After listening to all those delegates chanting "drill, baby, drill" last night I thought about James Watt. For those of you who weren't around in the early 1980s, Watt was Ronald Reagan's first Secretary of the Interior, a strong proponent of exploitation of the environment. He didn't last very long.
"We will mine more, drill more, cut more timber."
--Secretary of the Interior James Watt
"A left-wing cult dedicated to bringing down the type of government I believe in."
--James Watt, describing environmentalists
link
Bush went a step further by appointing Gale Norton to the same position, a woman sometimes referred to as "James Watt in a skirt". But she was for more than that.
Adoption of Norton's agenda would mean one of two things: Either the government would have to pay polluters not to pollute, and thus the Bush administration would have to set up a corporate welfare program so large that it would make a farm bureau lobbyist blush, or it would have to repeal most of our health, safety and environmental laws. The second alternative is the one Norton clearly prefers. She notes: "If the government must pay compensation when its actions interfere with property rights, then its regulatory actions must be limited." She views this "chilling effect on regulation" to be "something positive."
link
After listening to all the verbiage during the Republican convention I heard nothing which would lead me to believe that a McCain administration would make a Secretary of Interior appointment any different than Reagan or Bush.
So what happened to James Watt? He resigned 18 days after making the following statement about the makeup of a coal leasing commission:
We have every kind of mix you can have. I have a black, I have a woman, two Jews and a cripple."
--James Watt, September 21, 1983
He eventually became a lobbyist and was indicted for perjury and obstruction of justice in 1995 but pled guilty to a misdemeanor in 1996.
Just one more bon mot from the guy:
During a March 1991 dinner event organized by the Green River Cattlemen's Association in Wyoming, Watt said, "If the troubles from environmentalists cannot be solved in the jury box or at the ballot box, perhaps the cartridge box should be used."[17][18]
wikipedia