A report in the Washington Post this morning begins as follows:
Last summer, Scott Pruitt left his job heading the Environmental Protection Agency and within a few months had started consulting for coal magnate Joseph W. Craft III. Three weeks after leaving the Interior Department, energy counselor Vincent DeVito joined Cox Oil Offshore, which operates in the Gulf of Mexico, as its executive vice president and general counsel. Now, Joe Balash — who oversaw oil and gas drilling on federal lands before resigning from Interior on Friday — is joining a foreign oil company that is expanding operations on Alaska’s North Slope.
Frankly, I am relaxed about this sort of thing. (Relatively relaxed.) Maybe I shouldn’t be, but I am. I remember what Mike Deaver said in the middle 1980s, when he was making a pile in lobbying: “I wonder what people thought I was going to do when I left the White House — be a brain surgeon?”
At the same time, I am not relaxed about the “Drain the Swamp” rhetoric, which is mindless, arrogant, and false. Do business as usual if you like, guys — but spare us the “Drain the Swamp” talk, please. Thank you.
P.S. “Swamp” is the rhetoric of today. When I was coming of age, and learning about politics, it was “revolving door.” What will it be tomorrow?