Each time a public official or political candidate spoke out for or against the Bureal of Land Management or Bunkerville rancher Cliven Bundy, who fought off federal attempts to remove his cattle from Gold Butte, it added fuel to an already hot-burning fire that quickly turned into a national inferno, pitting the romantic image of the cowboy rancher against the behemoth federal government that owns 85 percent of the Silver State.
Wearing a cowboy hat and with a copy of the U.S. Constitution poking from his shirt pocket, controversial rancher Cliven Bundy on Friday asked dozens of supporters of his cattle-grazing feud with federal land managers what they thought of U.S. Sen. Harry Reid calling them “domestic terrorists.”
U.S. Sen. Harry Reid on Thursday called supporters of Bunkerville rancher Cliven Bundy “domestic terrorists” because they defended him against a Bureau of Land Management cattle roundup with guns and put their children in harm’s way.
If anyone can feel Cliven Bundy’s pain, it’s a man like Demar Dahl. But while some members of the public are on Bundy’s side, that doesn’t mean Bundy is on stable legal footing, Dahl says.
Cliven Bundy’s son said four certified letters from the BLM arrived Tuesday. But so far, the 67-year-old Bunkerville resident has chosen not to open the envelopes.
Tom Collins managed to do something many Southern Nevadans thought impossible: Embarrass the office of the Clark County Commission.
These days, Cliven Bundy has turned into a contemporary folk hero in the eyes of his admirers, while also gaining notoriety from environmentalists who criticize his disregard of land management regulations.
Clark County Commissioner Tom Collins faced criticism and more after apologizing to fellow commissioners Tuesday over some of his comments made during the Clive Bundy standoff.
U.S. Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Tuesday he’s not going to second-guess the Bureau of Land Management’s decisions to defuse a potentially violent confrontation over Cliven Bundy’s cattle, but he did call it “unfortunate” that Bundy and his backers won’t cooperate with the roundup.
Cliven Bundy’s standoff with the Bureau of Land Management over the agency’s roundup of his cattle will go down in history as a high-profile clash of Old West values with today’s federal regulations on the use of public lands and natural resources.
