Rocky Mountain Low

Gale Norton: Dear John, I'm going back to Denver.

Interior Secretary Gale Norton Resigns:

WASHINGTON — Interior Secretary Gale Norton resigned Friday after five years in President Bush's Cabinet and at a time when her agency is part of a lobbying scandal over Indian gaming licenses.

In a letter to Bush, Norton said she the resignation would be effective at the end of March.

"Now I feel it is time for me to leave this mountain you gave me to climb, catch my breath, then set my sights on new goals to achieve in the private sector," she said in the two-page resignation letter.

[...]

In 1996 she sought the Republican Senate nomination in Colorado but was defeated by Wayne Allard, who now holds the seat. Later she co-founded the Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy, a group that has become embroiled in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal.

It's nice to re-visit the villains of those innocent days-gone-by. That quaint time before 9-11 'changed everything', the invasion of Iraq, the Halliburton no-bid scandal, 2004 election irregularities, Katrina/FEMA debacle, America as surveillance state, President as above-the-law monarch, the outing of CIA NOC Valerie Plame, the Jack Abramhoff scandal, the DeLay scandal, the corporate malfeasance and somnambulistic SEC scandals a la Enron, direct attacks on Roe v. Wade, polls showing 6 out of 10 Americans say the Bush Administration is dead wrong on most everything, the UAE / DP World port security thing... (I'm sure I left something out*). Those were simpler times. Simple like country livin' and Country Time lemonade**. BTW, this is lemonade I've been drinking for the past 5+ years, isn't it?

Good luck Gale.

You were the very first, teeney-tiny, drop of piss in my lemonade.

Update 3/10/2006 3:08 PM: More on the (piss) reign of Gale here.

* Update 3/10/2006 3:29 PM: Leave something out? You bet your pulpified legs I did! Abu-Ghraib, Gitmo, extraordinary rendition, Alberto Gonzales, glow sticks, water boarding and more!.

** Update 3/13/2006 12:51 PM: Also, Environmental Working Group says look out for benzene in your Country Time Lemonade but this has nothing to do with Gail Norton. Just like Cadbury's 'Project Denver' from late 1990 has nothing to do with Gail's alma mater University of Denver. Mmmm... benzene.