It has finally happened! Someone has stood up to the Republican’s constant and appalling use of Nazi’s when talking about…well everyone who isn’t them, or so it seems. The Hillis reporting that the head of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement (BOEMRE), Michael Bromwich has had enough of that kind of thing and has canceled a scheduled visit to the Gulf of Mexico Regional office by Rep. Jeff Landry (R-of course!) of Louisiana over his comparison of the office to the Gestapo.
Let’s back up a little bit and explain just how we got to this point. On Sept 2nd Rep. Landry made an unannounced appearance at the Gulf office and wanted a meeting with staff about a permitting matter.
When that meeting was denied he told a news paper in New Orleans that the people at the office acted like “the CIA and the Gestapo”. What did they do at BOEMRE that was so heinous? From the Times-Picayune story:
Landry said he had to wait 20 minutes in the lobby for an agency official to come down and inform him that the top officials in the office weren't in the office and that he would have to return another time. Landry said he wanted to learn about some stalled permits brought to his attention by a constituent.
He said he wasn't given access to the employee overseeing the permits. Landry said he eventually received a copy of the agency's staff telephone directory, but only after he threatened to file a Freedom of Information Act request.
That’s right, he was made to wait and then told there was no one to talk to him! Oh the humanity! At the time that he went to brow beat some public employees he was able to schedule a meeting with the office for Sept. 30th. That meeting has been canceled and Director Bromwich is not mincing any words in his letter letting the Freshman Republican know the meeting is canceled. From the Hill article:
In light of your defamatory remarks, our Gulf of Mexico Regional Office has asked me to advise you that its personnel will not be available to meet with you on Sept. 30, as previously arranged.
Snip
Bromwich, in the letter, said BOEMRE personnel in the Gulf of Mexico office are “deeply offended” and “disturbed” by Landry’s remarks. “They are aware, as I am sure you are, that the Gestapo was the German internal security police under the Nazis, known for its terrorist methods,” Bromwich wrote. “Your comparison of the minor inconvenience you experienced to the tactics and methods of the Nazi secret police is simply unacceptable from anyone, but especially from a public official.”
Man! That has got to leave a mark! Talk about laying it out in plain language. This is the kind of thing that more people who are compared to the Nazi’s should act. If the Republicans can’t be civil and keep to even the appearance of reason, then there is no reason to reward them by meeting with them.
Of course Rep. Landry is acting like he is the wronged one. It is well known that he wants to have permits sped up so that people can be put back to work in the Gulf, which will benefit his constituency. The problem is the BOEMRE was formed in response to the arbitrarily fast permitting process that allowed the Deep Water Horizon disaster to happen.
Now, I will say that it is not a good idea for Executive Branch agencies to get into pissing matches with members of Congress, but when one of those members has gone as far as Rep. Landry has in insulting an entire agency and a particular office then it seems reasonable to me that they put his requests at the bottom of the pile for a while.
The way that he has tried to bully them is completely shameful and it is pretty clear that he intended to do the same in the original “drop by”. That this odious thug got his nose smacked with a newspaper is only what he deserved. So stay tuned Kossacks, this is not over yet!
The floor is yours!