The Bush Administration uncovered a scandal in Denver, finding MMS employees accepting favors and partying a little too hearty with industry people. The same stuff that was recently uncovered in N.O. In January 2009, Secretary Salazar tried to grab credit for the bust and said he was doing a thorough review of the Minerals Management Service for being too close to the oil industry.
U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Thursday that he has ordered a re-examination of the scandalized Interior Department division based in Lakewood, including why the U.S. Justice Department did not pursue more criminal prosecutions.
Two convictions resulted from a wide-ranging inspector-general inquiry that last year exposed improper relationships between Minerals Management Service employees and energy firms, in addition to self-dealing by some staffers.
"There's a new sheriff in town," Salazar said during a news conference at the MMS complex. "We will be visiting with the new U.S. attorney general and take a new look at it."
http://www.denverpost.com/ci_11586212?IADID=Search-www.denverpost.com-www.denverpost.com
Birnbaum is the Democrat political hack appointed to do Salazar's promised re-examination of MMS. This disaster is on the "new sheriff's" watch. Guess he turned out to be more like Barney Fife than Wyatt Earp. If Salazar really did inherit a problem at MMS, he knew about it but "Sheriff Ken" did nothing about it despite his promise to the contrary in January 2009.
Did we expect anything more from old Ken of the fake cowboy hat....really?