Kempthorne applauded on energy strategy

By Lisa Mascaro

Monday, Sept. 1, 2008 | noon

(A team of Sun reporters is at the Republican National Convention this week in St. Paul.)

ST. PAUL -- Next up here at the Nevada delegation luncheon is Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, who just won applause for John McCain's support for an "all of the above" energy strategy and selection of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his running mate.

But the Republican presidential nominee and his vice presidential pick diverge greatly on the key energy issue of drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. (He's against. She's in favor.)

Kempthorne, though, got the biggest cheers from an earlier line: "John McCain is tough."

The interior secretary, a former Idaho senator and governor, ended his brief visit by echoing McCain's mother's sense that her son will win this fall. He, too, said he "can feel it in my bones."