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Salazar Could Reopen Interior Probes
Change may be coming to one of the departments of the federal government that was most damaged under the Bush administration.
Ken Salazar, the new Interior Secretary, said at a White House briefing this afternoon that he would undertake a top-to-bottom review of ethical misconduct at his agency, reports the Associated Press.
Salazar cited several of the department's lowest moments during the Bush years, and said that probes closed by the Bush administration could be reopened.
As we've noted at TPMmuckraker, Interior employees were found to have partied and had sex with employes from oil and gas companies they were supposed to be regulating. And Deputy Interior Secretary Steven Griles pleaded guilty to corruption in connection with the Jack Abramoff case.













That sounds like a partisan witch-hunt to me. We've gotta move forward. What has passed is past. Accountability is a quaint notion that has no application to the modern state. Laws are meant to be used for scapegoats and the little people.
January 28, 2009 5:24 PM | Reply | Permalink
There was a lot more than just sexual hanky panky going on at MMS. This blog documents billions in royalties that were systematically uncollected by MMS during the Bush admin.
January 28, 2009 6:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
A witch hunt is when the primary motive for an investigation is for political gain. See all the fake "scandals" surrounding the Clinton administration including White Water in which millions were spent to find that no laws were broken. Here is a situation in which it is very obvious that laws, regulations and policies were ignored. When laws are broken within a governmental agency, the agency is broken. To willfully ignore law breaking even to "move the country forward' only allows the poison to take root and continues to cripple the government and keep it from fully acting as it should. An investigation would illuminate all what was wrong as U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis famously stated regarding corruption, "Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants." An investigation and prosecutions - if warranted - need to happen for the sake of the agency.
January 28, 2009 7:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
I guess I should have added some emoticon denoting cynical sarcasm, but then again, if have booby-trapped my keyboard to electrocute me if I ever use an emoticon.
January 28, 2009 10:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
"I have" not "if have", that is.
January 28, 2009 10:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
Nice headline.
January 28, 2009 8:58 PM | Reply | Permalink