The march away from Bush continues today as President Obama issued a memorandum canceling (pending further review) a Bush edict pertaining to the Endangered Species Act, and evidently some Interior Department employees were happy enough to cheer about it.
In brief remarks at the Interior Department today, Obama said his
intention was to "help restore the scientific process to its rightful
place at the heart of the Endangered Species Act, a process undermined by past administrations" by reinstating Interior Dept. reviews of new federal construction projects to study potential impact on endangered species, pending further review of the policy.
"In the past, as all of you know, we've seen lapses that have damaged the reputation of this department, despite the integrity and faithful service of the vast majority of people who work here. In just these first five weeks, Secretary Salazar has helped bring about a new era of responsibility and accountability," Obama said, alluding to the department's 2008 ethics scandal that included allegations of financial improprieties, accepting gifts from energy companies, cocaine use and sexual misconduct.
According to a pool report from the Baltimore Sun's Paul West, Obama's
announcement "garnered loud applause" from the Interior Department
employees, an observation confirmed by two others who were there.
"He spoke to the importance of science in decision making processes,
and this department has a proud history and tradition of scientific
research and contribution," Interior spokesman Matt Lee Ashley told me
when I asked him about the applause.
One attendee speculated that many in the audience were either
scientists or conservationists, happy about both Obama's comments on
science and his rededication to endangered species review. (Of course,
the department also stands to gain power over as those reviews are
reinstated).
Democrats and other critics have charged
that the Bush administration censored the work of climate
scientists--charges that have led Obama to include pro-science rhetoric
in a number of his speeches.
Looks like that rhetoric is catching on with some of his new employees.
How did Secretary Salazar sweep away all that irresponsibility? It wasn't political appointees who were dirty, it was career civil servants. So how did he accomplish that?
My god, what a mess our government is. As a country we've become essentially ungovernable. The left is kleptocratic, and the right can't govern because the left controls the apparatus of government at all times. Does anyone doubt how these fine folks voted in November?
What, exactly, is your basis for these statements?? "The left controls the apparatus of government at all times"? "It wasn't political appointees who were dirty"?? Who do you you think was running the government under the Bush administration? NOT the Bush administration??
Sarah, the ethics scandal at Interior was a scandal in which civil servants did all sorts of nefarious things. The employees involved weren't political appointees.
Who was running the government under the Bush administration? The same folks who are running it now.
If only the "employees" are the ones guilty, and there is a person in charge of oversight of the department and all its employees, it is pure logic that responsibility for monitoring and correcting their actions rests on that person's shoulders.
Or do you believe that the scandals in the DOJ were also just maverick US attorneys with no direction from Gonzalez either?
On that note, you must think that Bush himself has no responsibilty for the actions of his cabinet. Makes you wonder why he asked Karl Rove to resign after ignoring two congressional subpeonas doesn't it? At least that was some semblance of accepting responsibilty for their actions.