Breaking! Obama Cabinet Official Looks Backward!
Doug Lamborn (R-CO Whiner) complained to Ken Salazar that there had been too much focus on the sex and drug scandal of MMS under the Bush Administration. Salazar let him have it.
Lamborn: We all want to get to the bottom of this tragedy. And I think we all agree that finger-pointing will not get us there. I don’t understand–I have to be real honest here–why you and others keep harping on what MMS did or didn’t do in the previous Administration, when you did know about these problems when you came into office and you have been in charge of them for more than a year now. Why aren’t we talking about the here and now?
Salazar: Well we are talking, Congressman Lamborn, about the here and now, and that’s why people have been terminated, people have been referred over to prosecution, and we’ve done a lot to clean house at MMS. Unlike the prior Administration, this is not the candy store of the oil and gas kingdom which you and others were a part of. And so we have moved forward in a manner that is thoughtful, that is responsible, that holds those accountable. And those who violate the law, Congressman Lamborn, will be terminated and whatever other sanctions of law are appropriate, those sanctions of law will be applied.
On February 4, 2009, after Salazar halted some of Bush’s drilling efforts and asked DOJ to reconsider for prosecution some of those involved in the worst MMS scandals, I mused with some surprise that Ken Salazar was at that point the high point of the Obama Administration for me.b
And for his strengths and weaknesses since then, I gotta say that Salazar is still the only one who looked backward in timely manner and because of that could say, this clearly, that he had put the corruption of the Bush Administration behind him.
Nice exchange!
Heh!
Now we have a new proprietor of the Magic Kingdom looking forward for a scapegoat. Next Salazar news conference: ….”I’m looking forward to spending more time with my family.”
I doubt it. I’m think this is the start of a major “blame it on Bush” campaign. They’ve found their scapegoat.
ObamaLLP sees a threat to it’s existance. Obama has BP money in his pocket, as do a number of favored democan’s and republicrats. Even the GOPers will jump on a blame bush bandwagon if their own re-election is at stake.
Boxturtle (Only time Obama looks backwards is when looking out for his butt)
I second that emotion.
“this is the start of a major “blame it on Bush” campaign”
You put it like that’s a bad thing: http://tiny.cc/gaf7y
Also, the Krug Man seems to have succeeded in turning Larry Summers into Jobs Boy.
Just don’t want ObamaLLP’s share of the blame to get buried. Or Congress. Or the MMS.
Boxturtle (Plenty of blame to go around, BushCo will just have to share)
Btw, I fixed the story=store typo in that.
But yeah, that was the big line of the day.
Let’s not forget that the MMS also runs (ran?) a contracting vehicle that was certainly much abused during the Bush Administration.
One of MMS contracts that we know about got Mitchell Wade’s MZM to supply “office equipment” to the Office of the Vice President, back in 2002.
http://www.warandpiece.com/blogdirs/003891.html
(Presumably they went into contracting because MMS was so good at what they did in their primary line of work).
I’m all for looking backward.
Thanks; it is good to see that Salazar has already made referrals for prosecution to the DOJ. I wonder who?
Bob in AZ
The only reason any one at MMS is going to be held accountable is because we can link the words “sex scandals” to the story.
Yes, it’s refreshing that we are “looking back” in this instance. However, it’s refreshing kind of like a cup of water in the desert at noon.
well, there is a lot of coupling going on ;)
My niece works for the Interoir Dept IG office and has now twice received the IG award for Public Integrity. The most recent was this year for her team’s work uncovering the so-called “sex, drugs and oil” scandal a couple of years back. They are workng hard to clean it up. There is a lot of corruption to uncover, I guess. But they are not looking the other way.
Give her our best wishes; she has a LOT of work to do.
THanks for that. Her boss–the acting IG, acquitted herself very well today. (Unless your niece is the one who testified, in which case she did great.)
The ONLY reason he put any corruption behind him was the leak. If not leak, he would not have done anything.
What the F good does firing people NOW do?
He was in charge. For more than a year. And aside from that, people are pissed just as much about what has been done AFTER the explosion as before.
This is just typical of how Obama and his cronies operate.
I said before, and I still expect it; in 2012 as he gets on the plane to go home to Chicago for the last time, Obama is going to say, “Man, I could have had a great administration and not been a failure if it wasn’t for Bush.”
I am fully expecting he is gong to blame the NK torpedo and coming milk toast response and results from that response on Bush.
Dude.
I guess you missed the links. You know, where Salazar was asking for more prosecutions?
I’m zero fan of Salazar, but your criticism is just misdirected.
Have to say, Mr. Lamborn must have a 10 cu ft wheel barrel to cart around balls that big. Who could have possibly predicted that the Bush administration could have cut regulation enforcement this much. We knew it was bad, but man….