Based on today's editorial, the gray wolf -- and other creatures defended by the Endangered Species Act -- have no finer friend than The Arizona Republic. Here's what the Republic had to say about attempts in Congress to gut the EPA:

Congress may fire a shot in the dark that hits endangered gray wolves.

After a court decision reversed Interior Secretary Ken Salazar's decision to remove gray wolves in the northern Rockies from the endangered species list, the administration is backing an effort in Congress to simply exclude those wolves from current or future protection under the Endangered Species Act.

President Obama wants to throw wolves under the bus. Never mind that the Endangered Species Act includes a process for delisting that is based on science, not politics. Or that the proposed congressional action undermines the law by setting a precedent that could result in any number of controversial species being abandoned to extinction.

The editorial concludes by saying that arbitrary political acts should not trump science nor cynically attempt an end run around proper legal process. The decisions of many courts are, unfortunately, in the hands of a few misguided congressional representatives. Read the whole editorial here.