Craig Blasted At UI For Stand On Forests

U.S. Sen. Larry Craig was grilled about his stance on forest health and the budget during a forum at the University of Idaho Thursday.

The Idaho Republican’s brief stop in Moscow was part of a statewide bus tour that began Wednesday.

Craig, who is running against Democrat Walt Minnick of Boise, has visited cities including Payette, Weiser, Midvale, Council, New Meadows, Grangeville, Stites, Kooskia, Kamiah and Orofino.

At the law college courtroom, Moscow resident Wade Gruhl, 27, said Craig has behaved “shamefully” when it comes to his position on forest health.

Gruhl also chastised Craig for voting to perpetuate a wartime defense budget during peacetime and asked how he could call himself a fiscal conservative.

“I don’t sell my soul to anybody. I never have and I never will,” Craig said.

Craig said when he first went to Congress in 1980 there was an underfunded military budget and he worked to replenish that money. By 1986, defense was overfunded, and by 1991 and 1992 the country bottomed out in defense spending. And because the current situation shows defense is underfunded, that money is again being increased, he said.

Responding to Gruhl’s concerns over the forest industry, Craig said there are areas in the United States that grow trees and grow them well, including Idaho.

“I have been watching the forest industry for at least 30 years,” and since then it has improved at least 150 percent, he said.

Craig said science is helping the industry become more sensitive than it ever has been.

Craig said the logging industry supports a large chunk of Idaho’s economy and told Gruhl “it builds houses that someday you might live in.”