Obama’s “Shit List”

 Political loyalty and corporate interests above law, science, and the public interest

Book confirms EPA’s Lisa Jackson as loyal soldier and pliant bureaucrat

It is widely known that President Obama has a “kill list”  (see NY Times: Secret “Kill List” Proves a Test of Obama’s Principles and Will.)

But only a handful of beltway insiders and corporate lobbyists seem to know that Obama also has a “Shit List”.

And that former Corzine DEP Commissioner and EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson avoided Obama’s “Shit List” and did what she had to do once she was on the “Shit List”.

The existence of the Obama “Shit List” was disclosed in a new book by Obama’s “Regulatory Czar” Cass Sunstein, perhaps the most powerful player in the Obama White House.

According to Sunstein, he had the power to put issues on Obama’s “Shit List”:

In his revealing book, Sunstein tells us why: It is because he, Sunstein, had the authority to “say no to members of the president’s Cabinet”; to deposit “highly touted rules, beloved by regulators, onto the shit list“; to ensure that some rules  “never saw the light of day”;  to impose cost-benefit analysis “wherever the law allowed”; and to “transform cost-benefit analysis from an analytical tool into a “rule of decision,” meaning that “[a]gencies could not go forward” if their rules flunked OIRA’s cost-benefit test. 

(see: Sunstein’s ‘Simpler Government’ Is Legally Suspect, Overly Secretive And Politically Unaccountable

Just think for a moment how arrogant and outrageous Sunstein’s admissions of his role in contributing to the “Shit List” are.

He effectively had -and routinely exercised – the power to gut environmental laws passed by Congress.

He abused an economic tool – cost-benefit analysis – to over-ride protections of public health and the environment that were legally authorized and scientifically justified.

He over-rode the recommendations of the President’s Cabinet, who had been confirmed by the US Senate.

He provided back door access to and elevated corporate interests over the public interest, based on largely secret industry meetings.

And this was all done with virtually no knowledge of the American people, Congress, or the media.

Sunstein, now a professor at Harvard Law School, even had the balls to BRAG in a book about how he acted – at times beyond his legal authority –  to undermine science, democracy and Constitutional government – and all to promote corporate economic interests.

(BTW, Sunstein didn’t leave the Administration under a dark cloud, but on good terms with Obama, who recently appointed Sunstein to the important NSA Oversight panel. So one could argue that Sunstein never really left!)

And now we get to the NJ dimensions of this story.

Sunstein could not have acted with arrogance and impunity to block EPA regulations if the EPA Administrator had strength, integrity, and independence.

No EPA Administrator with a spine would have tolerated Sunstein’s illegal and ill advised interventions to over-ride her recommendations based on law and science. She would have taken Sunstein on 1 on 1 with the President.

And if she lost those internal debates, she would have leaked the story to Congress, the media, and environmental groups to push back and prevail.

Or resigned in protest.

The EPA Adminsitrator at the time was former Corzine DEP Commisisoner Lisa Jackson.

We were not impressed with Jackson’s tenure at EPA and explained why when she resigned.

But well before that, we opposed Jackson’s candidacy, with objections that are now clearly validated by Sunstein’s book.

In opposing Jackson’s confirmation by the US Senate, we wrote that Jackson would put political loyalty above the law, science, and the public interest:  (see WHY LISA JACKSON SHOULD NOT RUN EPA – Disastrous Record in New Jersey Bodes Ill for Reforming EPA):

In our experience, Lisa Jackson is cut out of the same professional cloth as the current administrator, Stephen Johnson – a pliant technocrat who will follow orders. If past is prologue, one cannot reasonably expect meaningful change if she is appointed to lead EPA.

Well, this looks ilk another case of “I told you so”.

But you don’t have to take my word for it – read Sunstein’s book.