Cleanups of Spill and an Agency Test Salazar

When President Obama boasted in his televised address on Tuesday about his team of leaders fighting the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, he spoke glowingly of his energy secretary, his Coast Guard commander, even his Navy secretary. Then he turned to Ken Salazar, his interior secretary. “When Ken Salazar became my secretary of the interior, one of his very first acts was to clean up the worst of the corruption at this agency,” Mr. Obama said, referring to Mr. Salazar’s oversight of the Minerals Management Service, the agency responsible for regulating offshore drilling. “But it’s now clear that the problem there ran much deeper, and the pace of reform was just too slow.” Shortly before the speech, the White House announced that Mr. Salazar would be getting a powerful new deputy, Michael R. Bromwich, a veteran investigator and former prosecutor, to supervise the remaking of the minerals service. What was not mentioned was that Mr. Salazar had appointed two aides to do the same job just a month before, and that Mr. Bromwich’s new assignment essentially reversed not only that move but also perhaps Mr. Salazar’s entire overhaul plan for the minerals service. Mr. Salazar’s job is not in immediate jeopardy, and the president values the work he has done and will continue to do at the Interior Department, said Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary. But a senior administration official, who spoke of a delicate personnel matter only on the condition of anonymity said, “The president and the White House are watching very, very closely the pace of reform at Interior to see that progress is being made that truly cleans it up.”...more