Senator John McCain loves to present himself as a fighter against waste and pork-barrel spending. … But his jabs at a study of grizzly bears in Montana are way off the mark.
To hear Mr. McCain tell it in his presidential stump speech and campaign ads, the government has squandered $3 million (actually more like $5 million) to study the DNA of bears in Montana. “I don’t know if it was a paternity issue or criminal,” he jokes, “but it was a waste of money.”
A report by Joel Achenbach in The Washington Post makes clear, however, that this was not really a study of bear DNA but a study that used bear DNA to determine whether the grizzly bear was still a threatened species or had rebounded. Mr. McCain and his staff either failed to realize that or chose to distort the facts for political effect. Either choice is not encouraging.
The intent of the study, whose results have not yet been published, is to estimate the size and makeup of the grizzly bear population in a vast region, encompassing Glacier National Park, five wilderness areas, parts of five national forests and other public and private lands in a largely roadless, mountainous terrain. Scientists collected hairs snagged by strategically placed barbed wire to extract DNA that could identify how many bears had passed by, their gender and unique identity. Statistical models could then predict the total population.
That is hardly frivolous. It is a prerequisite for sensible administration of the Endangered Species Act.
The presumed Republican presidential nominee also fails to mention that the project was sponsored by Conrad Burns, a former Republican senator from Montana who chairs the McCain campaign in that state. Mr. McCain never explains why, if it was such a waste, he didn’t try to curtail it on the Senate floor.
It is a longstanding practice on Capitol Hill for legislators to lampoon research projects that can be made to sound foolish. Some may well be. If Mr. McCain wants to make serious critiques of research spending — and keep his reputation as a credible opponent of government waste — he and his staff need to be more careful and a lot more science-literate.