Friday, March 10, 2006
Gale Norton Departs Under Taint of Abramoff Scandal
An unabashed champion of unrestricted drilling for oil and downsizing of national parks,Secretary Norton, in her letter of resignation to President Bush, stated: ""Now I feel it is time for me to leave this mountain you gave me to climb, catch my breath, then set my sights on new goals to achieve in the private sector,........." It is a matter of time before she lands in a high-paying position as a lobbyist in the energy industry or as a consultant for it. Good riddance. People are waking up. Policies, domestic and foreign, of the Bush administration are no longer considered sacrosanct. For the president, Secretary Norton was the ideal person at DOI, always ready to expand drilling rights and move toward privatization of our national parks. While it would be naive to expect drastic changes in the way the Bush administration operates, the pace of the destructive anti-environment policies could slow down.
