Griles Grilled

Steven Griles is another disgraced bush appointee. The former high profile oil and gas lobbyist who was appointed as the Deputy Secretary of the Interior has pled guilty to his lying about his relationship with Lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

This whole affair could have been predicted. Griles was the oil and gas inside guy from the moment he stepped into the Department's offices on C Street in Washington. It falls right in with the whole operation of the bush administration and their willingness to deal with big risks. Griles was a big risk and they went with him and his sweetheart deals for the oil and gas industry on our country's public lands.

I have a theory about risky behavior in the bush administration. Since bush, cheney and the rest of that cabal are oil and gas guys they all have had to deal with high risk in their businesses. Drilling for oil and gas is a very risky proposition. There are big payoffs when successful and big losses when you hit a dry hole. The difference between that and running a government was lost on these guys. When you drill a dry hole you just shrug your shoulders and move on to the next drilling play. When you do something in government, think Iraq, and it comes up a dry hole, you cant just shrug your shoulders and move on. The problems you created don't just get filled with cement and forgotten. You have to deal with the consequences. In this case it will probably be the next administration that has to deal with them and of course the cost of this war will be paid by our kids.