Mister Tamper
Ken Salazar is wearing out his welcome. Last weekend he was caught tampering with science documents, again. It seems Dodgy Ken took a review report written by expert scientists regarding offshore oil drilling and fudged in some claptrap they had never seen, without telling them, even though the scientists’ names were on the report.
Experts Say White House ‘Misrepresented’ Views to Justify Drilling Moratorium
FOXNews.com, June 11, 2010 [here]
The seven experts who advised President Obama on how to deal with offshore drilling safety after the Deepwater Horizon explosion are accusing his administration of misrepresenting their views to make it appear that they supported a six-month drilling moratorium — something they actually oppose.
The experts, recommended by the National Academy of Engineering, say Interior Secretary Ken Salazar modified their report last month, after they signed it, to include two paragraphs calling for the moratorium on existing drilling and new permits.
Salazar’s report to Obama said a panel of seven experts “peer reviewed” his recommendations, which included a six-month moratorium on permits for new wells being drilled using floating rigs and an immediate halt to drilling operations.
“None of us actually reviewed the memorandum as it is in the report,” oil expert Ken Arnold told Fox News. “What was in the report at the time it was reviewed was quite a bit different in its impact to what there is now. So we wanted to distance ourselves from that recommendation.”
Salazar apologized to those experts Thursday. “The experts who are involved in crafting the report gave us their recommendation and their input and I very much appreciate those recommendations,” he said. “It was not their decision on the moratorium. It was my decision and the president’s decision to move forward.”
Salazar orders a report, but he doesn’t like the findings, so he substitutes the exact opposite of what the scientists said, and doesn’t tell anyone.
Until he got caught.
Exact opposite? Yes. Salazar and Obama want a six-month moratorium on drilling. The scientists said the reverse, that continued drilling was imperative for the good of the nation:
In a letter the experts sent to Salazar, they said his primary recommendation “misrepresents” their position and that halting the drilling is actually a bad idea.
The oil rig explosion occurred while the well was being shut down – a move that is much more dangerous than continuing ongoing drilling, they said.
They also said that because the floating rigs are scarce and in high demand worldwide, they will not simply sit in the Gulf idle for six months. The rigs will go to the North Sea and West Africa, possibly preventing the U.S. from being able to resume drilling for years.
They also said the best and most advanced rigs will be the first to go, leaving the U.S. with the older and potentially less safe rights operating in the nation’s coastal waters.
Ken Salazar is a politician, not a scientist or engineer. But when he got the expert input, he not only discounted it, he stuffed his own slant into the documents and made it appear that the experts were on his side. Which they weren’t, and then they busted him for tampering.
This is not the first giant gaffe from Dodgy Ken. He’s is still reeling from numerous tongue-lashings by western congressmen for his secret backroom deals regarding new National Monuments [here, here, here]. Not all the subpoenaed docs have been released by Salazar yet, but those that have been indicate Dodgy Ken was lying.
Maybe “lying” is the wrong word: I meant he was crafting deliberate untruths to circumvent legally mandated procedures. “Criminal fraud” is closer to correct.
In his first days in office, Dodgy Ken withdrew the Western Oregon Plan Revision (WOPR) and the Northern Spotted Owl Recovery Plan (NSORP) for political reasons [here] and without due process. Both plans had been adopted in 2008 after years of effort, including thousands of man-hours, millions of dollars, and full and comprehensive public review and comment.
But Ken said both had been “tampered with” by “the Bush Administration”. What that tampering was is difficult to say, and how significant is another question, since both plans had undergone extensive public and scientific review. Whatever unnamed “Bush Administration officials” had put in or taken out, there had been ample opportunity for all stakeholders to fix it. That’s what the extensive review was all about. It’s kind of difficult to slip something phony into a public document that thousands of people review with fine-toothed combs.
As Dodgy Ken found out when he tried to slip one past the seven scientists last week. Or past western congressmen regarding monuments.
Dodgy Ken can’t even fool congressmen, and that’s saying something.
But he can tamper. Boy, how he can tamper. Dodgy Ken is the king of tampering, the world champ. He’s Mister Tamper.
As the oil sludges onto Gulf shores, Mister Tamper is rapidly losing favor with the entire nation. His boss is slip-sliding down in the polls like they were greased with raw Gulf crude. The brain trust Obama has surrounded himself with — Dodgy Ken, Janet “The System Worked” Napolitano, Tim “I Forgot to Pay My Taxes” Geithner, “Calamity Jane” Lubchenco, Steven” Choo Choo” Chu, Lisa “Borg Queen” Jackson, Hillary “We Surrender” Clinton, Joe “Where Am I?” Biden — are letting him down. It turns out they are morons. The only people Obama can trust are the Chicago Mob, and he can’t really trust them, either.
Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid can’t rescue Barry, because they can’t even rescue themselves. Scar Face’s national approval ratings are in the low teens, and Dirty Harry is sure to be ousted next November.
How long Dodgy Ken hangs on is another question. He’s slippery. And he knows how to tamper with stuff. As long as he hides in the shadows, I think he’ll be okay. But the more that the bright lights of public scrutiny shine upon him, the worse his odds of long survival. His best strategy might be to tamper with the lights.
