Republicans would never play politics--certainly not over a lighthouse...

[Bertha Venation]

From the Independent Weekly: "How a conservative congressman turned a contest for ownership of a historic Outer Banks lighthouse into a tangled tale of political intrigue," by Barbara Solow. http://indyweek.com/durham/2003-11-19/cover.html

To paraphrase a favorite film, Rep. Walter Jones is a boil on the butt of North Carolina.

<snip>
The lighthouse was owned by the U.S. Coast Guard, which, as technology diminished the role lighthouses play in navigation, has been looking for new owners to maintain historic beacons. When Currituck's lighthouse was declared government surplus, the Manteo-based Outer Banks Conservationists (OBC) and the county both applied to the federal government to become caretaker.

Republican Jones--the author of "freedom fries" legislation and a more recent bill aimed at ending "liberal bias" on public college campuses--immediately jumped in on the county's side, bringing all his political resources to bear. He has painted the conservationists--the group that has been maintaining it for the past 13 years--as an outside organization with "liberal" backers and demanded inquiries by the Department of Homeland Security and even the White House.

His exhortations have found a receptive audience in Currituck, where county commissioners have been eager to transform the lighthouse site into a theme park. County leaders enthusiastically took up the cause, purchasing TV ads and a Web site under the banner of "Save Our Light." Patriotism has been invoked (one county commissioner asserted that giving the lighthouse to the nonprofit was akin to giving the Empire State building to Iraq), as has party loyalty.

"After all of the public effort by you and Walter Jones," wrote Currituck Republican Party Chairman Jim Edsall in a July e-mail to county leaders, "if the lighthouse is not given to Currituck County, it will call into question the effectiveness of our party."
<snip>

I work w/ one of the attorneys helping Outer Banks Conservationists. It was a fascinating struggle -- fascinating and repulsive.

for reference, archived thread http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=830679

[tigereye]

1. incredible

playing politics over a lighthouse... as a lighthouse afficianado, the thought of turning a lighthouse area into a theme park is very disturbing. And saying that preventing it is an anti-American act is just insane.

[Bertha Venation]

2. a little mix-up

It's not preventing the theme park that was anti-American. Turning the lighthouse over to its current (for 20 years) caretakers -- that's what would've been anti-American.

The guys who cried "anti-American" were the ones who WANTED the lighthouse for a theme park.

The article is long but a worthy read. It's an eye-opener.