Bastards until the very end.

The Bush administration is trying again to take the gray wolf of the northern Rockies off the federal endangered species list.

Having lost in court this summer in a legal battle with conservationists, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has decided to reopen for public comment its 2007 proposal to delist the wolves.

“The position of the service is, we think the wolves no longer need the protection of the Endangered Species Act. We’re asking the public to weigh in to that,” Ed Bangs, wolf recovery coordinator for Fish and Wildlife, said in an interview yesterday.

Wolf advocates immediately protested.

“This is the Bush administration’s last-gasp attempt to remove protections for wolves,” said Louisa Wilcox, a senior wildlife advocate for the Natural Resources Defense Council in Livingston, Mont.

“It looks like they’re launching an all-out run to ram the same flawed package back through,” said Jamie Rappaport Clark, executive vice president of Defenders of Wildlife and a director of Fish and Wildlife during the second Clinton administration.