Land-rights advocates try to block Paulson
Despite the overwhelming approval of mainstream Republicans and Wall Street insiders of President Bush's new treasury secretary pick, there is a budding campaign among conservative land-rights activists to find a senator who will place a hold on the nomination of Henry Paulson.
"He's a lefty Nature Conservancy nut," says one conservative, outside-the-White House adviser who is part of an effort to lobby western GOP senators to fight the nomination. Of concern to the activists is Paulson's position as chair of the Nature Conservancy and his move to donate Chilean land owned by Goldman Sachs, which he currently heads, to the Wildlife Conservation Society.
That donation is just one of several complaints land-owner rights groups and those opposed to environmental groups have against Paulson.
Among the others: They want him to state at confirmation hearings that he is not a global warming zealot, even though the Nature Conservancy and Goldman have issued global warming warnings. Also, his wife's contributions to Democrats, including Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, are starting to worry some Republicans who had hoped that Bush would pick a more conservative and ideological Wall Street executive to replace outgoing Treasury Secretary John Snow.
His foes concede that there is little chance that the Senate will reject Paulson, which is why they are seeking a senator to place a "hold" on the nomination until the issues can be aired. Plains and western senators such as Oklahoma's James Inhofe are among those being targeted to place the hold.
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