The Trump Administration has become such a revolving door that I've really lost track of what's going on with it. People come and go, are hired and fired, with such rapidity that a person would have to be a political fan in the extreme, right or left, to keep up with it.
Secretary of the Interior is one of the posts that I watch, however, as the positions taken by the occupant of that office really matter to me. . . and not just because I live in the West or in a mineral producing state. Having a Leopoldian view of the world, what goes on in that office is something I follow, usually, and policy wise.
So, I've tried to watch Zinke a bit, although it hasn't really been easy. I was glad that he was a hunter and from the West, as that was encouraging. Since then, however, like nearly every occupant of the Trump Administration, picking up unbiased news has been pretty much impossible, so it's been really hard to know what his policies on any one thing really are. A couple of days ago, after the news about Zinke resigning hit the press, I read an article about him in the Ducks Unlimited magazine that, from a conservationist and hunting prospective, could not help but be heartening. Others felt that in spite of his outdoors credentials he was a wolf in sheep's clothing and was at least partially responsible for a retreat of protection of Federal lands. One of the most unique critiques of him I I saw was in the Washington Post, were somebody commented:
“He rode into D.C. on a horse in an English saddle,” Tawney said, adding that a true Westerner, as the secretary claims to be, would’ve chosen a Western saddle. “That just kind of shows there’s a disconnect in how he likes to see himself. He doesn’t practice what he preaches.”
Well, as the reporting on individual members of the Trump Administration has become so polarized, I still don't know what to think.
I do know that the Department of the Interior has been plagued with impropriety for quite some time. During the Obama Administration news broke of some conduct (which I'm certainly not attributing to Obama) that had BLM employees acting more like courtiers in the Caligula's anterooms than employees of a Federal agency.
The specific allegations against Zinke have to do with dealings with Halliburton in his home state of Montana that predate his role as Secretary of the Interior, and that's part of the reason that I'm not terribly impressed with allegations against him, irrespective of whether or not he has been a good or bad Secretary of the Interior. Looking for a Western politician who hasn't had dealings with the oil and gas industry is a lot like looking for a Midwestern politician who hasn't had dealings with Big Ag, or a New York politician who isn't fundamentally irritating to non New Yorkers at an existential level. Nearly impossible. And in recent years, dating back at least to the Clinton Administration, there's been a disturbing tread of criminalizing what is simply normal behavior, and political advantage. The whole "insider trading" set of laws, for example, basically criminalizes knowledge.
So now I'm more than a little worried about his replacement, whomever that will be.
Indeed, at this point, I don't know why anyone takes a job in the Trump Administration. The revolving door quality of things would mean that you have to suspect that if you took one of those jobs that you're going to be packing up in disgrace shortly thereafter. Or you're going to resign as you're mad. I can't see why a person would endure it.
Well, somebody will. And given the way things are going I hope that whoever takes up that role is not hostile to public lands.
FWIW, Cynthia Lumis has been mentioned. She's very sharp, which leads me to suspect she won't take the job.
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