Anne Gorsuch Burford, 62, Reagan E.P.A. Chief, Dies

[Spinzonner]

Anne Gorsuch Burford, a Colorado conservative who was chosen by President Ronald Reagan as his top environmental regulator only to resign under Congressional fire 22 months later, died Sunday in Aurora, Colo. She was 62.

The cause was cancer, her daughter, Stephanie Gorsuch of Denver, said.

In appointing her administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, President Reagan made Ms. Burford a leader in his effort to bring economic discipline to environmental cleanup and to give the states greater enforcement powers on matters like clean air and water, policies she had earlier advocated on the state level. Critics contended that the policies weakened federal environmental enforcement to please polluting industries.

This fundamental difference in perspective reached a climax in a battle between a subcommittee of the House of Representatives, which demanded thousands of pages of documents relating to toxic waste cleanup, and Ms. Burford, who refused to hand them over. She said she would go to jail rather than surrender them to Congress.


http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/22/politics/22gorsuch.html?8br

[saigon68]

1. Quite the Resume

Obviously a true believer. But somehow not liked by the NEOCON cabal for some reason ??????????

[WildClarySage]

2. Died from Cancer?

oooohhhhh the irony.

[Arugula Latte]

4. Ingested too many toxins, eh?

Karma's a bitch...

Thus ends the life of another human who made the world immeasurably worse by her actions.

[depakid]

11. Agreed-

Good riddance. I have zero sympathy for her. My sympathies lie with the hundres of thousands that she condemned to health problems due to her willful disregard for science and the public interest.

[burythehatchet]

3. A strained and stained soul escapes to be cleansed

and hopefully emerge in a worthwhile vessel.

[NoSunWithoutShadow]

5. Your words are very kind

Having worked for EPA for 30 years, Anne Gorsuch Burford was the worst administrator we ever had. imho

But I agree with your sentiments.

[burythehatchet]

6. WOW. Worst ever.

And you have had a few real winners (losers) to choose from. Says a lot. As a concerned citizen let me just say that I appreciate people like you who have hung in there through all the political BS in order to serve the public interest.

[NoSunWithoutShadow]

7. Thank you, you are very kind. eom

[Crunchy Frog]

8. I wonder if she died from the effects

of environmental toxins.

[Grins]

9. She made my file!!

My file called "Republican Family Values". Been keeping it for a lot longer than I ever thought I would. I now have about 360 phony Repubs and their phony family values. Think I should write a book?

You can add this to her obit:

Even other Republicans didn’t like her. Nominated by Reagan (after she resigned) to a Committee on Oceans and the Atmosphere, the Republican-controlled Senate (on a vote of 74 to 19!) called on the President to withdraw her appointment. A true Family Values Republican, she married in 1964, and was divorced in 1979. She re-married in March 1983 to a Republican - that was also divorced from his wife. He divorced Gorsuch in 1991, filing divorce papers (the sweetie) – on Valentine’s Day! Although they had a prenuptial agreement, Anne claimed the agreement contained numerous "false statements" regarding he ex’s true assets and his hidden liabilities. (Of course they did, stupid. You married a Republican ‘fer cryin’ out loud!) While married, both were arrested in 1985 in Arlington, Virginia; her on charges of public drunkenness, and him for driving while intoxicated.

What a charming couple.

[Elidor]

10. I certainly won't mourn her, but I've seen this PD crap before

The driver is about to be arrested for DUI, and they ask the passenger to step out of the car. The passenger is then arrested for public drunk. It's a crock and it happens all the time.

[nolabels]

12. Don't know about what kind of person, but in context......................

The first Ted Olson scandal
It didn't begin with the Clinton-smearing Arkansas Project. The solicitor general nominee's pattern of ruthlessness and deception began during his tenure in the Reagan administration.

- - - - - - - - - - - -
By David Neiwert
(snip)
As assistant attorney general to President Reagan from 1981 to 1983, Olson advised the president to claim executive privilege to block an investigation by congressional Democrats into the scandal-plagued Superfund program, based on assertions that later proved fatally false -- largely because Olson, apparently eager to force a political fight with Congress, failed to double-check key information.

Olson's blunders eventually caused the resignation of Reagan's lightning-rod Environmental Protection Agency administrator, Anne Gorsuch Burford. And those events in turn wound up costing Reagan much of his administration's agenda for reshaping environmental policy.

Afterward, when Congress was investigating both the scandal and apparent attempts to cover it up, Olson gave what a colleague would later call "deliberately evasive" answers when questioned about this advice in testimony before Congress. He earned a full investigation by an independent counsel, for perjury and obstruction of justice, because of this testimony.

Olson was even cited for contempt of court while contesting the I.C. investigation -- a case he took all the way to the Supreme Court, where he lost decisively. However, he eventually avoided prosecution when the independent counsel scrupulously ruled that, though Olson's testimony was "misleading and disingenuous," it did not rise to the level of prosecutable perjury.
(snip)
http://216.239.39.104/search?q=cache:C9oebq5xcD8J:www.salon.com/politics/feature/2001/05/14/independent_counsel/print.html++Ted+Olson+%2B+Anne+Gorsuch+Burford&hl=en

[dryan]

13. I remember her

She was head of the EPA during the Times Beach fiasco. Was that ever cleaned up?

[nolabels]

14. My guess is that the EPA turned into more of a set up for industry

They nowadays pretty much screw the public in favor of higher Corporate profits. I sure hell don't feel that they work for public safety.

(snip)
Warnings Go Unheeded

In September, Ambutas learned that the fraudulent Factual Analysis was going to be included in documents EPA planned to submit to the court in response to the suit brought by the State of Wisconsin and other parties. He dutifully reported this unsettling development to Administrator Adamkus who, again, refused to undertake an investigation.

By January 1997, attorneys for the State of Wisconsin had become suspicious of the fabricated document and challenged its authenticity. Radell and Johnson-Schultz may have perjured themselves by swearing to the authenticity of the document they had fabricated. In response to Ambutas' continuing pressure for an internal investigation of the matter, Administrator Adamkus and other EPA officials met with him to discuss his charges on February 24, 1997. Adamkus still refused to order an investigation, saying Region V would "go for broke" in litigation.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) was subsequently asked to consider "ethical issues" relating to the case, but conspicuously failed to inform the court that questions about the authenticity of the Factual Analysis had been raised. Instead, Justice Department officials continued to file briefs with the court based on an EPA document the DOJ knew was under attack for being fraudulent. "The Justice Department's actions appear to fly in the face of a litigant's responsibility to disclose immediately any evidence of fraud upon the court," notes Larisa Dobriansky, senior counsel to the House Government Reform and Oversight Committee's subcommittee on national economic growth, natural resources, and regulatory affairs.

With Ambutas threatening to go public, the Justice Department on April 18 finally informed the court that it "has learned of allegations to suggest that affidavits submitted by the United States in this case may contain false statements," but failed to disclose its knowledge of the possible fraud committed by the two EPA employees. DOJ then expanded on the ignominious role it was already playing in the affair by seeking a court order forbidding attorneys or their clients from disclosing fraud and perjury pending an internal investigation by EPA. On May 27, the court rejected this request for a "gag order."
(snip)
http://www.nwi.org/SpecialStudies/EPAReport/EPAstudy.htm