Given
this news, I think I'm going to start calling this the Bob McAbramoff administration.
Check it out.
Virginia governor-elect Bob McDonnell has named to his cabinet a Bush administration official who was a key liaison to Jack Abramoff.
McDonnell, a Republican, announced today that Doug Domenech will be his secretary of natural resources.
During the Bush administration, Domenech served at the Department of the Interior as a liaison to the White House. In 2005, Wayne Smith, the point man at Interior for Indian casino policy, told the Denver Post (via Nexis) that Domenech would take calls from Abramoff operative Italia Federici, who would inform him of what Abramoff wanted. Domenech would then convey the message to Smith.
Said Smith: "Doug would come down and say, 'Italia called and Jack wants this.' That's how it all happened internally."
So, Bob McDonnell hasn't even taken office yet and he's already made three terrible, wildly unethical decisions: 1) he
"[set] the bar as low as possible" by allowing his nominee as Commerce and Trade Secretary to "head up business policy-making for the administration while also serving on the boards of major companies doing business in the state;" 2) he
"kept digging" by "decid[ing] that all of his cabinet secretaries can serve on corporate boards;" and 3) he appointed Jack Abramoff's ally at Bush's Interior Department to be Virginia's Secretary of Natural Resources. At this rate, we'll be starting impeachment hearings before McDonnell even takes the oath of office. Also, for any Republicans out there ready to leap to McDonnell's defense, I would simply ask, how would you be reacting if Creigh Deeds had been elected governor and had taken the equivalent actions as Bob McDonnell? Yeah, I thought so.
