Kempthorne: Interior cleaned house at agency

BOISE – Former Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne, who served as President George W. Bush’s Secretary of the Interior from 2006 to January of 2009, has been mum since leaving office about the scandal at Interior’s Minerals Management Service, but he broke his silence last week.

“On Sept. 18, 2008, I unequivocally told Congress that the conduct disgusted me and there would be prompt personnel action,” Kempthorne told a congressional committee. “Because that action was under way, I was advised by Interior’s lawyers that I could not discuss it in detail. Now I can, including the fact that we fired people.”

The Minerals Management Service, the Interior Department agency that collects oil and gas royalties, was hit by an ethics scandal that the New York Times reported in September 2008 included “allegations of financial self-dealing, accepting gifts from energy companies, cocaine use and sexual misconduct.” The paper said then that reports showed the agency was “riddled with conflicts of interest, unprofessional behavior and a free-for-all atmosphere for much of the Bush administration’s watch.”

Kempthorne, who along with his predecessor, Gale Norton, and current Obama Administration Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, was called to testify before a congressional subcommittee investigating the BP oil spill, said, “Those involved were fired, retired, demoted or disciplined to the maximum extent permissible. The facts are that all of these actions were taken before we left office.”

Kempthorne also told the panel that he never anticipated a disastrous oil spill like the BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico, but no one else did, either, including Congress. When he testified to congressional committees as interior secretary, Kempthorne said, he was asked why Interior wasn’t doing more to expand offshore drilling, not less – questions that came at a time of $4-per-gallon gas prices.

“I do not envy my successor,” the former two-term governor and U.S. Senator said. “It is easy to second-guess and criticize.” He noted that when he was secretary, “There had not been a major oil spill in 40 years.” All planning for future drilling, he said, will be forever changed by the disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. “Never again will decision makers not include planning for events that might be low-probability events, but which, in the unlikely event they occurred, would be catastrophic.”

War of words

A political war of words between the state’s top party leaders continued this past week, with Norm Semanko, Idaho Republican Party chairman, issuing a statement sharply critical of Idaho Democratic Party Chairman Keith Roark’s guest opinion the week before, which was entitled, “You Have Been Invited to Leave the Idaho GOP” and derided the “fringe element now running the Idaho Republican Party,” saying Idaho voters are “tired of one party rule and your loyalty oaths.”

Semanko called Roark’s statement “sad” and an “attempt to mislead Idahoans and spread falsehoods about what took place at the Idaho Republican Party State Convention in Idaho Falls when he wasn’t even there.” He went on to charge that the Democrats are the only party in Idaho using a “loyalty oath,” citing the pledge participants must sign to take part in Democratic presidential selection caucuses.

Idaho Democratic Party Executive Director Jim Hansen disputed that, calling the comparison “intellectually dishonest.” The pledge used at Democratic caucuses is a national party requirement to make sure voters don’t participate in both parties’ caucuses in the same election, he said; in many states, Republicans as well as Democrats hold caucuses.

Here’s the wording: “I am or will be a qualified elector by Nov. 4 for the 2008 general election. I reside in (blank) County, and I am a member of the Democratic Party. Should the party desire to publish my name as such, I hereby agree.”

Semanko wrote, “Contrast that with what was added to our Party platform this year that simply asks candidates in the primary election to disclose to their fellow Republicans if they agree with the principles of the Idaho Republican Party Platform, and if they disagree to point out where. No loyalty oath here. Can you say double standard?!”

‘Courage’ award for Wasden

Idaho Attorney General Lawrence Wasden has been awarded the “Courage in Public Service Award” from the Conference of Western Attorneys General, presented at the group’s annual meeting in Santa Fe.

The award, which has only been presented four times and was last given out in 2004, recognizes an attorney general who “has acted with courage and integrity to uphold the office of the attorney general, above and beyond the high standards always expected of its occupants,” the group said.

Wasden notably pressed charges against public officials of his own party for official misconduct, including former Boise Mayor Brent Coles, and he’s most recently challenged the state Land Board – on which he serves – over the constitutionality of a cottage-site rent plan.

Karen White, the group’s executive director, said Wasden was recognized for “placing himself in a position of political peril with his peers, in order to better the state of affairs for the people of Idaho and throughout the country,” and that he “is an effective leader because he consistently does what he thinks follows his legal obligations and responsibilities of office and lets the chips fall where they may.”

‘Us versus them’

The Idaho Association of Commerce and Industry, the influential lobby group that represents the state’s largest businesses, sent out a statement last week warning Idahoans to beware of “candidates of every political persuasion” who call for promoting small businesses. “In reality, the real cynical political motivation for touting ‘small business’ is to create an ‘us versus them’ mentality that is not only a misrepresentation of reality, but a dangerous path of rhetoric that leads to an economic caste system,” warned IACI President Alex LaBeau.

A texting ban …

The police department of the largest city in the state is banning texting while driving for its officers on patrol, an interesting move after the Idaho Legislature this year failed to pass such a ban for all Idaho drivers, even with an exemption in it for law enforcement and emergency workers.

“There’s growing evidence that texting takes a driver’s eyes off the road for too long, and sadly, already has been a deadly distraction on our roads,” Boise Police Chief Mike Masterson told the Associated Press. “We have to follow the same safety advice we give to the people we serve – do not text and drive.”