Posted on 04/05/2018 9:47:48 PM PDT by lowbuck
The left's crusade against Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt should be seen for what it is -- a witch hunt. We don't need any more conservatives hanged by leftists who major in criminalizing political differences and minor in slander.
How dare a Republican president appoint an environmental heretic to head an administrative agency the left views as its sole, separate and absolute property? This agency exists to serve the deep state -- the entrenched federal government bureaucracy that is tailor-made to advance the left's agenda and operate above accountability.
This conspiratorially organized assault against Pruitt is precisely what Barack Obama and his friends mean by community organizing. It is vicious, relentless street fighting aimed at discrediting Pruitt and taking him down because he is one of the rare administrative officials who won't put politics above the law and will stand up to those who do.
The left -- always projecting its own malicious practices onto its political opponents -- is framing this as its benign campaign to protect the rule of law. Leftists claim that it is Pruitt, appointed by Dr. Donald Evil himself, who is imposing his political agenda. These Alinskyites understand the impact of words and the force of propaganda. Anyone who doesn't swallow whole their radical assumptions on the environment is a menace, especially one who is in a position to make a policy difference.
Leftist activists and their media co-pilots are hellbent on disgracing Pruitt and destroying his reputation to effect his removal, so they are throwing all kinds of phony scandals against the wall of public opinion to pressure the White House to give them Pruitt's head.
The energy they are expending on this should tell you how important progressives view unelected, unaccountable administrative agencies in implementing their draconian regulations, which have been choking our individual liberties and wreaking havoc on our economy.
The left is blowing a lot of smoke about alleged improprieties with Pruitt's travel expenses. Thank goodness media conservatives, whose very existence leftists lament every day, are on the case. The Wall Street Journal's Kimberley Strassel, in a series of tweets, dismantled this bogus charge simply by comparing Pruitt's travel and security costs with those of his predecessors, whose similar expenses dwarf Pruitt's. And when you add the disturbing factor that Pruitt has been the target of death threats, which have required greater security measures, the contrast between Pruitt's expenses and those of his dutifully liberal forerunners is even more pronounced.
There is also the earth-shattering matter of the alleged sweetheart deal Pruitt was given on a condo lease, a transaction that was reviewed and found proper by the EPA's ethics office, which is hardly staffed by Trump supporters.
Leftists don't care a whit about these nonissues; they are just using them as cudgels to thwart the democratic process -- the legitimate effort of our duly elected president to appoint people who will not advance radical policies by being lawless agents. No matter how desperately leftists want to brand Pruitt as a renegade activist, he is just a cog in the wheel of their activism or, in some cases, the driver who is going to put their environmental vehicle in reverse and slam his foot on the pedal.
The left has bullied its way into imposing administrative regulations that are disastrous for business and onerous for individuals. They aren't just horrible in substance; they're also terrible in process. The Obama administration shamelessly thwarted the rule of law and exceeded its authority in issuing many of these regulations.
Under Pruitt's leadership, the EPA has eliminated regulations gratuitously detrimental to the coal industry that Obama crafted to achieve his stated agenda of bankrupting that industry. Pruitt has determined, in light of recent data, that the current greenhouse gas emissions standards for cars and light trucks for model years 2022-25 are inappropriate and require revision. In announcing his decision, Pruitt said that "Obama's EPA cut the Midterm Evaluation process short with politically charged expediency, made assumptions about the standards that didn't comport with reality, and set the standards too high."
That is, Obama's regulations were not only inappropriate based on the data but also issued unlawfully pursuant to a political agenda. You won't hear leftists or their media water carriers complaining about this.
In addition to their angst over Pruitt's revision of the fuel emissions standards, which, incidentally, could reduce the price of new cars by as much as $7,000, The Heritage Foundation's Genevieve Wood offers two reasons the left is going after Pruitt -- and neither of them has to do with ethics issues. He has led the Trump administration's efforts to dismantle Obama's "expensive and ineffective climate legacy piece by piece." And his EPA is scrapping the transparency-hostile practice of developing regulations based on studies that are kept secret from the public.
One thing I appreciate about President Trump is that he is taking action in certain areas that would have been unthinkable to entrenched politicians, many of whom are so used to the inertia of bad policy that they seem to be paralyzed with feelings of futility. The EPA is one of those areas. We are actually seeing concrete results, and it's immensely refreshing.
Like many others, I've long said that we can't afford to sleep for one second in our ongoing battles against leftists because they don't. We need to shed some of the defeatism that has crippled the conservative agenda and celebrate the kind of progress we're seeing at the EPA.
The left considers Pruitt a hill to die on. So should we.
Read and share with others to let the truth shine through.
They cannot get to President Trump so why not go for one of his effective cabinet members?
He is doing an amazing job draining the swam,p.
Go to the mat for him. The folks at Special Report think he’s toast.
Trump should fire the entire EPA and revuse to hire any replacements.
So they’re complaining he’s paying $1500 a month for a room, not even a studio, just a room, and that somehow he’s getting favoritism. But they make it seem like it’s some sort of a deal at only “$50 a night.”
Reviewed by senior EPA ethics officials and found to be in line with other agreements.
Again, the MSM is trying to win over the unwashed masses with BS. Thank goodness we have the Internet and alternative media to blow away the smoke.
I thought every second article on FR today would be about Pruitt. can’t anyone organise phoning the White House to express full support for Pruitt? what about the reddit the Donald thousands. can’t they get active.
4 Apr: TheLid: Media Campaign Against EPA’s Scott Pruitt Orchestrated By Obama & Clinton Cronies
by J.E. Dyer
My contribution in this post is adding a bit about the source going in. As (Daily Caller’s Michael) Bastasch notes, the source of much of the negative narrative-building on Pruitt is the Environmental Integrity Project (EIP). The EIP is a nonprofit founded in 2002 by Eric Schaeffer, a disgruntled EPA official. Here is how EIP describes it...
EIP has a strong animus against coal, as you can learn from the website...
Regarding funding, prominent sources for EIP, as documented by a congressional report in 2014, are the Wallace Global Foundation and the Energy Foundation, which in turn gets much of its funding from the Sea Change Foundation set up by renewables billionaire Nat Simons, a major beneficiary of Obama’s green-energy cronyism. (And yes, both foundation sources send money to and from the Tides Foundation and others in the standard list of progressive and radical-left money sumps.)...
https://lidblog.com/media-campaign-against-scott-pruitt/
5 Apr: Fox News: Trump and the US need Scott Pruitt to stay at EPA
by Steve Milloy
“I do,” President Trump said Thursday afternoon when asked by reporters whether he still has confidence in embattled Environmental Protection Agency head Scott Pruitt. And well the president should.
Pruitt has been the most effective appointee in implementing the Trump agenda. If Pruitt is forced out of his job because of charges he behaved unethically, America will suffer...
First, President Trump would have a hard time finding an EPA chief as competent and committed as Pruitt. Next, even if the president did, Senate Democrats would go all out to block confirmation.
President Trump should ignore the partisan attacks over trivialities. Let’s keep our eyes on the ball of EPA reform and restraint. Our national interest demands it.
Just let Pruitt do it.
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2018/04/05/trump-and-us-need-scott-pruitt-to-stay-at-epa.html
The left’s attacks on Pruitt is so superficial and grossly dishonest. They are given credibility by their cheerleaders in the media. The way they are having a cow, I gotta believe Pruitt is doing a great job.
Just read this Amazon Washington Post article that actually gave a good summary, even though I don't share their importance of each item:
I don't see Trump doing for than chastising him.
Yeah, The Washington Post is so Truthful.
Re: the room rental. I have heard scattered news reports on this in addition to this thread. It amazes me that no one seems to be doing the obvious reality check. Go to Airbnb. Search on Capitol Hill in DC. See what you find. Look at some data before forming an opinion.
The $50 a night that Pruitt was paying for a room is easily in the range of Airbnb rentals on the Hill. (As a longtime Hill resident who has never participated in Airbnb, I was amazed at how cheap they are.) The amenities in rentals offered vary widely. Some homeowners offer a full suite (on the Hill, typically an English basement apartment). Others offer single rooms. You can find everything imaginable across the spectrum. Pruitt apparently had a very traditional B&B arrangement: a bedroom for the night with guest privileges in common areas of the house. I suppose he had some limited kitchen privileges and a shared bathroom. This is NOT the same thing as the rental of a conventional apartment. In this kind of traditional B&B arrangement, one is essentially a guest in someone else's house: a paying guest, yes, but in terms of everyday living, a guest nonetheless.
I have no problem with an incoming political appointee, or a congressman, utilizing this kind of arrangement in the living out of a suitcase phase of getting settled in DC and finding permanent lodgings. The news reports and critics who compare Pruitt's cost to the cost of a conventional arrangement are comparing apples and oranges.
In an apartment, you have a key to the door. You can fill the place with your own stuff. You have your own kitchen and bath. Etc., etc., etc. Pruitt didn't have any of this. He was renting a spare room for the night and had guest privileges in common areas.
If you don’t want the Left to do it to you then don’t give them the ammunition.
Slide him over.
He is, but he shouldn’t give his opponents easy ammunition on the personal level, which he too often has done.
Course the same media has no problem with the Clintons making millions in exchange for favors.
Pruitt is doing a great job. That’s why the left is trying to get rid of him.
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