A third dry summer is a row has brought another wave of forest fires to the American West. With 2 million acres already gone and summer just begun, it would seem logical for everyone to set differences aside and pursue the sound firefighting strategy devised by the Clinton administration and ratified by President Geroge W. Bush last year. Yet as Pat Williams, a former Montana congressman observed, 'The only thing that burns hotter than a wildfire in the West is the demagoguery of some politicians trying to take advantage of it'.