As oil spilled into the Gulf, the Interior Department Chief vacationed in the Grand Canyon
As the days go by it is becoming more and more obvious that the federal government’s response to the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico was inadequate to say the least. While Joe Gibbs claims that the administration has been all over this oil spill since day one, all of the evidence says otherwise.
The latest report claims that the chief of staff of the Department of the interior– the department that is in charge of coordinating the federal response to the oil spill– Tom Strickland, went on vacation in the Grand Canyon three days AFTER it was learned that the pipeline was leaking and only after it was realized the disaster was worse than was initially thought did he bother to return to coordinate the effort that he was charged with. He claims that while on this vacation he was still focused on work, but it seems highly unlikely that he would be able to coordinate the federal response to this crisis while he was white water rafting.
Once it was learned that the pipeline was leaking the responsible thing for Strickland to do would be to postpone this “work related” white water rafting trip but he instead decided to let his deputy chief of staff handle the crisis because he couldn’t be bothered. This is a serious case of misplaced priorities.
SOme people have claimed that this is “Obama’s Katrina” and there is one similarity that is striking. In both cases in the immediate aftermath it wasn’t realized how problematic the situation was. I remember right after Katrina seeing reports on television talking about how New Orleans had dodged a bullet. It wasn’t for several hours after the hurricane that the levees began to break. With the oil spill in the gulf, the same seems to be true, the extent of the problem was not immediately known. It will be interesting to see if the Obama administration is held to the same standards of responsibility for this disaster as Bush was for Katrina. I’m just asking for a little consistency here.
America's Watchtower 
Hey, at least he was supporting Arizona!
Can you believe the manufactured outrage over a state actually trying to protect it’s citizens and the liberal media spin on it?
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I didn’t think of it that way, you are right, at least he is supporting Arizona! The outrage is particularly manufactured when you learn that the new Arizona law is almost identical to the federal law.
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Obama held to the same standards…I doubt it.
I think I would be highly embarrassed if it was discovered I was on vacation as this was happening.
On the other hand, maybe he was able to stay on top of what was happening via technology?
What a mess. The far reaching implications of all this all is probably going to be far beyond anything any of can imagine. We probably won’t be able to assess the true damage for years to come.
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I think he probably could have received updates while on vacation, but his mind could not be fully into the problem.
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Let’s be clear here. The Obama administration responded within 24 hours to the oil spill. Tom Strickland is only the chief of staff, not the head of the department. The department can run quite well without his presence. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and the U.S. government responded to the BP Oil Spill immediately after the explosion on the night of April 20. That’s just fact. Let’s quit trying to demonize every move made by the administration and try applying a little more common sense to the discussion.
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Did you feel the same way after Katrina?
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Steve, Katrina was a total breakdown of ALL levels of Government- from Mayor Nagin, to the State Of Louisiana, on up to Bush and the federal government. The difference here is that we had advance notice that Katrina could potentially be a disaster in the making several days out, yet everyone still sat on their hands and pretended that everything was OK.
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