The Onshore Ken Salazar - and the Offshore Ken Salazar

[donco6]

"There's onshore Ken Salazar and there's offshore Ken, and they're completely different. Onshore, you definitely couldn't say he's just an industry shill. But offshore, absolutely," said Kieran Suckling, executive director of the Center for Biodiversity, a fierce critic of the Interior Department's regulatory failures when it comes to deepwater drilling. "He definitely is much more aggressive and cavalier about offshore drilling," Suckling said.

Good article in today's Denver Post. Pretty balanced with praise and criticism.


Another snip:


"I want to tell you how proud I am of you and how pleased I am the president appointed you to this position because your character, your integrity are unquestioned," U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, the Louisiana lawmaker whose state is perhaps most at risk from the spill, told Salazar at a hearing last week on Capitol Hill.

But such glowing assessments are increasingly rare.

Salazar, 55, spent much of his testimony that day conceding that the agencies he oversees had badly mismanaged their oversight role. And in recent days, questions have begun to mount.

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_15143557

[midnight]

1. K&R

[depakid]

2. Looking more and more like the sacrificial lamb every day....

It's getting more and more likely with each passing day that the only question left re: Salazar's future in the administration will be the timing of his departure.

[dgibby]

3. Replace him with Erin Brockovitch!

THAT would be change I could believe in.

[saracat]

4. Sacrificial lamb? Hardly. That implies innocence.He deserves to go .Now, if not sooner.

[saracat]

5. Replace him with RFK Jr., Al Gore, someone who gives a damn.

[depakid]

7. It's a figure of speech implying that a top level official will "need to go" in order to quell

the political outcry.

Sometimes, there's an element of scapegoating or "blame loading" going on that covers matters that "rightfully" include the culpability of many other people.

[saracat]

10. You may be correct but I usually assume it to be a lower level official

and to use someone as a scapegoat implies they are unfairly taking the blame and as Salazar is Sec of the Dept of Interior and responsible for the actions of that department, there can be nothing unfair about his being punished for culpability.

[amborin]

12. +1000 Salazar had a pro-industry, anti-environment track record long befor this

[donco6]

13. Yes, we saw that here in Colorado. n/t

[donco6]

6. That's what I see, too.

Deserved or not, he's on the way out. Who's in the wings?

[depakid]

8. Hard to know- the administration seems to have a prediliction for policital figures

at many of the agencies. Senators, governors, congressmen.

I'd prefer someone with managerial experience and environmental expertise, though given the vetting that prevents those associated with interest groups like, say NRDC from consideration it's anyone's guess.

[donco6]

9. What if he goes for an industry insider?

How will that look? The managerial experience could be there, but that taint . . . hmmmm.

[depakid]

11. I think the vetting rules would prohibit that choice, too