WaPo OpEd: Fox-in-the-Henhouse Government

[dajoki]

WP
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/03/AR2007040301576.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns

Fox-in-the-Henhouse Government
By Ruth Marcus
Wednesday, April 4, 2007; Page A13

<<snip>>

So it's worth pausing to pay attention to some recent events that similarly underscore the failings of this administration and illuminate one of their root causes: a contemptuous attitude toward government itself. These episodes illustrate the administration's fox-guarding-the-henhouse personnel plan, the disdain of its appointees for the laws they are sworn to enforce and their spoils-of-war attitude toward the government they are entrusted with overseeing:

<<snip>>

· President Bush nominated Michael Baroody, a top official at the National Association of Manufacturers, to head the Consumer Product Safety Commission -- the agency charged with protecting consumers against the dangerous products of, yes, manufacturers.

<<snip>>

· J. Steven Griles, a coal lobbyist who became the No. 2 official at the Interior Department (in other words, his job description didn't much change), pleaded guilty to lying to Congress about his relationship with lobbyist/felon Jack Abramoff. Griles's then-girlfriend introduced him to Abramoff and ran a lobbying group that received $500,000 in Abramoff-generated funds; in turn, Abramoff sought and received Griles's help on client matters.

· Griles's new significant other, Sue Ellen Wooldridge, who helped him fend off ethics charges when they both worked at Interior, resigned as head of the Justice Department's environmental section. Wooldridge and Griles bought a $1 million beach house with the top lobbyist for the oil company ConocoPhillips; then Wooldridge -- supposedly with the blessing of ethics officials -- signed off on a move to ease up on anti-pollution requirements imposed on ConocoPhillips as part of a settlement.

· Lurita Doan, a GOP mega-donor turned head of the General Services Administration, attended a luncheon on agency premises at which Scott Jennings, a top aide to Karl Rove, briefed political appointees on GOP targets for the 2008 election. According to six people present, Doan asked GSA employees how they could "help 'our candidates' in the next elections." Doan, displaying an Alberto Gonzales-like memory, told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee last week that she had "absolutely" no recollection of that statement.

READ THE REST:http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/03/AR2007040301576.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns

[annabanana]

1. ...gee. This is in YESTERDAYS paper? It should have been in there

six years ago. I'm profoundly underwhelmed.

[dajoki]

2. recent events

We all know what this administration has gotten away with during the last six years. We'd need a few sets of encyclopedias to list it all. This is just a few "recent events".