As we go through this election season try to remember what it was like when the GOP was in charge:
There are the ones you know why you hate:
George W. Bush
Dick Cheney
Donald Rumsfeld
Alberto Gonzales
John Ashcroft
Christine Todd Whitman
Gale Norton
Spencer Abraham
Condoleeza Rice
Harriet Miers
John Poindexter
Paul Wolfowitz
Richard Perle
John Negroponte
John Bolton
After the jump we'll remind you of the ones they appointed who affected everyday life for millions, but whose names you may not know:
James Connaughton, defender of General Electric in Superfund fights with the EPA, was chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality and Director of the White House Office of Environmental Policy from 2001 to 2009.
Linda J. Fisher, a Monsanto lackie, was EPA Deputy Administrator, Assistant Administrator - Office of Prevention, Pesticides and Toxic Substances, Assistant Administrator - Office of Policy, Planning and Evaluation, and Chief of Staff to the EPA Administrator. Now a Dupont lackie.
William G. Myers, a former lobbyist for the National Cattlemen's Beef Association and a long-time advocate for the grazing and mining industries became Solicitor for the Interior Department (the Department which regulates the grazing and mining industries). Bush tried (and failed) to have him appointed to the Court of Appeals.advocate for the grazing
Anti-regulation zealot John Graham served as the influential administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. From Sourcewatch... "John Graham's appointment to the OIRA was hotly contested by scientists, doctors, public health professionals and environmental, consumer and labor organizations, as well as many of his own academic peers, who questioned his science and his ethical practices. His application of cost-benefit analyses to industrial pollution is controversial and tends to favor polluters by systematically overstating the costs of regulation to industry and underestimating the cost to those affected. As founding director of the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis, his acceptance of funding from America's largest corporate polluters, including Dow Chemical, DuPont, Monsanto, Alcoa, Exxon, General Electric and General Motors, was considered a conflict of interest...." According to Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., under Graham's supervision "[the] Environmental Protection Agency has halted work on 62 environmental standards, the federal Department of Agriculture has stopped work on 57 standards, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration has halted 21 new standards. The EPA completed just two major rules--both under court order and both watered down at industry request--compared to 23 completed by the Clinton administration and 14 by the Bush Sr. administration in their first two years."
J. Steven Griles, a lobbyist for the National Mining Association, served as deputy secretary of the Department of the Interior where he spent his time directing the agency to streamline permitting for mountain top removal strip mining and to drop consideration of any options for more environmentally benign alternatives to those practices despite overwhelming scientific evidence of environmental destruction from the technique. When not busy desecrating the environment, he was conspiring with Jack Abramoff and directing payoffs to his girlfriend, Italia Federici. In 2007 he pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice charges and Federici pleaded guilty to tax evasion and obstruction of justice. The Judge, who doubled his prison sentence, told him at the time "Even now, you continue to minimize and try to excuse your conduct."
Mark Rey, a timber industry lobbyist, served as Agriculture Undersecretary for Natural Resources and Environment. His duty was to monitor the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service and Natural Resource Conservation Service. According to Wiki "Throughout his career, he has opposed setting aside reserves for endangered species, while advocating logging quotas for old-growth forests, the imposition of fees for recreational use, and limiting public participation Forest Service planning. In February, 2008, Rey was threatened with jail by federal judge Donald Molloy of Missoula for contempt of court. Rey had been ordered to have the Forest Service evaluate the environmental impacts of air-dropped ammonium phosphate fire retardants that are known to harm fish. Rey initially refused to comply with the order, but agreed to cooperate only when faced with the prospect of prison time."
Terrance Boyle, an opponent of civil rights and disabilities legislation, was a failed nominee to the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Dr. W. David Hager a Christian conservative MD in the area of (what else?) women’s health and reproduction, headed up the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) Reproductive Health Drugs Advisory Committee, where he was instrumental in the FDA overriding its own advisory committee’s recommendation to make Plan B available without a prescription. Divorced in 2002 and again in 2007. You can Google the allegations of sexual misconduct for yourself. You won’t be surprised.
After a career representing oil, gas, mining and lumber interests, Rebecca Watson became the Interior Department's assistant secretary for land and minerals management. She allegedly had strong ties to the ultraconservative, anti-environmental litigation group, Mountain States Legal Foundation.
Otto Reich... Because the GOP believes you can’t have enough Reagan/Iran-Contra era hardliners holding down important government jobs having to do with Cuba and Latin America.
David Lauriski, an ex-mining company executive, became Assistant Secretary of Labor for Mine Safety and Health.
This who was in charge of your natural resources, clean air, clear water, workplace safety, food safety, drug safety...when the GOP ran the show and don’t you forget it.
Every seat, every election counts.