Thanks, Ted

Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski tried out his Tom McCall impersonation recently, but it just didn’t come off.

McCall, who served as governor from 1967-75, uttered his most famous pronouncement in 1971. During an interview with a CBS television reporter, McCall, talking about conservation and tourism, said: “Come visit us again and again. But for heaven’s sake, don’t come here to live.”

At least McCall invited people to come to Oregon and spend their money here.

Kulongoski just tells people to stay out.

Not all people, of course. Just those nasty recreational miners who use suction dredges to gather gold from streams.

Suction dredges, by the way, have little in common with the Sumpter dredge. Suction dredges can be hauled in pickup trucks, something that can’t be said for the behemoth in Sumpter.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger this summer signed a law that prohibits suction dredge mining pending a study of how the method affects salmon runs.

As a result, California gold miners are looking north to Oregon.

Kulongoski’s reaction: He sent letters to federal officials urging them to ban mining on hundreds of thousands of acres in Southwestern Oregon. “We are very concerned that the suction dredge miners are now heading for Oregon.”

What a terrible possibility — people might actually want to spend money in a state with double-digit unemployment.

Small-scale miners won’t fix Oregon’s economy, of course. We just hope Kulongoski’s next target isn’t a group that definitely kills fish: anglers.