Word: scandal
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...Whether he's loved by the environmental community or not, what's certain is that Salazar has an enormously difficult job in front of him. The Interior Department - historically one of the more scandal-ridden of the federal government - is a disaster. The Bush Administration stuffed the department with former industry lobbyists who kowtowed to miners and loggers, eviscerated environmental protections like the Endangered Species Act and actively ignored recommendations by the department's scientists. Worse, the Mineral Management Service (MMS) - a branch of Interior that collects royalties from energy industry work on federal lands - was hit this year with...
...tall task, and one he must accomplish without being dragged down by a department beset by scandal and dysfunction. "Short of a crime, anything goes at the highest levels of the Department of the Interior," Earl Devaney, the department's inspector general, testified before Congress in September 2006. While Salazar drew praise from representatives of the oil and mining industries as well as some conservationists, his appointment disappointed a cadre of environmental groups and prominent scientists, more than 100 of whom had signed a petition urging President-elect Barack Obama to tap Arizona Representative Raúl Grijalva. Salazar seemed...
When Obama faced the Rev. Jeremiah Wright scandal, instead of denying or attacking, he led a serious discussion about race--something that has never worked after the first semester of sophomore year. Mitt Romney made a similarly brave gambit when posing with some black children on Martin Luther King Jr. Day and opening the dialogue by saying, "Who let the dogs out? Who! Who!" The nation's fastest-rising politician, Joe the Plumber, got his start with the gutsy decision to ask for a tax break that he didn't remotely qualify for. Even crazier, opponents of gay marriage...
...commissioner of the Cook County Board of (Property) Tax Appeals and he did a brief stint as revenue director under the late Chicago mayor Harold Washington. In office, he has pushed environmental causes, veterans' affairs issues, consumer and taxpayer rights, and health-care matters. But the whiff of scandal has hit him too. While a state treasurer from 1991-95, he accepted nearly $20,000 from a company tied to Tony Rezko, a now convicted Blagojevich fundraiser and controversial area developer who also backed Obama early in his political career. When questioned about the money - as well as previous dealings...
...Even if Quinn does end up replacing Blagojevich, the process of making things better may not include his appointing Obama's replacement. In the wake of the scandal, there are growing calls to let the people of Illinois decide whom to send to Washington, no matter who is in the governor's mansion. State Republican Party leaders are launching a TV campaign to make the case that a special election should be called to fill the vacancy, and Blagojevich, clearly in a bargaining mood, has indicated that he might be willing to sign such a bill. "Blagojevich Democrats like...