“I’m not an environmental scientist, but I play one in the Bush administration…”

Good lord. You can’t swing a dead cat without hitting a Bush administration hack that it seems was only put in their position solely to destroy their department from the inside.

An Inspector General’s report released yesterday found serious conflicts of interest and manipulation of science by a deputy assistant secretary at the Department of Fish and Wildlife. The IG found evidence that she repeatedly pressured senior scientists and changed reports to make them industry-friendly.

In an especially blatant instance of conflicting interests;

…according to Fish and Wildlife Service Director H. Dale Hall, MacDonald tangled with field personnel over designating habitat for the endangered Southwestern willow flycatcher, a bird whose range is from Arizona to New Mexico and Southern California. When scientists wrote that the bird had a "nesting range" of 2.1 miles, MacDonald told field personnel to change the number to 1.8 miles. Hall, a wildlife biologist who told the IG he had had a "running battle" with MacDonald, said she did not want the range to extend to California because her husband had a family ranch there. (emphasis added).

The insidiousness of these political hacks will not be palliated when the end of an error comes to a close and the Bushies leave Washington forever. These partisan flaks are pushing out the people who are dedicated not to politics but to their jobs. The ones who have served faithfully no matter who was in charge are leaving in disgust, and you just know they are not being replaced by dedicated public servants. They are being replaced with partisan flaks that will be weak links in the civil service system for years to come. It will be decades before we are rid of these worthless patronage whores.

Republicans are the party that says government doesn't work,

and then get elected and prove it. –P.J. O’Rourke