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One of Secretary Babbitt's most controversial moves was his apparent assault on the Boy Scouts of America. Shortly after joining the Clinton Administration, Secretary Babbitt reinstated a National Park Service order prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation in the Service's Western Region. Under the order, the Boy Scouts of America -- which does not permit avowed homosexuals to serve as troop leaders -- could have been barred from volunteering in the National Parks.

Babbitt on tolerance...

"We must identify our enemies and drive them into oblivion."

-Bruce Babbitt in his introduction to the League of Conservation Voters' 1991 Environmental Scorecard

"[Judicial restraint is] a miserly and constricted assessment of the highest law of the land. You can't read the Constitution like a rule book."

-Bruce Babbitt quoted by the Arizona Republic, July 8, 1987

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Before leaving the Department of Interior, Babbitt promised that he wouldn't cash in on his years of government service by becoming a high-priced DC lawyer. Then he promptly took a job with Latham and Watkins, a big Washington law firm whose clients include some of the roughest environmental pillagers in the business.

Among Babbitt's present clients are two of the biggest developers on The California coast: Washington Mutual, developers of the Ahmanson Ranch in Ventura County and the Hearst ranch at San Simeon below Big Sur.

Headwaters Forest bailout, where corporate raider Charles Hurwitz ran off with more than $480 million for land that an Interior Department land appraiser concluded had a market value of less than $100 million.

http://tinyurl.com/kd3by

Babbitt hails from a wealthy ranching family and there has never been a day when he has not been serving the interests of big landowners, mining companies, utilities and real estate czars.

Born in Los Angeles, California, Babbitt graduated from the University of Notre Dame, and attended the University of Newcastle upon Tyne in England on a Marshall Scholarship, and then received his law degree at Harvard Law School.

In 1994, Babbitt was very seriously considered by President Clinton to replace retiring United States Supreme Court Justice Byron White. Clinton nominated Ruth Bader Ginsburg instead. Clinton again considered Babbitt for the high court in 1994 when Harry Blackmun announced his retirement. Babbitt was passed over again, this time in favor of Stephen Breyer.

Babbitt's brother, Paul Babbitt, was an unsuccessful candidate for the United States House of Representatives in 2004.