Former Iraq war supporter and current GOP Senate incumbent (desparately trying to keep his seat) Gordon Smith might have "broken" with Bush on Iraq, but he's having a hard time keeping his story straight on this one. Via Carla at Loaded Orygun, Smith has a hard time with a Roseburg audience explaining exactly where he is on the war:

"When the president stood on the aircraft carrier (and said) ‘Mission accomplished,’ he was right. He was right as to all we could win."

The DSCC was quick to pick up the story, and to point out that

Smith's ongoing attempt to rewrite his position on the war ignores a key fact - he continued to vocally support the president's policy for three and a half years after Bush's aircraft carrier address, and did not begin claiming he supports a new policy until after the 2006 midterm elections.

"If Smith really believed the mission was fully accomplished in 2003, than why did he spend the next three and a half years rubberstamping George Bush's failed Iraq policy?" DSCC spokesman Matthew Miller said. "Gordon Smith can try to rewrite history, but the record is plain for all Oregonians to see, and they won't be fooled by his election year change in rhetoric."

But it's even uglier for Gordo back home in Oregon, as he's getting a lot of flak over his support for a 2002 water diversion from the Klamath River that resulted in a massive die-off of 77,000 salmon and eventual suspension of coastal fishing. It gets better: in trying to simultaneously defend himself while distancing himself from Dick Cheney, who played an instrumental role in the plan, Smith just digs himself in deeper with Dick. Loaded Orygun again:

In a meeting with The Register-Guard editorial board, the Oregon senator offered his most expansive explanation to date since since the issue's revival in recent weeks. Smith defended his and Cheney's efforts to help Klamath basin farmers salvage their crops during drought.

"I am not here to make any apologies," said Smith, who faces re-election next year. "I am proud to fight for the farmers or any group of Americans whom the federal government says has no standing, no water. I just find that offensive."

Smith downplayed his connection to Cheney in that chapter. He said he did not recall speaking with the vice president, but did lobby President Bush during a flight on Air Force One to allow some of the basin's water dedicated for imperiled sucker fish to be diverted to withering croplands and pastures.

"I was not familiar with all the things the vice president was doing," Smith said, referring to the Washington Post's account....

Smith also defended Cheney's actions.

"He is an authorized authority of the executive branch of government and he was trying to do what I was trying to do: get some minimal relief to the farm community of Klamath Falls," Smith said. "He had every legal right to do it, and if mistakes were made, those are to be regretted.

Ah, all those to be regretted mistakes. At LO, torrid joe points out that Gordo was smack dab in the middle of that mistake making:

...in 2001, Gordon Smith asked for and received help from the White House (specifically Dick Cheney and Karl Rove) to find an executive end-around on the Endangered Species ruling that protected water flows on the Klamath River for salmon habitat. When the water was turned back on in 2002, Smith stood with Gale Norton of Interior to turn the irrigator valve. He ran ads taking credit for it--right up until the judiciary ruled that the executive had illegally overstepped its bounds in doing what they did.

So now here it is 2007, and the editors of the R-G are giving Smith a chance to explain what the heck happened there, with him backing a plan that was eventually linked to the largest adult salmon kill-off of the west. What does he say? "I have a responsibility for humankind." (More on that false framing in a minute.) He stamps his feet and declares he just won't desert the farmers over a fish he says died because of "gill disease." And then he just opened his mouth and turned truth on its head....

The story broke in an interview with the Eugene Register Guard, and a political reporter for the state's largest paper, the Oregonian, jumps into the fray, pointing out some of Smith's challenges with the truth in this story.

Steve Pedery, conservation director of Oregon Wild, said that for Smith to say he has "no regrets about the biggest fish kill in Northwest history is just astonishing." He and other environmentalists pointed to a report by the California Department of Fish and Game that said the low flows played an important role in the die-off. Pedery also scoffed at Smith's claim that the fish kills occurred 18 months after water was diverted to farmers. He said the diversions started in March of 2002 and water levels in the river remained low when the die-off started in September of that year.

It's a bad day to be Gordon Smith. I have a feeling August recess in Oregon is not going to be much fun for him.

Update: Lestdalc has an excellent diary with background on the fish kill.