Milbank: Zinke treats Interior post as if hes a viceroy
Were these normal times, we would now be saying sayonara to Ryan Zinke.
President Trumps secretary of the interior has inspired a half-dozen ongoing investigations into his travel expenses, his blending of official business with political activities and personal pleasure, and his whimsical management of a 70,000-person, 500 million-acre agency.
And now this:
Testifying before Congress last week, Zinke was questioned by Rep. Colleen Hanabusa, D-Hawaii, who mentioned that two of her grandparents were held as Japanese American internees during World War II. She asked Zinke why the administration wants to cut funds to preserve Japanese American internment sites.
Zinke smirked. Oh, konnichiwa, he replied to Hanabusa, a fourth-generation American.
Even after he had time to reflect, Zinke was unapologetic. How could ever saying Good morning be bad? he said over the weekend.
Actually, its closer to Good afternoon, but lets follow Zinkes logic on this: Hell soon be greeting a Jewish lawmaker with Shalom, an African-American lawmaker with Jambo, Mexican American questioners with a spirited Que pasa? and Native Americans with How. It is the benevolent ruler who greets the natives in their ancestral tongues.
Thats fitting, because Zinke runs his department much like a 19th-century colonial governor or imperial viceroy and not just because he showed up on horseback his first day of work. As The Washington Posts Lisa Rein reported, Zinke assigned a staffer to hoist a special secretarial flag whenever he enters Interior Department headquarters. He also commissioned a commemorative coin with his name on it.
The Interior Department is Zinkes plaything. He toyed with disbanding 200 federal advisory boards (most members of the national parks advisory board resigned, saying Zinke sidelined them), but he created a new one a group of big-game trophy hunters to advise him on big-game trophies. To run the national parks, Zinke tapped an official who improperly helped Washington Redskins owner Daniel Snyder remove 130 trees to improve his estates river views. Now Zinkes talking about $70 entrance fees at national parks, because freeloaders the elderly, the disabled, veterans and fourth-graders pay discounted fees.
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