Would You Like My Resignation With That?

Julie MacDonald was a deputy assistant secretary at the the U.S. Interior Department, and like so many of President Bush's appointees she was inclined to tell scientists their business. According to the New York Times, MacDonald browbeat agency biologists or overruled them to favor industry, but don't take their word for it. MacDonald resigned in disgrace in May after an internal review found that she violated federal rules by giving government documents to industry lobbyists. Now, her boss, H. Dale Hall who is director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, has brought forth eight of MacDonald's decisions up for review and stated they will likely be overturned.

MacDonald joins other Bush appointees like 23 year old George C. Deutsch, a college dropout who was made a public affairs officer at NASA after working on Bush's re-election campaign. Deutch directed agency workers to limit reports' access to a top climate scientist because of his statements on global warming, and he told a web designer to add the word "theory" after every mention of the Big Bang.

And then there was Philip Cooney, a former oil industry lobbyist who was appointed chief of staff of the Council on Environmental quality. When Cooney testified before Congress he said, "My sole loyalty was to the president and advancing the policies of his administration."

It's disgraceful that this administration's appointees can't have any loyalty to their civic duty or to good science.