Frank Rich On Oil Spill: Obama Must Come Clean And Clean House

This must mean that Interior boss Salazar gets the ax-

Clean the Gulf, Clean House, Clean Their Clock. By Frank Rick. New York  Times.

The President asked us to pray.  So I ask God that the President fire Ken Salazar.

The President says he would have “fired Tony Hayward, BP’s chief executive” (currently yachting in the Irish Sea). We all would fire Hayward, but we can’t. The President can fire the man who did not clean up MMS after calling it his number one priority.
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Related. A yachting trip? The 10 worst BP gaffes in Gulf oil spill. Christian Science Monitor. By Mark Sappenfield, Staff writer.
Related. BP oil disaster: How much oil is left?. Christian Science Monitor.
Unfortunately, it is well over 90%. Associated Press


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Comments

  1. Mike Avatar

    Good article. Some accountability is needed.

  2. Angela Avatar
    Angela

    This article is even more damning:

    “Cleanups of Spill and an Agency Test Salazar”
    http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/20/us/20team.html?exprod=myyahoo

    But there is this baffling quote:
    “Mr. Salazar is a core member of what some environmentalists called a “green dream team” of environmental advisers appointed by Mr. Obama…”

    That might be news to the environmentalists.

    1. Maska Avatar
      Maska

      NO kidding! Everybody I know in the conservation community was horrified at the Salazar appointment.

    2. Ralph Maughan Avatar

      I was amazed to read that too, but I do think a few “major” national groups did say that at first, hoping for better nominations at lower levels (which never came).

    3. JimT Avatar
      JimT

      When my wife and I read that comment, we both looked and up and said “WHAT?”. I know several career folks who would have been great picks for Solicitor, FWS, etc. that were dissed–preliminary inquiries, but no followup. This is exactly what you get when you appoint people whose first reaction in a crisis is to sit on a fence and put their finger in the air to see which way the political winds of keeping their job are blowing.

  3. mikepost Avatar

    There is a current country western song entitled (I think “I Will Pray For You”) that particularly fits Ralph’s feelings here….

    1. JimT Avatar
      JimT

      Ralph, try all the deities you can think of…Buddha, Visnu, Odin, Raven, Gaia..someone must be listening…

  4. Angela Avatar
    Angela

    Any time you see a white man with a cowboy hat appointed to watch over natural resources, it should ring alarm bells.

    I was impressed by Lubchenco’s appointment, but that went out the window when she parroted BP and said there was no evidence for oil plumes beneath the surface of the ocean.

  5. Mike Avatar

    ++Any time you see a white man with a cowboy hat appointed to watch over natural resources, it should ring alarm bells. ++

    lol

  6. Virginia Avatar
    Virginia

    Salazar appears to be what we used to call a “drugstore cowboy” – all hat and no horse. And, you know, the white hats signify the “good guys,” black hats for the “bad guys.” Symbolism.

  7. Cody Coyote Avatar
    Cody Coyote

    Does anyone know if Raul Grijalva is still interested in the DOI Sec. post, or even if his name is being floated again ?

    1. Brian Ertz Avatar

      He should be ~ but he’s pretty busy championing resistence with the border issues.

      He’s been right on with Big Oil though – leaning into the environmental atrocities in the Gulf well before this disaster given hid leadership position in the house subcommittee— it’s called foresight and competency, and it’s about time the public got someone who posesses it into a position of leadership.

      This whole mess is a consequence of renegade corporate fascism and the corporate, K-street capture of the mainstream environmental movement.

      Time for someone with a robust, healthy & genuine distrust of Industry to be charged with its oversight.

  8. RLMiller Avatar
    RLMiller

    I have a good source on this. Salazar’s job is not especially secure, and he’s clashing with other people on the “green dream team.” Do not be surprised to hear about clashes with Bromwich, the new head of the MMesS.

Author

Dr. Ralph Maughan is professor emeritus of political science at Idaho State University. He was a Western Watersheds Project Board Member off and on for many years, and was also its President for several years. For a long time he produced Ralph Maughan’s Wolf Report. He was a founder of the Greater Yellowstone Coalition. He and Jackie Johnson Maughan wrote three editions of “Hiking Idaho.” He also wrote “Beyond the Tetons” and “Backpacking Wyoming’s Teton and Washakie Wilderness.” He created and is the administrator of The Wildlife News.

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