The Revolving Door

Bushie EPA politicos make out well. But it has nothing to do with their "services" while at the EPA. Oh no. No, no, no.

The Natural Resources Defense Council attacked the plans of John Pemberton, chief of staff to EPA's assistant administrator for air and radiation, to go to work for Southern Co. just "a week after the Environmental Protection Agency issued a final rule gutting a key Clean Air Act provision."

But that's not all:

Greg Wetstone, the NRDC's advocacy director, said the group is also concerned about Edward D. Krenik, EPA's associate administrator for congressional and intergovernmental relations, who started Tuesday at Bracewell & Patterson. The law firm represents the Electric Reliability Coordinating Council, a utility advocacy group that lobbied for the rule change.

Now this pisses me off. I was a Clinton Administration official and wasn't exactly flooded with high-paid job offers when I left the administration at high noon, January 20, 2001. That's the problem with being a Democrat. Republicans have countless businesses and business associations they can get high-paying jobs at when their government "service" ends. Or there are several very well endowed right-wing think tanks.

For us Democrats, there's uh, well, unions, most of whom are generally straining to avoid layoffs (and aren't exactly expanding their health and safety departments these days), or a few underfunded think tanks. Some higher level officials (higher than I) go to work for the big public affairs/political consulting firms, but most of them are "bi-partisan" these days -- which means they're hardly on the cutting edge of progressive politics.

Such is life inside the beltway.