I have been reporting for some time about the corruption in the Bush Department of Interior, the major land-management department of the federal government. One of those reported was J. Steven Griles, number two in DOI under Gale Norton. He was recently convicted for has dealings with corrupt lobbying Jack Abramoff. Now he is trying to get out of doing time for his crime. Instead he wants to do public service for an anti-conservation group involved with those recreation fees we are being changed to use our public lands.
Story. J. Steven Griles did the crime but doesn’t want to do the time. Former Interior Department Deputy Secretary who pleaded guilty earlier in connection with Jack Abramoff looking for ‘sentence’ of working for anti-environmental group instead of five years in the pokey. Bill Berkowitz. Media Transparancy.
Rocky Barker’s blog today tells how Idaho’s largely anti-conservation governor, Butch Otter, is going to bat for Griles. Rocky Barker’s blog: Otter asks for leniency for riding buddy. By Rocky Barker – Idaho Statesman
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Ralph Maughan
Dr. Ralph Maughan is professor emeritus of political science at Idaho State University with specialties in natural resource politics, public opinion, interest groups, political parties, voting and elections. Aside from academic publications, he is author or co-author of three hiking/backpacking guides, and he is past President of the Western Watersheds Project.
This is unbelievable. The Dept. of Interior under Bush has been a cesspool.
The “former” Republican Congress did no oversight of the Dept of Interior and this is the result. They allowed a whole bunch of unqualified political appointes to be placed in DOI. The ones at the top or near the top have basically been unqualified to do the job. The deeper you dig the more trash you are going to find in DOI. It is going to take 50 years or more to fix the damage that they have done to DOI. I could write a book on this. DOI via the Bush Administration has cut the DOI fire management programs to the bone yet they don’t even flinch at hiring thousands of contractors to fight actual ongoing fires and pay them 3 or 4 times what we could have federal or state employees doing the same job.
RG: I agree. It makes me sick to think of how many years it will take to gain all that has been lost.
I think a lot more crap that this administration has done is going to come to the surface very soon.
I also feel that Representative Nick Rahall from West Virginia is going to “rock the boat” even more in the DOI, as this administration comes to a close.
Here in Oregon Cheney got around the law to divert water to the Klamath Basin farmers. By diverting the flow it is estimated that 77,000 salmon died. They couldn’t get up the river to spawn. For the past three years fishing has been banned. This is just a very short version of the situation.