Situation Normal: All Cronied Up

Bush has chosen Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne to replace Gale Norton as Interior Secretary.

Think Progress notes:

In 2003, Kempthorne was rumored to be Bush’s choice to head the EPA. He didn’t end up getting the job, but Knight-Ridder wrote this analysis:

During Kempthorne’s four-and-a-half-year tenure as governor, Idaho’s pristine air has gotten dirtier, more rivers have been polluted, fewer polluters have been inspected and more toxins have contaminated the air, water and land, according to a Knight Ridder analysis of Idaho pollution data from EPA and state records.

Kempthorne has very close ties to the same industries he would oversee in the Interior Department. In his last reelection campaign, he raised $86,000 “from timber, mining and energy industries” that wanted greater access to national forests in his state:

Two of Kempthorne’s top three donors for the 2002 campaign were the Coeur D’Alene Mines Corp., which gave $13,922, and the Potlatch Corp., a forest products company, which gave $12,034, according to the non-partisan Institute on Money in State Politics.

Please resume your regularly scheduled concern for our country’s future and contempt for this lousy administration.