama and the Democrats if they are seen making political points off of this” — which, in the case of this whole fiasco, the problem here is the Democrats would have to go out of their way not to do this.

Meanwhile, here’s moveon dot org.   Apparently they ran into the office of Doc Hastings Whatever pointless exercise they feel they have to go with, I guess.  From there we get this letter to the Yakima Herald, none of it I particularly believe…

Doc has reinvented himself as a tea party hack, tone deaf to the concerns of his district, uninterested in orderly governance

No, if this were really the case he would have been shouting from the rooftops instead of remaining as mum as possible at the outstart.  [Update: further evidence, of sorts.  Doc Hastings joined the assortment of “Republican Establishments” to get the Debt Ceiling raised and the looming default stopped.  In other words, he’s secure in his position and not worried about a primary from the right.]

The comments are amusing.

Martha, if you don’t like Doc (and I am not a fan) instead of publicly whining, get someone with half a brain (D or R) to run against him. 4th district Dem’s haven’t ran a serious candidate against him in a decade….

No.  Bluntly put, publicly whining is the only way to go.   That and keep your distance from your minority party perch.  Though, I would be curious to see if Hastings would retire if his party slid back into the minority.

Interesting phrase here:
Murray and Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., have passed in the Senate legislation to protect the Middle Fork-Snoqualmie under the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, and to put 22,000 additional acres of wild country in eastern King County into the Alpine Lakes Wilderness.
“We’re waiting to see what happens in the House,” she said.  A wilderness-averse Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, did permit a hearing on the Middle Fork-Alpine Lakes legislation.  But the committee has yet to pass out the bill.

One item for consideration on that score:
Two… He’s complaining about road closures in Naches.  To which I can say… hm… except, it’s notable what a commenter springs us up with.
Gotta close those roads – can’t have the illegals planting crops and killing people for accidentally walking up on them. Oh…wait……..that’s right. Illegals OWN Yakima. Guess they should deal with that one, too.
I think this is single-issue voter.  Probably a single issue person, for that matter.

But the big issue on the plate, that which everyone wants to know… which will be coming up in Town Hall meetings from Republican districts all across the nation… when Republicans trudge before their constituents… er… Impeachment?

Well, this is weird.  It’s a Saturday Night Live parody.  From last May.  On the Benghazi Hearings.  Tell me what’s wrong with this picture.

Representatives Doc Hastings, Daniel Issa and Trey Gowdy (Keenan Thompson, Bill Hader and Taran Killam) oversee the hearings. Issa first expresses disdain that the (liberal) media, with the exception of FOX news, has largely overlooked the importance of the hearings.
The first witness is Jodi Arias (Nasim Fedrad). Rep. Hastings opines that she’s been brought in as a ploy to increase ratings. Rep. Issa says his comments are hurtful, adding “Do you have any idea how hard it was to book her, especially this week?” Rep. Gowdy asks her if she knows what happened at Bhenghazi, and of course she has no idea. Rep. Hastings asks, “What’s next? The guy from Cleveland who kept all those women in his basement?” Sure enough, it’s Ariel Castro (Bobby Moynihan).

No, that does not sound like Doc Hastings.  Being a Republican and all that.

 … We can watch the clip here.

… That is … um… Doc Hastings, sitting on the left.   Played by  Kenan Thompson.  The … um… black man.

He’s actually playing  Elijah E. Cummings, apparently.

… Did anyone notice?  Other than Representative Hastings?

… Probably just honored someone noticed him.

As always the comedy comes piling in on this facebook page.  Reagan… “Freedom just a generation away” quote; “Please Impeach Obama”…  AND…

SNL’s error may be more of a service than you know. This will get picked up now..

It’s been 3 months.  No one noticed then; nobody notices now.  Even though “Saturday Night Live” and “SNL” are instant google phrases when you put in “Doc Hastings”.  Nobody thinks Doc Hastings is a black man.  Sorry.

Hm.  Gotta kill the Sea lions in order to save the salmon.  Familiar enough story.

Rep. Doc Hastings argued in a heated House subcommittee hearing Thursday that stepping up lethal means against predatory California sea lions could protect the Northwest salmon populations.

I guess it’s like the Birds versus Cats fight.  The winner is whichever lobby is stronger.   (The comment winner for this article are the birds.)

Opponents of the bill argued that the Marine Mammal Protection Act already grants local authorities appropriate action to safeguard the local fish species, saying that there was no demonstrative threat that numbers of the salmon population were falling below what was acceptable by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The never-ending assault by Doc Hastings to destroy every species competing for the same prey as the humans with the same 19th Century mentality endemic to every CONservative traitor occupying seats in government.  Wolves, sea lions, coyotes, mountain lions, prairie dogs, ad nauseam preyed upon by the human predators who are responsible for the demise of the very species these stupid dolts claim to protect. […]

Hastings is one of the worst remaining CONservative Republican traitors joined with his fellow Republicans and DINOs led by Obama literally destroying our governing system through the phony “sequestration”.  He should resign or be recalled to end his traitorous acts against our Constitutional Republic and all human rights and democracy contained therein.

Hastings then went on to argue that wolves should be shot to protect deer and elk populations, and polar bears eradicated to protect seals. He further stated that bans on the international sale of tiger parts and the pelts of other large cats should be lifted to protect numerous species of wildlife from these beasts, and shark finning should be resumed to protect tuna and other economically important fish.

Three… two… one.  Bring in other issues.

Left unmentioned was Republican efforts to lift restrictions on eliminating the top predator that is the true cause of the decline of these species, Homo Sapiens. This would be accomplished not only through direct means such as easing gun restrictions and “stand your ground” laws, but also through the far more effective methods of allowing unrestricted resource extraction and unlimited pollution.

And no, I don’t much like this either:

House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) and other GOP lawmakers are pushing legislation to block looming Interior Department regulations that govern the oil-and-gas “fracking” on public lands.
The bill is highly unlikely to become law but it signals ongoing GOP political pushback against the rules, which critics say are not needed and will create costly red tape.
The measure introduced Thursday by Rep. Bill Flores (R-Texas), Hastings and three others will be the subject of a July 25 House Natural Resources Committee hearing. It’s called the “Protecting States’ Rights to Promote American Energy Security Act.”
It would prevent Interior from enforcing regulations on hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” in states that that already have their own rules or permit requirements.
The bill explicitly says Interior must defer to state rules even if they are less restrictive than federal mandates.

But this comment is a bit much, isn’t it?

The kkk-republiCANT-gop’pers are just sucking big-oils-pipe for political donations at the detriment of the American People, they are heartless with no morals when it comes to their greed and political lust…perry saves a few lives amongst so many unregulated factory workers deaths and the gop kills millions by letting fracking run wild…So Sad, So Very Sad…

“kkkrepublicantgop’pers”?  Don’t really want to be taken seriously.  Sure.  “State’s Rights”.

Even if you just roll your eyes.

GOP lawmakers and oil-and-gas industry groups say that state-level oversight of fracking – the method enabling the U.S. oil-and-gas production boom – protects the environment and public health.
But Interior officials, noting that some states have tougher oversight than others, say baseline federal standards are needed to oversee fracking in order to protect groundwater and other resources.

Because… really.   Environmental regulation should just be left to … the governor of Texas.

A correction, from hazy previous postings.  Floyd Paxton never ran for Senate, or governor.

So here it is is, his electoral history, for the man who invented the bread clip — those weird little things that snap bags together.

11/08/1966 9,585 (7.64%)  (running as a “conservative” in the general election.)
9/15/1970 10,245 (13.15%) (Republican in a “blanket primary)
9/19/1972 28,851 (25.69%) (Republican in a “blanket primary)
9/17/1974  17,872 (25.61%) (Republican in a “blanket primary) … He did beat this guy, to take the Republican nomination.
11/4/1974  59,249 (41.09%) … a general election defeat.

If there’s any more than this, I would be interested to know.

Interestingly enough, dipping into the New York Times archives and he (a regional president of the John Birch Society) had offered his employees a day off should Goldwater win the Presidency.  It was not to be.

All right, because I see people land on this site when looking for Doc Hastings…

“Doc Hastings voting record”…

Well, right now, he’s organizing a team of congress critters to examine the Endangered Species Act.

And which species we might as well knock off the list.

I imagine he’d want to shorten the list as far as he could.

Special note on the congress critters he’s working with here.

Members of the Endangered Species Act Working Group include:

Rep. Doc Hastings, R- Wash.

Rep. Cynthia Lummis, R- Wyo.
Rep. Mark Amodei, R-Nev.
Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah
Rep. Doug Collins, R-Ga.
Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md.
Rep. Bill Huizenga, R-Mich.
Rep. James Lankford, R-Okla.
Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer, R-Mo.
Rep. Randy Neugebauer, R-Texas
Rep. Steve Southerland, R-Fla.
Rep. Glenn Thompson, R-Pa.

Rep. David Valadao, R-Calif.

Not particularly bi-partisan.

All right.  Now I can slumber on this topic for another month.

Hm.  Here’s my irregular Doc Hastings update…

… Just your random Republican representative, really.

The Headline:  Doc Hastings disputes San Juans, other National Monuments.

Question from the peanut gallery.  I fail to see the connection between his comments on the national monument in Delaware and the one in the San Juan Islands. Perhaps the author can explain this to help my critical thinking skills?

The comment that explains the reasoning is here… it is Because…

Here is the connection as I see it. Hastings is saying that if the Park Service doesn’t have the resources to keep White House tours going, then it doesn’t have resources for new National Monuments (using the one in Delaware as an example (while taking the opportunity to take some pot shots at the Delaware site)). The next paragraph claims that Hastings’ comment was bogus because the new National Monuments will not administered by the Park Service (using the San Juans arrangement as an example).

It’s that thing where you need to keep the federal government away from killing wild horses.  And the like.

At least with this case he has a sympathetic oyster farmer to protect.

In other commentary from the world of ineffectual blog comment bloviation… :

BO should make a Doc Hastings Monument to Ossified Stupidity

Why have so many Republicans become angry reactionaries?

Doc Hastings is an absolute idiot. He ran on ‘term-limits’, yet is in his 5th or 6th term. Votes pug party line every time-doesn’t know the meaning of critical thinking and negotiation.

Yeah, well, if you live in his district you can vent your frustration by voting in the 40 percent who will be casting their lot with the opponent.

In other Hastings news… we get the usual sequesterian line, blame for all cuts anywhere will be placed on Obama because some spending remains for some other things they have always had their eyes on gutting.

Now move along and pick out some other random congress critter in the majority party to guage the current lines and activities of.  Because eventually you kind of get tired of poking at the more showy Michele Bachmanns and Steve Stockmans of the Congressional body.