Legal land grab a political winner

Last week's Utah land grab was straight from the play book of presidential advisor Dick Morris. Insiders tell me it might have been sent as a "last letter" to the President, something like this:
Dear Bill:

I've had a lot of time on my hands since that (expletive deleted) photographer from the Star caught me with Sherry (Rowlands) on the veranda of the Jefferson Hotel. So I've been thinking about the campaign. I think I've come up with a winner. Here it is.

I call it "Tipper" -- "Take It for Political Purposes and call it Environmental Responsibility." It's just another example of triangulation, where we position you between stuck-in-the-past Democratic Neanderthals on the Hill and Republican crazies led by Newt. Result: a free ride with voters.

Here's the deal. There's 1.7 million acres of spectacular real estate out in Utah. It's as big as the state of Delaware. It is called the Escalante. It also includes the mineral-rich Kaiparowits Plateau.

Utah political heavyweights -- Governor Mike Leavitt, Senator Orin Hatch, Congressman Jim Hansen -- are now working with major federal land management agencies (the Forest Service, the Park Service and the Bureau of Land Management, which presently controls the land). They've already crafted elements of a balanced agreement that will preserve scenic beauty, permit the development of vast energy and mineral resources, and keep faith with the principles of multiple use, democratic participation and intergovernmental consultation that have developed over the past 20 years. But this will be a mushy compromise that will satisfy no one. My view: Let's blow it up!

Here's how: You have authority under the 1906 Antiquities Act to declare this area a "national monument" off limits to development and other uses that are offensive to enviros. You don't need the approval of Congress. Here's an opportunity for the raw exercise of presidential power. So, do it!

There will be tremendous flak. The governor and the congressional delegation will cry "foul," and complain about being left out of the loop (a yawner). Energy interests planning to mine and move more than seven billion tons of coal there will whine (business always whines