Conservative commentator Pat Buchanan summed up the armed federal standoff between agents with the Bureau of Land Management and cattle rancher Cliven Bundy, his family and his supporters: It was all over an unpaid bill.
“You don’t send the Seventh Cavalry to collect a bill, and that’s exactly what happened,” he told Sean Hannity on his radio show Monday.
He went on, Breitbart reported: “And when they put all those forces out there — that’s what attracted all the others, the history of what happened at Waco, Ruby Ridge. And so these folks came to that rancher’s defense. But the initial problem here is [the] sending of all the force of arms out there on to that ranch, which was a provocation to which these folks responded.”
Militia groups from different states ultimately traveled to help Mr. Bundy with his face-off with armed BLM agents, who had surrounded the ranch and even closed down roads that led into the property. The federal government eventually stood down and called off its armed guard of the property, but Sen. Harry Reid, for one, has vowed the issue — which has focused on grazing rights — is far from over.
• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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