Where are the people who are supposed to act as checks against those who abuse our trust and violate the ethics of government? Ostensibly, a Pruitt-type should not be appointed to head an agency with which he has lobbying and financial conflicts, but how was he able to survive 19 investigations and the myriad abuses he heaped upon the EPA? And now, his successor is to be more of the same?
For these crooks and cretins to invoke the name of God in support of their nefarious schemes to rob, plunder and steal from the People of the United States of America is the worst sort of blasphemy. I truly hope it catches up to them right around the second Tuesday in November, but if it's not until Judgment Day, we'll just have to wait.
25
When the Democrats take the reins of government in the next election, I have some advice for Mitch McConnell and Paul Ryan. Keep quiet. I don’t want to hear your voices. As you have managed to stay silent throughout the unprecedented corruption of this administration, in my opinion, you have forfeited your right to ever speak out against another political party. And to you, Mitch McConnell, who fought so hard to keep Obama from accomplishing good things for our country, yet by your silence support the corruption of this administration, to you I say, shame!
55
And there was Trump on TV, talking about Pruitt and his career like he was eulogizing a pope.
"Outstanding." "Tremendous progress." Blah, blah, blah.
It almost sounded like Trump had found someone he loved more than himself. Or Putin.
19
He's the perfect embodiment of the rot that afflicts our government and possibly even our country.
If it's possible for an entire nation to jump the shark, then that's exactly what America is doing these days. Once jumped, can the shark possibly be unjumped? I have my doubts.
11
Fish rots from the top.
11
Great Column. Really sums up Pruitt to a T. What do trump supporters say about Pruitt and the swamp? Don't they think he is a little swampy? trump himself said Pruitt "did a great job"....So that means your standard of "great" is Pruitt...Does this worry anyone we have a President like this?
10
If we had a sane and civil country, Pruitt would be arrested immediately.
22
I read the resignation letter long after reading this article.
Sycophant, obsequious, Well toady apparently covers the combination of the two, slavish, worshipful, sniveling, bootlicker, brownnosing, groveling flunky covers some of the impression I got of the man.
It makes me sick to my stomach that our president actually likes to be spoken to this way. Seriously what adult person speaks like this or accepts another adult speaking to them in this way?!
Look it up as sick making as it is it reveals a lot about what is going on in this administration.
19
Pruitt blamed the press for persecuting him as Trump has done for decades. Perhaps in his arrogant prima donna attitude which mirrored precisely that of his boss he thought that he could hang out in trump's shadow. But Pruitt was not the president who can rely on a shield from his Republican enablers. Rather he became the butt of much of the wrath that should be directed against Trump. In other words, Pruitt became the lightning rod and all guy for this corrupt administration. Meanwhile, Trump pretends to stand up against corruption and look presidential, a stance that is so hypocritical if it weren't laughable and sickening.
12
Can anyone tell me what "moist" means in the context of this article?
1
Lock him up!
9
Great piece--stands out among the (necessary) cascade of Pruitt commentaries. Love this line about Pruitt: a "fun-sized Trump-in-training." Very funny, very true, well done.
15
No problem with Chick-fil-A? According to 'Mother Jones,' "Pruitt has his eye on higher political office, and the Chick-fil-A brand carries weight in Republican political circles—it’s the go-to catering spot for GOP meetings.
"That’s because of the private company’s evangelical roots, which go back to its founder S. Truett Cathy, who died in 2014 but was committed to running a Christian company. Chick-fil-A is closed on Sundays, often puts sayings from the Bible on its styrofoam cups, and has in the past lobbied against same-sex marriage and contraception coverage."
www.motherjones.com/environment/2018/06/no-wonder-scott-pruitt-wanted-a-...
I believe one of Pruitt's faux explanations even suggested he was looking for some 'godly' company for his wife.
7
President Clinton was crucified in the news for getting a haircut on Air Force One at LAX. Republicans gleefully latched onto this story and its accompanying lies (https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/bill-clinton-hairgate/) and screamed bloody murder.
Trump, his family, and people like Pruitt are ripping of the American people and Republicans won't say a thing. Hate is not a strong enough word for how I feel about Republicans and their base.
39
Does anyone remember the antics of Anne Gorsuch, Reagan's appointee to head (and downsize) the EPA? See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anne_Gorsuch_Burford
This is one of the many reasons that Trump appointed her son Neil to the Supreme Court. Like mother, like son.
12
And what of the oil and gas lobbyists and their employers that paid Pruitt when he was in office in OK and in DC ? How do those CEO`s look into the mirror everyday and say what ?
America , stand up , show the rest of the world that you are better than Trump and his swamp creature abettors. When will there be a million person march every weekend shaking the gates of the WH off their hinges and visiting the offices of the GOP & Trump`s cabinet with virtual barrels of tar & feathers ? WHEN ?
13
What Mr. Bruni calls moist is what formerly was called by words more suited to the petroleum industry such as greasy or unctuous slippery or self anointed.
6
Well, Pruitt was known for his moisturizer.
6
Scott Pruitt was greedy AND stupid. In this administration it's almost admirable to be greedy but Mr. Pruitt was so blatant that if he weren't trying to destroy our environment - moral and physical - he would be laughable, a clown car of an administrator.
By rolling back regulations quietly, living simply for a few years, the energy industry would have rewarded him. He was on the road to riches. Or does he know something we don't - that anyone associated with Donald Trump will go down in flames, toxic to the touch, so grab it all while you can.
Breaking federal laws in the process is probably not the smartest plan. Like I said, a dollop of stupid to go with his greed. Will the lobbyists still want him? Probably, his evil has not been fully mined.
4
While it is unknown the final total of the tens of millions of dollars Pruitt cost the taxpayers, that price pales compared to the damage he has done to our planet. It will take decades to undo much of the desecration his edicts have inflicted on our waterways, atmosphere, and our earth's substructure. Ask the people of Oklahoma about their devastating earthquakes he has created because of fracking legislation.
Pruitt being removed because of his lack of financial ethics is like Al Capone finally going to prison for tax evasion. Capone was only responsible for a couple hundred deaths... Pruitt's EPA rulings will cause at least 10 times more than that!
And you know what is really horrible? Through all of this unethical behavior, we never hear a threat of criminal prosecutions that should end in 8 digit fines and 2 digit jail terms. How about if you or I was a government employee and via falsified expense reports scammed the Fed for millions of dollars?
Plus, with all the allegations what are basically bribes, every planet poisoning edict from the EPA should be reversed until they are proven to be untainted.
12
"Pruitt served an important function in this White House. I do hope that we gave him proper credit for that. It fell to him to embody the entire Trump ethos — grab what you can, exploit your insider status, lift nepotism to an art form and never fly coach — in one high-ranking official."
If we didn't give him "proper credit," then it's comforting to know that history surely will. In the meantime I hope some enterprising resister will spray-paint the four Pruittian Precepts — grab what you can, exploit your insider status, lift nepotism to an art form and never fly coach — on his driveway in big neon letters.
8
Frank, you might try to tone down your hatred and thereby make your column a bit more credible. Being "gauche" is not a crime and having an aide that orders $135 ceremonial pens is not atypical. Of course many of Pruitt's transgressions are reprehensible, but you find it necessary to pile on with trivia or ad hominem attacks. Shameful for someone who purports to meet the purportedly high standards of the paper of record.
Frank writes an EDITORIAL column. He does not pretend to be a news reporter, and the restrictions placed upon news reporters do not apply to editorial writers such as Frank. One reason for the joy I find in reading his columns is the jumble of extraordinary words that Frank pulls together to paint a picture. Some of these pictures are exquisite and fragile, while others are barren, lacking life and joy. It is his use of words like the ones you cite that makes his work a joy to read. I also find myself in agreement with nearly all of his conclusions. Thank you Frank Bruni.
18
Scott Pruitt has been a member of the 4500 member Baptist Church in Broken Arrow, Ok. for 30 years. For most of those years he has served as a deacon and taught Sunday school . When he became head of the EPA, his pastor rejoiced that a man of Pruitt's character, right thinking etc had been chosen for the position. I could barely finish reading the article about Pruitt having the endorsement of so many fine Christians to ignore science as they pillage God's earth for their own greed. Scott Pruitt is highly intelligent, a gift from God, that he is prostituting for his own glory and indulgence. He is putting the rest of humanity in peril because he, like all the other trumpsters have no one, not even an ordained minister, to teach the real gospel to them. The parasites are loose from the temple. Woe to all of us.
16
Pruitt is a megalomaniac who is needy at heart. As is Trump. Hence Trump's frequent and bizarre praises for the work that Pruitt had been doing.
4
Pruitt is a convenient dog for Trump to beat, despite the fact that he was allowed to resign rather than fired by tweet like Tillerson.
As Bruni says, Pruitt's self-aggrandizement and lack of ethics embodies all the worst of the Trump administration, led by the grand vizor himself.
May the same karma visit Trump very soon.
8
Pruitt is a criminal. Small time but a criminal none the less. Take a look at his time as the AG of Oklahoma. Makes for interesting reading. The guy was head of law enforcement for the state. Incredible isn't it? It's almost comical how this band of Trump led grifters expose themselves for who they really are as soon as given the national stage. So far Teflon Don has been able to let the slime slide right off. As we all know, Teflon does eventually wear out.
12
Can we PLEASE stop talking about the damn mattress and start talking about the fact that the EPA is being destroyed!!!!!!!!!!
6
Gee. Whillikers. You didn't even get to the damage that he has done to the organization that he led and its supposed role to protect our environment for safe and healthy use for the rest of us.
5
Pruitt can leave because he did what he was supposed to. The acting chief will continue to do the same but with less publicity. Since Trump is loyal only to Trump it is a simple calculus to decide when to get rid of Pruitt. At some point the “good” he is doing is outweighed by the bad PR. Now perhaps the press can actually report on the destruction being done to the environment and who benefits.
4
One can only hope that Scott Pruitt finds himself in the 4%, presently unemployed. For someone, who wanted to live big, returning to Oklahoma via coach will be humiliating. What is most disturbing is not his ridiculous case of "affluenza", it's the damage he has done to clean air and water, that degradation will go on with his successor at the EPA.
5
As Scott Pruitt departs, one question comes to mind: Specific policies aside, is the Republican totally devoid of people today to carry out the President’s wishes that also possess the character and morals that we should expect from those that serve in our government? The answer apparently is very few at least who are willing to serve either the President or our country. As the phone booth door hits Pruitt on his way out, let us hope this moral depravity ends soon.
5
With another cabinet member leaving with a huge smudge on his record, we wonder who’s next our president claimed to pick the very best people. Why are so many leaving under a cloud?
I can’t wait to see the POTUS pick.
What an apt headline! I read somewhere recentlly that the word "moist" made most people recoil.
2
It's all so insane. Used mattresses, a "cone of silence" phone booth out of Get Smart, Ritz Carlton creams, bullet proof car seats, a $120,000 trip to Italy paid for by taxpayers - all while Pruitt systematically dismantled regulations that were instituted to protect our the future of our planet and those of us who live on it.
And then, right out of the Trump game book: He blames the damned media! Insensitive to Pruitt's needs! It's their fault he had to resign. Pesky fact fakers! Interlopers, Nosey noses. Busy bodies.
And if all of this isn't enough, we have the holy Mr. Pruitt, the Oklahoman "blessed" to have worked for Trump, "blessed" to have had the opportunity to "serve." As though he was deigned this position by God.
There are days I think I have lost MY mind, surrounded by such insanity, inanity, incompetence and immorality.
9
Why don't we make him pay for all the expensive gifts he gave to himself at taxpayers expense?
5
I'm not sure what is the point of this piece. Pruitt was the bottom of the barrel in an administration that has no bottom, but we all know that. It's obvious that Trump's decision to fire him was based on Pruitt's calling more negative attention to the Trump administration than the "good" he was doing in carrying out their destructive agenda. Besides, there's a deputy in place, who will serve as Acting Administrator, whose last employment was as a lobbyist for the coal industry. Same agenda, less negative attention.
It would be useful for liberals and environmentalists (if that's not redundant) to focus on the REAL harm that Pruitt has done to this country's environment, not to mention that of the world at large, rather than on the squalid details of his greediness and mendacity. In that regard, he is just cut from the same cloth as Trump.
2
Trump should have a medal cast for his most ardent supporter. Of all the president's yes men, he has been the most accomplished. This might account for the president's approbation and the reason for his longevity (for a Trump cabinet member). Or, it might be that he had no clear rivals for his position. One thing is certain, the replacement will be equal to his predecessor. With the Republican Party in the hands of those who desire power over principle, Trump is free to bring the nation and the Constitution to ruin.
8
Scott Pruitt should be compelled to pay back the taxpayer money he stole. Then he should be proscecuted for theft.
Then he should go to jail.
Next in line - Betsy DeVos, then Trump.
8
I wish all the Okies who are as mortified as I am by Pruitt’s shenanigans would take a page the script for “The Help” and litter his yard with garbage bags in honor of all the damage he’s doing to our environment.
4
Instead of simply huffing and puffing about this execrable man's excesses, we must (a) fight Trump's continuing war on the environment, and (b) call for legal action when appropriate. I want all these grifters, from Trump down, to see the inside of a (unprivatized) prison cell.
6
When confronted about the Chick-fil-A franchise Pruitt brought Jesus into the mix by claiming Chick-fil-A is a franchise "Of Faith" .
What is that supposed to mean in a country with hundreds of religions, none of which is sanctioned ?
Evangelical hypocrites sure do come out of the woodwork in this administration.
14
SP gets to resign without any remorse or guilt expressed...no fines or prison time for him? He thinks he can just walk away without consequences? I want him to face the same justice any citizen would face for embezzling and misuse of public funds etc...who knows what he has been up to in his private phone booth and what has taken place in all of his secret meetings. We should at least get our money back from him for his unapproved expenses, unnecessary security, travel etc etc.
12
He should be indicted for theft of services.
9
Pruitt is wily enough to have some other irons in the fire , it was briefly mentioned he intends to run for either governor or senator of Oklahoma . He's not done yet , unless he ends up in jail and even if he does wriggle his way out , he will still seek public office that's where the money is . I pity the people of Oklahoma .
5
Karma for trump....amen
1
Trump, Pence, Pruitt and Congress all belong behind bars. We have homeless drunks sitting in jail waiting for their sentencing.
It does seem at times, most times?, money can buy anything. This country is now being run by criminals who are stealing from the taxpayers. US! Nobody seems interested in stopping them. Maybe if we the tax payers, all of us, descended on DC with pitchforks, tar and feathers things might change. I'm ready. Are you?
8
The new & exceptionally well-earned definition of the GOP is "Graft of Pruitt."
Slick, aren't they? They didn't think we noticed?
3
Want people to run an efficient and effective federal government? Of course you find people in the smartest states, the ones with the most important companies and universities, the ones who are the engines of the economy, like NY and MA and CA. Not! if you are a Trumpist you go to the dumbest states. like AL, OK, MS because that is where the people you feel most comfortable with reside. If they happen to be crooks, well, welcome aboard, friend.
6
You really should revive this article listing all the senators that voted in favor of confirming Pruitt's nomination - and voters should hold those senators accountable:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/02/17/us/politics/live-congress...
16
Pruitt’s gone but Trump’s still in charge; shouldn't we just change the name from the EPA to the EEA, Environment Exploitation Agency?
3
Now is the time to watch the EPA and its leadership even more closely: since the lightning rod of Scott Pruitt is out, the deregulation lobby is likely to continue pursuing its agenda without the circus spotlight upon them.
Just because the head lunatic is out of the asylum doesn't mean the rest of them don't still have the keys.
4
All done with the so-called "straight face." Who, me?
That is the most amazing part of the saga.
1
Even the Republicans have to admit that Pruitt is a ne'er do well. That takes some doing..
3
If this administration doesn't end with the sound of a jail cell closing then THERE IS NO JUSTICE!
3
Goodbye and good riddance to Scott Pruitt. If only we could get back all the tax dollars he wasted.
5
He misappropriated funds from the American people. Using his staff to do personal errands is THEFT OF SERVICES. Why is he not going to JAIL??
Oh wait--that only happens to poor people like Tonya McDowell who got five years of jail time and five years probation in 2012 for "theft of services" because she used a friend's address to enroll her son in kindergarten in Norwalk, CT when she was homeless (but her last permanent address was in Bridgeport).
8
And while we're saying good riddance to Mr. Pruitt, Carson, Mnuchin, DeVos and others are still on board, defiling all with which they have been entrusted.
5
We can only send karmic thought waves massively for the rapid demise of this rotten presidency and hope....
2
When I was a little girl, I felt by the age of 7 or 8, that I would not bring children into this world. I always felt I was going to witness something that would be too horrible to burden progeny and descendents. The catastrophes of climate change are going to come for us all. Our lack of urgency is appalling as a country. After all, don't these oil executives etc etc have children and grandchildren? To make matters worse, our Democratic way of life is slowly eroding; which will make the future even bleaker. Perhaps more powerful people than I will step up and thwart this evil administration. However, I have yet to see signs of courage, yet I remain hopeful that it could happen. In the meantime, my attendance at protests, my phone calls etc etc will continue.
4
We really need some sort of conveyor belt that transports Trump appointees directly from their offices to jail. The only exceptions should be the ones who are so dangerous they go straight to Guantanamo - Stephen Miller, perhaps.
2
Even Nixon had an idea or two, one of which was the creation of the EPA. Trump, Pruitt et al have no ideas except to break things, which of course involves no thinking. They can't iterate why they don't like things such as NATO, NAFTA, TPP, EPA, maybe they just hate acronyms? Heres a thought Scott; maybe even a bad idea, if you can manage it, is better than none at all.
2
Pruitt has compelled me to descend into levels of disgust that previously had only been rumored by my consciousness to exist.
One would not have to think all that hard to conjure up what this man must have been up to in the dark if he was brazen enough to use a Federal agency as a personal checking account.
I hope a very "special place" awaits Mr. Pruitt upon his well deserved exit from this job, and if I never have to look at another picture of his impossibly smug face ever again, it will be too soon.
4
If you're going to be a slippery character, it's really important to find exactly the right kind of grease. Thus, the Ritz Carlton to Ritz Carlton search. Can't wait for Scott's appearance on Dancing With the Stars. I anticipate a really mean paso doble.
5
A week from now Mr. Pruitt will be somewhere and he will stop and have a good laugh. He came, he saw and he got exactly what he wanted and then left. There is no mystery here. Mr. Pruitt understood the opportunity to impose his particular vision and what his backers wanted. He understood how a 'radical' manager could destabilize a bureaucracy and exact changes. A number of hungry authors will write about him and maybe there will be a stage play in a decade or so. Mr. Pruitt will be remembered, but you can be sure he will not be indicted or prosecuted.
2
His only mistake was in trumping Trump. No one is allowed to out-do Trump. This administration could gag a maggot.
3
I don't think we still fully understand what motivated Scott Pruitt while he was in office. But I believe his letter of resignation may hold some hints.
First, it doesn't contain a word of remorse for his scandalous acts. No mistakes are admitted. Instead, he blames his departure on "unprecedented" and "unrelenting attacks."
We have no reason to believe that Pruitt's resignation letter is in the least insincere. It's clear that either he isn't aware of any ethical lapses or instead doesn't believe the lapses are in any way wrong--- at least for him.
The letter is chock full of pious language. A key passage: "I believe you are serving as President today because of God’s providence. I believe that same providence brought me into your service." In this short letter, the word "bless" (or a derivative) appears four times, "god" (or derivative) twice, "providence" twice, and "pray" once.
The theme of *mission* is strong in this letter. The language of service, reform, and transformation is how he describes the role he was appointed to perform. It's clear that the seriousness and importance of that mission, as he understood it, were more than sufficient to outweigh any man-made ethical guidelines.
I would suggest that Pruitt perceives himself as an instrument of divine will. Those calling attention to his ethical lapses are doing so because they are allied with forces opposing divine will. I expect we'll see Pruitt as Implacable Christian Warrior in the future.
3
Great piece. Thanks, Frank, as always, for your wonderful insight and way with words.
4
Why did he quit now? To help bury the headline of China's Tariff going live at Midnight, because if all paid attention to that the trade war and it's potential impact, POTUS might be receiving bad publicity the on subject.
1
I'm not sure the President understands karma. Maybe in a past incarnation he did. Perhaps the current reincarnation will find its comeuppance. I definitely know that "The Donald" will not reach Brahman.
Scott has his own destination, luckily for him Oklahoma is landlocked, for now. RAW
I believe that Pruitt, like his master Trump, intends to grab all he can grab while the grabbing is good. Even if thugs like them get fired, they have plenty of money stashed away (probably offshore) so they don't have to worry. And in Pruitt's case, he knows that a lucrative position as an energy lobbyist is awaiting him. Meanwhile, Flint still doesn't have clean water.
5
Butter can also be used to moisturize dry skin, but men don't like to apply it because it leaves one feeling greasy. Pruitt was pretty slippery, and whatever else you may think of him, he managed to grease his way to a thirteen layer cake of scandal But his cake is finally cooked. There is something for everyone to appreciate in this dessert: for dems, relief that this concoction has finally slid from its baking dish, and for the gop, delight that polluters were able to give the slip to regulators for so long. All we have to look forward to now is the afterglow from this latest slip-up and a slowing growing excitement about the increasingly rising tide of blue electoral enthusiasm for the anticipated climax on November 6. Sweet.
1
Another brilliant, scathing, mouth-watering piece, Frank. Thank you. Tell it like it is and keep 'em coming.
3
How can this "deeply religious" person be so immoral?
3
I don't think Bruni intended this, but where he wrote Moist I read Mohist, and there could not be a more striking contrast to the Chinese philosopher. From the Wikipedia article on Mozi: "His philosophy emphasized self-restraint, self-reflection and authenticity rather than obedience to ritual."
Pretty funny, and it wasn't until started this comment that I saw my mistake. But what, pray tell, is a moist (moyst) mystery?
I'm thinking damp more than moist.
1
I would like a refund for taxes I paid for this guy's extravagance. He will return to Oklahoma and what, lavish in what we paid for?
Unacceptable on many levels, however will the American people demand him leaving our country or in the very least go to jail?
4
Lock him up! Pronto, and for a long time.
3
Pruitt is an abomination: venal, corrupt. But so is the person who put him in the EPA and his equally corrupt children.
Can you imagine the historians’ books that will be written about the worst president in our history?
3
And here is exactly why Trump and his minions prefer the states like Russia which are run by dictator thieves. No one in NY (or the rest of the US) will fund him or the Kushner family anymore, but there's lots and lots of money out there already stolen from the people of those countries. So, not only can you get some of that stolen money, you can also learn how to do the same to US. And, of course, Republicans are already salivating to help--wouldn't it be nice to get, say, the US Postal Service for ten cents on the dollar, or the VA, or Medicare, on and on?
It's difficult to serve as EPA Administrator when I'm being 'attacked' by the media for reporting on all the questionable & unethical things I'm doing only to enrich myself and my family while being paid as a public servant. As my (former) boss likes to say, it's just so unfair!
5
We are blessed that he's gone.
3
Did the mother and her son in the restaurant enable his blessed exit?
2
And the angry white male Trump voters - meh.
The amazing thing is how did Oklahomans suffer Pruitt as their AG for many years? I guess the Trumpies in that state do not care about their environment or water or fracking damages. As long as Pruitt was a thorn on Obama's EPA side, Trumpie Oklanhomans were happy! Earthquakes are nothing as long as Obama & the Democrats were stopped!
3
It is a measure of how far the US has fallen that our corruption scandals are now so trivial. Where once we had the Teapot Dome affair we now have Trump mattresses and phone booths. Buck up, America - Trump officials should take inspiration from Malaysia, where the $29 million in cash found in the ex-prime minister's house represents only a fraction of what he is accused of stealing!
1
I would bet he'll be back in Republican politics very soon in the great state of Oklahoma.
2
Only the WORST people . . .
2
Where was his personal security when the lady with the child approached him? Was his security & death threats all lies? There might have been a gun in the baby's diaper. He is now bound for bigger & better things. Some fossil fuel industry magnate will hire him for all the inside information he has (or has taken out of the files). Some of trump's friends will hire him as a consultant. Will he fly home first class? Just hope they search him & his luggage for government classified files or USB thumb drives.
1
The last straw is indeed a mystery, but more ot the point, will the investigations continue, or will Mr. Pruitt's story that he's a paragon of virtue pursued by fake news, be allowed to stand?
3
The boys and girls who have taken over OUR governments at all levels watch fox so-called news and hate/christian radio and, worst of all, they believed it.
Sorry, boys and girls, that is NOT reality.
WE THE PEOPLE are showing you what reality for 99% of us is by forcing you out of elected and appointed offices at every level.
99% of us do not want the kind of America and/or world you envision.
Not now. Not ever again.
10
OK, so Pruitt's corruption has been laid bare for all the public to see.
What isn't very public is the damage he's done to environmental laws and regulations, that his lower-profile successor will no doubt continue.
In this respect, Pruitt mirrors his corrupt boss, whose real damage is being done below the media's radar. If trump were to leave before his term ended, he would be replaced by the squeaky-clean Pence - an equally appalling prospect.
Media, where are you?
Democrats, where are you?
6
As offensive as Pruitt's abuse of power and wasteful spending is, the REAL offense is that Pruitt - a guy who believes that IF the earth's temperature is in fact rising it's because God is making it rise (and not humans)- was selected to head the EPA in the first place. We need to stop assuming that religious beliefs are harmless, private affairs. America's god gap is over the most important question any civilization can ask: Why do things happen the way they do? For Pruitt and the other Providentialists, everything from gun deaths, foreign affairs, the health of the economy - everything - is controlled by God. All we can do as humans to affect what happens on earth, so the thinking goes, is more/better faith. If we're right with God, God will make everything right for us. I'm sorry but the stakes are too high to continue letting this nonsense go unchecked. We don't need more faith. We need a commitment to understanding and solving our problems. America's god gap is the cause of our national paralysis. It's time we called a spade a spade.
7
I hope it comes for the Trumpster soon. America and the world are all groaning under the weight of this administrations bad behavior (illegal) and if something isn't done soon, we can be sure that there won't be much left for us to pick up and move forward with.
3
I'm beginning to long for the tranquility of the Watergate years!
2
It being reported that Pruitt asked Trump for Sessions' job was probably the last straw. He outed himself as a guy who has the capacity and gall to go to the voters in 2020 and ask them for Trump's job. Now, he's got a little blemish on his record that'll come up if he gets any wise ideas.
That's the way these guys think. Getting your name in the paper for trying to stab a team mate in the back is stabbing the head coach in the back.
2
This man is in every way an "arch criminal" in true Trump fashion. The question now is will we have the tenacity to follow through on all the investigations and eventually convict this felon and send him to federal prison? This should be a prevue of what lies ahead for the pretender in the oval office.
2
Federal employees visiting my house, "Nothing--he's not in jail."
1
We must reverse every single thing Pruitt did. There must be some republicans who honestly know and understand the damage he did and want to join dems to undo it.
5
I'll always believe in the efficacy of this administration's vetting process. They were NEVER surprised by his behavior...
MAGA MAGA MAGA
2
You could have done much better, there's so much more.
Scott Pruit makes me want to drive from Colorado to OK to protest in front of where ever he lands. However, he was the AG in that state and I have heard nothing at all about his conduct before arriving in Trumpland, except that one little glitch about a house and a weird loan... Surely his corruption and repulsive behavior didn't just start recently. Please, good people of Oklahoma, speak up and get this guy in jail.
6
Thanks Frank Bruni for this brilliant, delicious satire; it's the only way to handle such outrageous excess.
3
Well said.
2
It feels dirty just to mention his name, so I won't. He complained about the assault and pressure on his family.
You get caught stealing 13 times of course your family is under enormous pressure. The nameless one should beg on his knees for forgiveness for the shame he brought his family.
4
Trump finally has drained a corner of the swamp. Of course he is still the center, but even he could not stand the stench.
You cannot make this stuff up.
I prefer corruption that is too obvious.
1
Should we expect the Inspector General to recover the taxpayer's money that flowed like champagne?
LOLOLOL
MAGA MAGA MAGA
2
Pruitt. Manafort, Price, Flynn, Cohen, Kushner, Page, et al. And he loves Putin. Norquist wanted a president “with enough digits” to sign conservative legislation. Well, we got that, and so much more:..
4
Yes, Frank, it's coming. You just have to believe.
2
Scott Pruitt, a former deacon in his Southern Baptist church, has raised greed and avarice to a new level. I'd pray for him, but I'm not sure I can afford the bill.
9
When the person at the top is a blatant grifter, the minions gonna grift too.
5
Chick-fil-a is political. Their anti gay stance and activism is well known. Did Pruitt want a restaurant where he could go and not be harassed. Anyone with an ounce of ethics does not eat there.
4
Amen, brother! Let karma come for the so-called president!
1
Here's what concerns me: you yuk-yuk up the excesses of this idiot as if you're on stage.
A Republican congress did little of nothing here -- in essence, protecting the swamp dwellers and betraying taxpayers.
This is the real issue given we have an upcoming election -- instead of focusing on it you compete for attention with the fingerpointing yuk-yuk putdowns. How sickening.
Glad Pruitt is gone, but just watch-- he will be replaced by someone even worse and even more dedicated to destroying the planet in the name of greed. There is no bottom to the swamp of filth, corruption and pure EVIL that we call the trump administration.
4
Don't start cheering Trump's new focus on ethics; there isn't one. He just made room for a better alligator in Trump Swamp.
2
Here's an idea: can we enlist the CDC to eliminate the plague that has stricken Washington, D.C.? The symptoms are:
Unbridled greed
Unbounded ineptitude
Ethical blindness
Larcenous self-dealing
Profound ignorance
Rampant bigotry
Mind-blowing nepotism
Extreme xenophobia
Pervasive mysogeny
to name just a few. This plague makes Ebola look like the common cold and it affects the White House, the entire Cabinet and Administration, and Congress. Pruitt was just the tip of the iceberg but there is so much disease left that we need critical care. Please, CDC, find a vaccine before it's too late!
6
Avatar, the vaccine is the November vote.
5
His departure is bad news for all people in the Administration. Up to now, they have been able to say “ you can’t sack me for being on the take because Scott Pruitt is even worse than I am and you haven’t sacked him. Rearrange the following words to make a well known phrase. Head fish from rots
1
Sadly Frank we learned in South Jersey with djt that thievery, betrayals, dirty dealings and crime have no limits with these treasonous dotards. Until they are all in prison in the US, detained in Guatanamo or esported permanently to Moscow we should not rest easy.
6
Save the faux outrage for "we the people" who allowed the rat-infested cesspool in DC continue devolution to this point. The rot started long before "Slimy Scott". He was just the final proof of what we have let happen on our watch.
1
Can Pruitt be indicted for anything. I sure hope so.
4
I hate thieves. Scott Pruitt should be made to refund the government every penny he spent in excess of his governmental duties. Garnish his wages if he’s thrown in jail and works a prison job. Every last penny, or until he dies.
10
In Pruitt's case, the Washington swamp became a bottomless cesspool.
4
Another swamp creature gone. Now on to Zinke.
4
They've already convened the meeting in the board room at "Ajax Energy Industries":
"And now it is my great honor to introduce our newest member of the Board of Directors, Scott Herpes!!"
Brilliant, Mr. Bruni
3
So Pruitt resigns and just gets away with it? Here's hoping some stain sticks to this con man.
7
Scott's wife was so lame that she needed help to get a job... Now he needs one too, and he's beyond lame!
5
While it may look like it, walk like it, and sound like it, Scott Pruitt's exit is probably not due to a trump's "you're fired" moment. After all, even the king needs useful underlings to parade in front of the citizenry as distractions from all that money sucking going on in the royal treasury.
But then, trump still has Ben Carson, Betsy DeVoss, and Jeff Sessions to act all shiney, glittering themselves across the credulity chasm for the daily press inspection. These and other useful idiot shields are not easy to come by, at least not anymore.
Most name brand conservatives have become rather gun-shy in serving the donald's psychotropic playhouse of who's the deplorables' target this week? At least not until the midterms and then only if the republicans manage to keep the wind in their sails.
Otherwise Pruitt probably has Johnny Lawmen breathing down his neck, each finding a section to gnaw off until he's been vaporized into obscurity. As of now, nobody wants to be chumped off as vulture carcuss food. Watch the Birdie and snap the picture!
2
Here's your hat Scott, what's your hurry?
From Moscow to Washington D.C., this administration seems to boil down to soiled hotel mattresses...
11
"Perhaps someday soon it will come for the president as well." I suspect karma will eventually come for trump and all of his minions, but the waiting is killing all of us. His loyal sycophants probably don't even know what karma is, but eventually it will bite them all in the rear end, if not in this lifetime, but in one that will be coming. Hopefully as some lowly creature that lives in the muck, a worm perhaps. Or a bug, slapped at and despised. (Is that being too uncivil? I hope not.)
1
Sic Maxine Waters on him.
1
For Trump, Pruitt's main flaw was that he was getting too much press. Sucking the headlines away from Trump.
Remember, the only offense too grievous is to out shine Trump.
Never upstage the Donald.
Nothing else matters.
2
You forgot the Christian connection to Chick-Fil-A. All this in the name of God
2
Which one?
Farewell Scotty, poster-boy for Republican "ethics", we hardly knew you long enough to hate you.
6
The resignation letter is priceless psycho babble.
Those who cite "God" the most are almost assuredly the biggest cons and crooks.
4
In the beginning,
there was faith, which is childish;
trust, which is vain;
and illusion, which is dangerous.
Elie Wiesel "Night"
#NeverAgain2018
#StopFascism2018
#VoteBlue2018
November 6, 2018
2
From your lips to the God of Karma’s ears.
His successor must be made aware that EPA does not stand for "Environmental Plundering Administration." But, seeing as he's a former coal lobbyist, we'll likely see more of the same, if not worse. Seems Trump only associates with people who slither instead of walk.
6
It's no great mystery. It's one small step of the GOP run-up to the midterm elections. Take away some powerful arguments from the Democrats and show the world a concrete example of draining the swamp, proving that your party has no place for slimy weasels who aren't careful with taxpayer money. All for show.
I think he took the trip to Morocco to meet with Morocco Mole, Secret Squirrel's sidekick. , to discuss soil erosion.
2
Mr. Pruitt's self-pitying resignation conveys the same quality of character as his tenure not only as EPA Administrator but also throughout his long self-dealing career. Whatever "attacks" that he and his family "suffered" he entirely invited by his persistently corrupt behavior at the public trough.
Mr. Pruitt, however, was nothing more than a particularly rotten cog in President Trump's crowded cabinet of globe-damaging regression on climate. The legacy is Trump's, not Pruitt's, as Andrew Wheeler will almost surely soon show.
We may now be paying today's price of unprecedented worldwide atmospheric heating, but this is chicken scratch compared to what our children and grandchildren will pay.
4
The whole Pruittian narrative of obsessive grifting is nauseating enough, but it's the used mattress grab that really captures my attention. Hey, you can scoop up used mattresses at any curbside for free on trash collection day. Nobody needs taxpayer-funded staff for such a revolting enterprise.
This guy was a federal cabinet member, for Pete's sake. It's hard to believe until recalling the president who appointed him.
4
Frank Bruni has reviewed for us all the incredible incompetence and painful consequences of a self-serving ego driven appointee at the E.P.A. And the future leadership looks just as bleak. But what did we expect when our current President is more concerned with his image than with the harmful results of his ill informed actions.
4
There's so much to unpack with Pruitt's antics. But the one thing that keeps snagging my attention is the $120,000 trip to Italy. How on earth does one even spend that much denaro on a single trip? Italy's amazing pasta just isn't that expensive.
It takes a special talent to spend that much money - too bad it was *our* tax dollars he was spending.
5
Aside from what we know he did and didn't do in Washington, Pruitt did the same things in Oklahoma. Why was he approved?
5
The swamp turned into a cesspool and the republicans are drowning. Good. By far, this is the most disgusting administration this country has ever had. What "t" and his cohorts are doing makes Watergate look like a tea party.
They couldn't care less about the environment. Any regulation that President Obama put into place they have de-regulated. So far they haven't done anything good to serve the people that put them in office, except lie. One day those people will wake up and realize they made a huge mistake. So pruitt is gone, but the guy who is replacing him is no better.
4
YAY!!! FABULOUS! Thank you, Frank Bruni!
2
Mr. Bruni, I am surprised you did not quote some of the juicy parts of Pruitt's resignation letter. His humbleness before God gave me a good laugh last evening. I wonder what God is thinking and if He will respond?
5
Pruitt was just one more piece of poisoned fruit from a poisoned tree. As long as we "proud to be American" voters continue to plant poisoned trees, we're not going to get a different crop. It all flows from that.
2
What an reflection on OK!
2
This cretinous, lying, stealing environment-killer should not be given an option to resign. It offends me as a law-abiding citizen to see someone abuse his position so blatantly. I pray that he will be blessed with some prison time for the larceny he's committed. I hope that Mueller finds a way to get an entire investigation launched into Pruitt. Maybe he can get locked up in his phone booth with his Ritz Carlton lotion and Chick-Fil-A franchise applications. The damage he's done to the EPA and the environment may be difficult to repair. It is amazing what greed and abuse of power can accomplish, and how hard these thieves will work for their loot.
5
A suggestion: If Pruitt's changing of his schedule to hide his tracks did happen and is against the law.....someone, please, prosecute him.
5
Frank Bruni generously omits mentioning that Pruitt's visit to the Vatican was under the auspice of Cardinal George Pell, a man charged with historical sexual offences for which he will face trial in Australia (https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2018/may/01/who-is-cardinal-g.... Of the numerous dignitaries occupying the Vatican, that is the one with whom he associated.
4
Frank: from your lips to God’s ear about karma...and, pray God, soon!
3
Karma is Pruitt, Wheeler, Trump and the rest dying slow agonizing deaths from untreatable lung cancer and doctors refusing to treat them.
3
We should thank Pruitt for allowing us to ponder the overlap of emoluments and emollients.
7
It is truly poetic justice that climate change will wreck the red states most. Hope you folks are enjoying the summer heat!
1
The Republican Party IS the swamp. Pruitt is only one of its many swamp creatures but he was conspicuously repulsive and the damage he did will be longer lasting. When will this nightmare end?
2
One theory:
Trump had something on Pritt (probably a lot as he is so dirty).
Trump needed a tool to pave the way for secret communication with his buddy Putin.
Trump gave Pruitt this plum job, with the requirement that he install a "phone booth" in his office for Trump to use.
Get Pruitt's unemployed wife to "decorate" the elite's homes in DC (and maybe bug them).
How is that for a "conspiracy" theory?
For this administration, this would not surprise me in the least.
Bruni: "And to look into what it would take to procure a Chick-fil-A franchise for his wife."
There must be more to that story. Why couldn't Pruitt's wife do her own research?
1
Funny coincidence that Pruitt resigned one day after he was trashed by Fox Views. Perhaps the person Kellyanne Conway in a Freudian slip called, “The Commander of Cheese” was watching...and took his marching orders...and sprung into action.
2
Everything about Pruitt points to one essential truth. The guy is a big time loser.
3
Perhaps we were lucky that Pruitt was so busy using his office as a personal ATM and his subordinates as hired hands, that he was too busy and sloppy to do even more damage to the environment.Hopefully his ignominious departure, no matter how much Scott and Donald try to say otherwise,at least puts paid to Pruitt’s presidential hopes. He is the worst kind of grifter - one who uses his public office to steal the U.S. taxpayer blind while claiming that “God is on his side.” Ugh!
3
I even read that he had a flag hoisted when he arrived at work. haha
2
Oh, MAN, Frank Bruni's rapier wit at its best!! Bravo!!
3
Beware! When one drug lord is gunned down a demon replaces him. When one ISIS commandant is eliminated one more wiley and vicious rises up. Trump is all about sweet revenge and will replace The Pruitt with the likes of a mastermind at siring Superfund sites, schilling for Big Oil, and desecrating our National Parks.
2
His corruption should not blind us to the fact that he systematically destroyed the EPA. He did that very well. And now the president can move on to other valuable services of government, such as affirmative action.
2
Moist on his own petard.
9
Pruitt, like evangelicals across the US does not believe in science - he is a Creationist.
Evangelicals and Fundamentalists despise science, and Pruitt was their poster boy for eliminating science from our country.
Lets vote in November and start getting the rest of these nit-wits out of our political system. Worship as you want, but don't impose your beliefs in the rest of us, Pruitt.
3
And there’s the resignation letter, defining for the centuries , the obsequious con man whiny voice....
2
Whether Pruitt was asked to leave or he resigned, he still was deceitful and dishonest and it appears, he got away with it. However, what goes around comes around and he will receive his just desserts.
1
I wonder if the contract with Fox "News" has been signed yet?
1
The harm Pruitt has done to our environment, our health, the lives of unborn children, is not his only legacy. He flaunted rules, traditions and laws. He is guilty of furthering the destruction of public confidence in government and that harm alone will lead to even more public harm.
The name/word "Pruitt" enters the lexicon as the definitive definition of a shameless, arrogant glutton on steroids.
5
All I can say is : Scott Pruitt, what a mess!
1
Pruitt was the poster boy for the Trump swamp. Next up? Ross.
3
1 down, 1000 to go...!!!
4
While Pruitt’s trip to Morocco had dubious relevance to the EPA, one might note that Morocco’s cork tree forests are only a little less in number than Portugal's, the world’s largest producer of cork. One might also note that as the head of the EPA, Pruitt was only too eager to designate the burning of harvested domestic wood for widespread heating as “carbon neutral” when there continues to be scientific disagreement on the issue. Pair these two statements with the query about what Pruitt will do next. One could be lead to the locker room of the Cincinnati Reds franchise where switch-hitter Pruitt is donning the uniform to cover second base.
I just want him indicted as a lesson to the rest of them. There are multiple investigations; they’re not going away just because he did.
2
As sure as IHOP is now IHOB, Pruitt busied himself turning the EPA into the Environmental Pollution Agency. This crucial (to Trump and the GOP) work was obscured from public attention by the sideshow of Pruitt's cheesy shenanigans. If Pruitt is giving up the gravy train willingly, or if Trump finally feels Pruitt has become a liability, I suspect an even bigger load of excrement is about to impact the ventilator.
2
The Inspector General at the EPA should list all the expenses incurred, tax payers money, by this former Administrator and his team . and call for a reimbursement back to the US Treasury. There should also be a listing of all damage to environment and property, resulting from the callous deregulation of the EPA rules previously in place.
10
Bravo Bruni! Florid fragrant description of the grifter prince among grifters. May his karma follow him forever, as that’s how long it may take to undo the damage he has wrought, and his succesor most definately will. Apparently rich privileged trump people don’t breathe air or drink water as us mere serfs. Apparently, they have filter implants. Long live Flint!!!
My favorite line of the column is the last one, however. The one about karma for the fearless leader of the pack
5
There's a whole genre of these Pruitt columns all over the Internet right now. Most of them take a tone of amusement as they catalog the Possum's various ethical abuses of his power. He spent $100,000 of taxpayer money on some flights! He spent $1,000 of taxpayer money on some pens! And certainly, the corruption and grifting alone should render him a disgrace in a functioning political society.
The main story to understand about Pruitt, however, is the trillions of dollars and countless human lives he will have cost the world in the long run with his agency's recent deregulations of greenhouse gases, at a time when it's well-understood by scientists that even carrying out the mainstream liberal/progressive agenda on climate change would be too little too late. This story is more depressing, and it doesn't contain as many amusing anecdotes, but it's the one the media needs to be telling.
Pruitt has rolled back auto emissions standards, killed the Clean Power Act, repealed major clean water rules, pushed Trump to withdraw from the Paris Accords, withdrawn or weakened regulations on greenhouse gases, coal ash, and carcinogenic pesticides. He's stopped the EPA from even discussing climate change, which makes it even more essential that the issue receive substantial media coverage.
If we're going to reverse the frightening course we're on, we need to pay much less attention to the tweets and personal shortcomings of our leaders, and much more to their political actions.
8
It is fitting that an article on the magnificent Nelson Mandela is running in the same issue of the NYT as the news of Pruitt's resignation. There couldn't be a more stark contrast between someone who suffered for his principles, and one who clearly has none.
3
Wow! I may need to look for that old copy of Karl Marx book, the one I almost threw away 50 years ago after I read it for a civics class. I thought it had no relevance at all, could never turn out the way he theorized. Capitalism would collapse from its own internal tensions, or something like that? Impossible, I was sure.
2
As one of his last significant acts before he departs as WH chief of staff, Kelly made sure that Pruitt was punted out of the administration. Pruitt will return shortly, as a well-paid lobbyist for some earth-killing fossil-fuel entity.
2
Fun size trump in training. What a great description!
5
Scott Pruitt served a useful function in this administration - his corrupt exploits helped deflect attention from the serious damage he was doing to environmental protections as well as what other Cabinet secretaries are doing in their various departments. Let's all rant about expensive pens and forget the roll backs on essential regulations.
I suspect there may have been increasing pressure from vulnerable House Republicans who were already imagining the attack ads coming their way this fall starring that swampiest of creatures - Scott Pruitt.
4
Frank, you're wonderful.
I take issue with one statement:
[Chick-fil-a] doesn’t usually pop up in political scandals: Remember June 2012. Chief operating officer Dan T. Cathy opposed same-sex marriage.
I'll also add one thought: What happens in OK doesn't do well in DC.
4
From Scott Pruitt's resignation letter yesterday to Trump:
"My desire in service to you has always been to bless you as you make important decisions for the American people. I believe you are serving as President today because of God’s providence. I believe that same providence brought me into your service. I pray as I have served you that I have blessed you and enabled you to effectively lead the American people."
It's beyond weird ... into another realm of mental (un)consciousness. That's all you need to know.
7
"....enabled you.....". A smidgeon of self-awareness or another example of delusions of grandeur?
The responsibility for this lies at the top of this administration.
Trump sets the example for all of those who serve him.
He is fraud and grifter number one.
5
Like Macbeth, he was a man whose vaulting ambition was goaded by a wife, who was after, not so much a Scottish fiefdom, as a ChikFila franchise.
2
Just when I thought Reagan's first EPA secretary, Ann Gorsuch, was the worst ever, along came Scott Pruitt. Using the Gorsuch playbook to fire proven scientists, and replacing most of them with industry shills, Pruitt wrote his own chapters to that playbook in the form or shameless — and shameful — corruption with every play. It was as if he was the evil twin to Donald Trump.
Of course, Trump always cared more about loyalty than competence in his choices for advisors and cabinet appointees. Not even the once-revered Marine general, John Kelly, has been able to maintain his former dignity while improving his position as another Trump sycophant.
Pruitt's history of self-aborbed game-paying in Oklahoma would have been a warning shot to any president — except for Trump. Trump adores men who violate all norms of behavior in the pursuit of money and power.
I am quickly reminded of a description by the popular NYC shock-jock, Don Imus, of then-Speaker Newt Gingrich when he shut down the government). Imus described the apparent Gingrich philosophy of bullying and sullying his opponents thus: "What's the point of having power if you can't abuse it?"
That philosophy has taken over the entire Republican (Repugnant) Party, its supportive donors and the lobbyists who shill for them.
My friends clinging to the Republican Party have yet to grasp the reality: their party drew first blood accusing Dems of being traitors and unpatriotic since the mid 1990s. The mirror knows the truth.
7
The national tragedy is that Trump’s approval ratings are in concrete at 40 percent. Think about that....40 percent of our country-men and women believe that graft, corruption and destruction of our fragile environment are just fine, as long as its all done by their tribe. If it had been leaked that President Hillary was looking for her favorite topical balm in local hotels, we would be treated to months of Congressional hearings about Moisturizer-Gate. How did we get to this abysmal place?
8
Absolutely no way Pruitt would resign on his own volition - he believed that God wanted him to do what he was doing. He was forced out, and cowardly Trump of course doesn't have the guts to say that.
3
If prosecutors do not act on these atrocious offenses, we will have codified that the only price for executive office criminality is political. It will reinforce Nixon's notion that if the President does it, it is de facto law. We must insist prosecution, even as Trump promises pardons.
16
Given the extraordinary level of unethical and corrupt activity of Scott Pruitt in his role as head of the EPA, it appears that a primary purpose of Pruitt's job, aside from dismantling the EPA, was to act as an advance scout for Trump and his other appointees and determine precisely how much corruption and nepotism one can get away with before Republicans will finally say you've gone too far (the answer: far more than anyone thought possible). Job well done, Scott. The information you have provided is invaluable. Your service will never be forgotten by this administration.
4
Okay, chalk up another outrage; we have plenty to cite. The answer lies at the ballot box, not the editorial page. And until the voters get that, nothing will change.
5
Okay, so he quit with another resignation letter penned by his boss. Where are the consequences for his disregard for travel rules (legitimate government purpose), abuse of staff, staff still on payroll although fired/resigned, etc.?? Wish I was still living in D.C., I'd be protesting and marching through halls every day.
13
In my experience working in the Federal government, this resignation indicates that he was given a choice, probably not by the WH but by a law enforcement agency: resign or you will be indicted.
3
How do creatures like Pruitt achieve constant promotion in the first place? MBA heads and business ceos and possibly parents helped in the formation of a man lacking even a sliver of character. Does he have a primitive predisposition to baubles that is something extra in his brain or does he have a gaping hole where goodwill lives in the grey matter? I think about this every day in regard to his friend Trump, because we are being ruled by something unlike other humans I know.
7
So this man can come into "public service", fire people who raise ethics questions. Fire people - people who do not have his wealth, for raising valid ethics questions. Steal from the American taxpayer. Steal - hundreds of thousands of dollars. Misuse public resources. Never mind total destruction of the environment. Conceal his public doings. Conceal.
And what? He just walks away? To a cozy coal job? It's wrong, he needs to go to jail! Come on.
5
In the eyes of sober, clear-thinking Americans, Scott Pruitt has resigned in disgrace after wreaking monumental damage to US environmental protections.
In the eyes of many in his adopted home state of Oklahoma, those are grand achievements that Senator Pruitt can build on in Congress.
3
The oddest thing to me about Pruitt and his corruption was that it coexisted with a flamboyant display of evangelical Christian faith. He defended trying to get his wife a job at Chick-Fil-A by saying it was a company "of faith." When he resigned the other day, it was with a letter to Trump talking about how blessed he was to have served him and how he felt that Trump's presidency was the result of God's providence. I can't square this with all Pruitt's self-dealing, thieving, chicanery, and corruption. Did he somehow believe his God thought it was okay?
7
Frank, I love your writing.
Beyond that, Pruitt was a scientific embarrassment (I am a scientist, and I know people who work at EPA). The issues won't end with Pruitt's resignation, since the administration scoffs at the evidence for global warming.
But we need journalists like you, to continue pointing fingers at Trump's appointees.
22
I'm still stuck on this guy trying to get a used mattress from a hotel????? Having stayed in hundreds of hotels during a long career on the road, those things are soft petri dishes. The creepy factor is off the charts here. Proving his devotion to his boss? Conducting a science experiment?
2
I think he's concerned about what he knows happened on that particular mattress. I hope we are spared any further information.
1
Pruitt stayed as long as he was useful to Trump.
His uses were basically two: he undercut an entire Cabinet department's mission and reason for being, dismantling a regulative structure that was interfering with certain oligarch's profits, and, because his grifting and exploitation of office for personal aggrandizement was so over the top outrageous, he was an excellent distraction from more secretive perfidy going on in the Trump administration.
I suspect, since Bruni is right about those two circumstances not having recently changed, his resignation has to do, as some commenters here have suggested, with something as yet not known or publicized that was so over-the-top corrupt that Trump was afraid of the blowback and "advised" him it was time to go. Wonder if we'll find out what it was.
6
There are calls for Pruitt to reimburse taxpayers for his lavish personal spending. Problem is, his reported net worth is so low that once he pays us back he might seek welfare and we will end up paying anyway. I write this tongue-in-cheek, but, you know, I wouldn't put it past this guy to try something like that.
2
Our "Checks and Balances" Congressional leaders, Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell, AGAIN, remained complicity silent as Pruitt repeatedly and boldly flaunted his total disregard for all rules, regulations and ethics of his position.
10
I'm pretty sure if one did some minor digging through Pruitt's travel records, they would find he and Ms. Hupp, (the one who came from Oklahoma, got a huge raise (on our dime) and then left after than awkward Congressional hearing where she had to explain herself) stayed at a Ritz Carlton on one of their taxpayer-funded first-class junkets.
That lotion wasn't for him. And Mrs. Pruitt, having failed to get her consolation prize of the Chick-Filet franchise, wasn't having any more of this moist lotion talk. The lotion story has been around for a few weeks, but it was on the front page of the WAPO yesterday.
Wives of sleazy grifters will put up with a lot as long as the money is rolling in. But plaster stories about lotion for the mistress all over the news, and that's a dealbreaker.
8
Despite all the attempts at finding a historical comparison for the Trump admin, the truth of the matter is they remind me more of TV evangelical preachers living the good life on the contributions of the vulnerable faithful
6
And Pruitt, by deregulation, has ingratiated himself to industries that no doubt will take him on board and pay him many times more than his salary and benefits while on the public payroll. Now he will likely get his private jet.
3
It does indeed take a lot of luxury lotions to be quite so slimy.
3
Let's not forget pour-over coffee. We must get Democrats back in power.
2
Does Pruitt face any investigation or penalty for malfeasance ?
8
Audacious, unabashed, shameless, unrepentant. DT should make Scott the administration's mascot.
1
About that mattress...did Pruitt want just any mattress, or was he was looking for one previously used by a specific sleeper? I know that's creepy, but keep in mind who we are dealing with here.
5
Yeah, maybe Putin slept there!
I thought there were investigations ongoing about all these things. Do you mean to tell me none of what he did is against the law? Then why waste column inches on it.
Pruitt will not be held accountable, in any way. No justice will be handed down for the many laws he broke. Of this you can be assured.
Trump also knows this, and he holds the ultimate "Trump" card in his power - to pardon, even himself.
So Trump, Pruitt and the rest of these criminals will leave, taking with them all their stolen loot, leaving behind smoldering ruins, and not one of them will go to jail.
- "Unless we restore justice to this country we have no hope of fixing everything else that is wrong with it" - Ralph Nader
4
Sorry, Frank, but I don't get the references to "moist."
He's "all wet"? I'd agree with that.
But a "moist mystery"? What in the world does that mean?
This itself is the mystery, especially since you usually use words to communicate, not obfuscate.
2
"... you usually use words to communicate, not obfuscate."
You also have to read for there to be communication. Bruni writes:
Pruitt had "his security detail drive him from Ritz-Carlton to Ritz-Carlton on the hunt for his favorite lotion."
Now if they can drain the rest of the Swamp, aka the Trump Administration and the Republican Congress the sooner we can "Make America Great Again"
4
Simple really. Fox says "Jump." Trump says "How far?" We have Laura to thank.
3
I'm as outraged as anyone. However, Pruitt is behaving in a manner commiserate with many corporate executives. I once had a CEO run up a $500,000 tab in under a month trying to sell the company to Wall Street investors. We're talking five hundred dollar glasses of scotch. The poor woman running accounts receivable almost had a heart attack.
The sale ultimately fell through and the board dismissed the CEO. However, she got to keep her six figure annual salary along with all the stock benefits. Preferred of course. All said and done, I suspect she walked away with a few million dollars. This for three months "work" wining and dining wealthy elites in New York. I never saw her once at the company headquarters. She didn't even have an office.
Republicans wanted business to run the country. Well, accept the fact that many businesses are more corrupt and wasteful than our government could ever accomplish. I've worked in public office too. If I submitted an expense form like Scott Pruitt's, accounting simply wouldn't have paid me. They'd cut a check based on public limits and the rest is out of my pocket. If you want to fly first class, fine. You're only getting reimbursed for coach.
5
"... many businesses are more corrupt and wasteful than our government could ever accomplish."
"Corrupt and wasteful" businesses fail. And incompetent CEOs, as your anecdote shows, are *fired*.
"I've worked in public office too."
Do you really believe that a "government-sponsored employment" program would not be "corrupt and wasteful"?
Democrats’ Next Big Thing: Government-Guaranteed Jobs
By Jim Tankersley
May 22, 2018
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/22/us/politics/democrats-guaranteed-jobs...
He quit or was forced out now because no doubt more is coming.
The career staff have surely been documenting his many transgressions over the last 18 months and have been waiting for their moment to strike. So the problems are coming out now in an endless stream. Justice and truth can be slow in coming, but come they do.
No doubt the best is yet to come now that he'd gone. And then Trump will crow about getting rid of him.
5
Now can someone pieeeease give his poor former aide her job back? And be forewarned America, our environment AND our health will be effected by this horrifying “Trump creepage”the gutting of the EPA will have on us ALL.
2
Did he quit of his own accord? I heard he was told, "You're fired", by Chief of Staff Kelly, proving, yet again, that tough-guy Trump is really a wimp.
11
As to Chick-fil-A being "a restaurant that doesn’t usually pop up in political scandals," I beg to differ. Though the very public scandals of the virulently anti-LGBTQ stance of the chain's owner, Dan Cathy, may have been back in the less dramatic past of 2011 and 2012, that's only yesterday, unless you're more Biblically inclined in telling time. No, Chick-fil-A is all wrapped up in Mike Huckabee, Sarah Palin and the hate thy neighbor ethos of the Republican party.
8
I wish I could be more amused by the cleverness of this kind of writing but I am so sickened by the depth of corruption of the Trump administration that I just can't muster it anymore. It isn't even so much the great con man and his sycophants that bothers me but the indifference of the American public, especially Republicans voters and their ring leaders in congress. This country has turned into such an embarrassment under Republican control.
16
Why are we not putting the blame for Pruitt where it belongs: each and every congressman & senator that voted for him to be the head of the EPA. They should be held accountable.
11
Pruitt will be very, very rich, very soon. He delivered to his masters exactly what they wanted. They bought him in Oklahoma years ago.
2
Time to auger the next replacement on the radar. Ryan Zinke, Mr. 1st Class leads the chart on grifting, short El Supremo himself.
3
I didn’t think any amount of irresponsible behavior could penetrate this administration’s in-your-face behavior. But it’s possible that the recent NYTimes editorial, inviting the two women senators to change parties, might have sobered up the Republican enablers in Congress. And frankly, they aren’t the only two that could hand Dems control of the Senate- surely somewhere, two Republicans...have had enough.
Imagine real Senate hearings on voting machine security (and refusing to seat anyone elected from states without a paper trail). Real hearings on agency/industry meetings, agreements.....and so on.
I suggest this president rethink that meeting with Putin...with no one else in the room. Surely, somewhere, there are two Republicans that think such a meeting, during the Mueller investigation....smells to high heaven. Maybe two will have the political courage, the personal courage, to do something about it. Courage and Republicans. Make America Great Again.
9
Except Pruitt was never an administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. He was a hatchet man for radical dismantlers.
7
I personally think he decided to resign, when the woman walked up to his table at a NY restaurant and told him he should resign. If Pruitt resigned because someone in the Trumplican National Party (AKA The GOP) told him he should, by saying something like, Pruitt, after all the midterms are coming up, and we don’t want to lose, so Trump said he would accept your resignation, but will tweet nicely about it.
But, as the author of this piece noted, “that ship has already sailed”. The Trumplican Party should have been paying closer attention to what happened when the democrats passed the ACA, that people grew to love. It was Obama care that some Trumplicans hated, even the ones that were benefitting from it. Remember, the democrats lost congress, and the party of no was born. But now it’s their turn, and like the democrats, once that dam breaks, it’s all over but the crying. And the Trumplican Party will never recover from Trumps presidency. They have expended all the political capital they had.
As for Pruitt, good riddance.
6
It is all a distraction to make trump and Javanka's greed look normal by comparison.
1
Leaving aside for the moment the more existential issues of broad abuse of land, sea and sky and the millions of citizens thus exposed to the myriad chemicals applied to both products and the earth, various noxious effluents and lead in our water and excessive monoxides, dioxides and particulates in the air, - leaving those aside for the moment - Mr. Pruitt is living proof that "Character is fate." Mr. Pruitt's primary responsibility was to serve the American people but chose to shill for corporate interests instead, perhaps to secure their future support for his own future political ambitions while abusing his office with petty, self-serving behavior. Now removed from the powers he abused and no longer useful to those interests, he can return whence he came to console himself with what might have been while the rest of us deal with what should be, which won't be any easier for his leaving.
Clever but not wise, too weak to stomach inconvenient facts, a dishonorable man wrapped in a gossamer veneer of sanctimony, a wannabe "player" among people not worth playing with and constant sycophant in an administration where that sort of thing plays large because there is little if anything to actually respect.
And I say this as a conservative and capitalist.
7
I do hope that someone somewhere is keeping track of all this on a spreadsheet so we can ultimately put a nice round number - preferably a running total, come to think - on the hemorrhaging of tax money this crew of Batman villains is costing us. Not the tax cuts and impact to the economy of his policies mind you, which will run the multi-trillions, but just the perks, travel, security, promotion of Trump's businesses, et. al. How about it NYT? Care to give us activists a new talking point?
3
Congratulations to the young schoolteacher and mother who told him just the other day at a restaurant that he should resign.
She told him to resign and he did! All hail Kristin Mink!
19
"She told him to resign and he did! All hail [a teacher at a high-priced private school]!"
Harassing government officials at lunch is the *wrong way* to express your disapproval. Now I understand why Pruitt needed a security detail.
And why hasn't the teacher been fired for embarrassing her employer?
Maybe the First Amendment is taught at her school and her employer still thinks this is a free country.
His corruption was merely a cover up for his incompetence in running an agency responsible for the wellbeing of this country. Our water, air, and land will continue to be polluted and decimated thanks to this grifter. He is simply emblematic of this whole administration from 45 to his kids to the rest of the clown car looting and pillaging our country for their own wants.
6
There is no real punishment for people like Pruitt; they enjoy the Right Wing safety net of K street lobbying firms, book deals and paid gigs on Fox News. Look at two examples from the past: G. Gordon Liddy and Oliver North. They were both guilty of conspiracy, of lying to Congress, of violating their oaths of service to the constitution. And both reside in multi-million dollar “inside the beltway” homes. Of course the heartbreaking, maddening irony of this is that we are even now putting the children of people who want nothing more than to live here as productive citizens in cages. Some Republican republic.
10
Karma ... yes, let’s hope it remains in effect.
3
What is worse that a 300 pound swamp creature? A 500 pound swamp creature. The moment Pruitt suggested to Trump to dump AG Sessions (the one ton swamp creature) and replace Sessions with Pruitt as AG the game was on. Sessions understands the lesson that Pruitt couldn't get - in the south politics is a blood sport. The moment Pruitt made this suggestion to Trump Pruitt's days were numbered. Not because of Pruitt's corruption but because Pruitt would dare to suggest that he would be a better choice to accomplish the Trump/Sessions/Miller agenda - Make America White Again.
Fatal mistake Mr. Pruitt. Fatal mistake.
8
"... the Trump/Sessions/Miller agenda - Make America White Again."
That's a racist slur. Trump's top officials include Elaine Chao, who is Chinese-American, Nikki Haley, who is Indian-American, and Ben Carson, who is African-American.
The theory that what makes the most profits makes the best public policy is absurd on its face. A free market economy might be the best model for picking winners and losers in the business world, but it's a poor steward of the environment. For economic gain, our rain forests are being depleted, our streams and air polluted, and our climate changed forever - and not for the better. Those who put the bottom line above the public good simply deny that there are any problems. Getting rid of Scott Pruitt is a good start, but it reeks of too little too late.
See: RevolutionOfReason.com
6
The question of why he was forced to resign now, after having seemingly outlasted our country's short attention span successfully on so many scandals, any one of which would warrant firing, is a very valid one. True, some in Congress would consider him a liability come mid-terms, and true, Trump makes a good impression among the unknowing by firing him in the name of his 'drain the swamp' pledge, but I can't help but think another controversy exists, something bigger and more dangerous to Trump that we don't know yet.
I'm no conspiracy theorist, but the suddenness of this announcement, after all we've been through with Pruitt, puzzles me.
6
As horrendous as Scott Pruitt was before EPA, he was worse there. "Gauche and greedy and dirty to the core," he was agonizingly effective in diminishing and degrading everything he could get his hands on re: the environment. But his ethics issues were the bright shiny objects that kept many from being focused on the way he was destroying our environment and by extension the world's. The next guy will be as bad or worse, just without the "distractions" that finally made those "who weren't paying attention" pay it. The coal-shill deputy, now acting head, will be as grey and unnoticeable as the coal pollution he champions. Expect more of the same, minus the sideshow - and perhaps worse.
3
I doubt Trump had much involvement. The Fox people (both in an out of the Whitehouse) and congressional Republicans basically decided it was time. The midterm elections are the reason. Trump isn't bothered. He likes the challenge of claiming down is up. "I love the undereducated," he once said. Having people shake his hand for ripping them and their progeny off is a sort of myopic nirvana for him.
1
The assumption here is that Pruitt got the ax because of a catalog of corruption. Given Donald Trump's documented history, it's just as likely Trump ordered something even Pruitt balked at, and he was dismissed for having a principle, however slender. It's really a stretch to think Trump cares much about scandals.
1
And a bigger stretch that Pruitt would have balked at something out of principle. My theory is that the new Shiney guy convinced Trump it was time. He will have some influence until there's another shiny new confidante or Hopie returns as Chief of Staff.
He was another bully just like Trump. I find that to be the lowest personal lack of character. Pruit berated and abused his staff. He fired and demoted them when they did not carry his water. They all deserve an apology. And so does our environment for his bullying of it instead of being the good steward that that job should make mandatory.
There are some changes that need to be made in the job descriptions of cabinet posts. Being qualified is one but not using mafia techniques is another.
4
"It turns out that while the Trump administration has interred many cherished principles and traditions that we thought were keepers, karma isn’t among them. Perhaps someday soon it will come for the president as well."
Great wrap to a great assessment of Pruitt's graft as an art form, Frank. Something has to come back and bite these guys in the back, for having taken advantage of the national fisc in creating their cushy surroundings. More karma, indeed, would be welcome - - and, of the instant variety, please. My patience is wilting.
3
Yes, Pruitt is a bad public servant. His scandalous habits are what forced him out, but I’m going to miss him.
When is the next time we get a figure so cartoonish in his evil plans? He practically dripped petroleum from his lips and used coal dust to powder his face.
Hannah Arendt noted the most evil people often seem the most ordinary. They divorce the evil they inflict from themselves and their personal lives. Not so, Scott Pruitt.
So, we have to say goodbye to the man with the flagrant tastes in personal luxury, and watch a faceless bureaucrat assume his role.
Evil will be afoot, but it will move silently.
13
Sadly, the behavior of Scott Pruitt is the archetype and metaphor for what the worst extractive industries do. Get it while the getting is good, get the profits into your pockets and the pockets of your shareholders and cronies before anybody notices that the sludge is running downhill into the streams that run alongside the shacks where the stricken workers live. Take, take, take and abandon the workers and the environment in your wake.
Then there's the Super Fund program, a shake down of us taxpayers if ever there was. A company despoils its territory, plights land and river, then disbands or declares bankruptcy, while consultants and lawyers fight off any liability for poisoning the bystander population.
We can point to Pruitt's many self indulgences, but they are but the stink and creed of a man with no scruples about self enrichment at the expense of all else.
3
Pruitt is gone and I highly doubt that anyone else in the Trump administration that will run the EPA will be any better for the nation.
But Pruitt's mistake is not that he didn't deregulate fast and far enough, it's just that he jumped on the "dole" too much. In Trump's mind, what was Pruitt thinking? That he was as entitled as Trump and his family?
If you ever watched a few episodes of The Apprentice, you now how Pruitt's run on the show would eventually come to an end. It would be a boardroom sit-down. There would be plenty of trash-talking. Ivanka would point out that he accomplished his tasks but Donald Jr. would note that he also brought negative light by spending too much needlessly. Others would defend their actions at excess as they too were guilty of drinking at the public well. But eventually it come down to Donald, and he would simply say "Scott, you are fired!"
Reality TV from a show we should call, The White House Apprentice.
2
The GOP trip to Russia this week made me wonder if there's a plan afoot to lift sanctions and partner with Russia in Arctic drilling. I hope Mueller knows what happened to those Rosneft shares. I can imagine this being discussed in those calls Putin says he has often with Trump with only the Russian translator. I also think Trump will be his big shot pseudo-aggressive self with our NATO allies again so he can show Vlad what a big man he was on the way to Helsinki. He crosses his arms and pouts, mistaking that for strength, and he looks like the weak, spoiled little baby that he is.
3
Clearly, Trump had had enough. He was quoted, in yet another leak, complaining about the steady stream of misdeeds by Pruitt. So I'm sure that Trump initiated the resignation and gave Pruitt time to compose his infamous letter to the president.
Without the premise of a voluntary resignation, Mr. Bruni's column is a little thin.
Did he take the telephone booth with him? The Superman of government corruption. I don't understand how he succeeded with his personal aggrandizement so plainly in clear site. And how he could get away with it without a rebuke from the person who gave him that job.
It's amazing the quality of the people whom Trump supports.
6
And they should count the silver before he leaves. Oh, and check his pockets on the way out.
This is Nina Castro:
I think it's so much simpler than all of this conjecture: Trump knows every debased person on the planet, meaning he has a large pool from which to draw. And he's popped off a few himself, with assistance from his consorts ("wives" is an honorific bearing no resemblance to the shenanigans of his women at this point). I suspect that this will count as incivility and not be published, but it really is less about political maneuvering and more about the character of each and every one involved.
3
What strikes me about Pruitt, a character so strange as to seem implausible even for a work of fiction, is the utter contempt he had for the organization he was appointed to lead. He treated his staff as not the professionals they are, as if they were only worthy of the indignity of being made to hunt down mattresses and Chick-fil-a franchises. Even his security personnel were not treated as professionals, being made to run down skin lotion from Ritz Carlton hotels.
This man's appointment was truly a most corrosive attack on a professional organization from within. I hope he is made to stand to account for his misuse of the office. Just when the work of the EPA is most needed, the Agency needs to be rebuilt. But which scientist will work there? Which professional who respects the Agency will work there when the entire infrastructure Mr. Trump put there for its leadership are so corrupt?
4
Personally, I have no problem if he travels business class, on a commercial airliner anyway. As a taxpayer (well, used to be), i think it's OK if high government officials get some perks. But everything else? No. I'm glad I was never on one a commercial flight with him. The stench would have been overwhelming.
Not even to mention the environmental disaster he is leaving in his wake. I hope he has a good appetite for mercury-laced fish and enjoys seeing his kids inhaling arsenic from his favourite coal-fired power plant. As American leadership sinks throughout the world, you can thank scott for blowing some of the holes in the hull.
To trump supporters: Aren't you glad he will now rise to the ranks of the hated "elite" with his seven figure K Street salary?
2
Scott Pruit, Trump University Class of 2018. He threw a lot of cult like devotion Donald's way in his resignation letter. From the mid-term election view Pruitt became too expensive to keep any longer-that math was pretty simple. Voters would forget between now and November just how destructive, corrupt and all the rest of his earned adjectives he has been as a public non-servant. We need our own Hague, this crew requires judicial assessments both individually and as a group. Crimes against all nations with the reversals of environmental protections, the rest of the garbage he created was simply garnish.
2
Scott Pruitt, the greedy pseudo-Christian, science denier was appointed to the EPA by Trump as part of a larger plan. All along, Trump has been implementing the late Stephen Bannon's key objective: the deconstruction of the US Government. What better way to do this than fill each Cabinet position with those who have personal agendas against serving the public interest while they destroy the agencies they are supposed to be leading... Betsy Devos, Jeff Sessions, Ben Carson, Rick Perry, Steven Mnuchin, Ryan Zinke, Mike Pompeo ...its all of a piece. Gross incompetence and greed, a portrait of Trump's inner circle, yes, but that is also a fair description today's Republican leadership across the board.
What better way to deconstruct the US Government than massively slashing taxes for the ultra-rich and then cutting budgets for all agencies and services. Our nation is now an international laughing stock ..the Chinese and the Russians have never been happier...but the super-rich oligarchs who own and control the GOP couldn't care less. They are too busy counting the money they are going to make at US taxpayers' expense.
Yes, Steve Bannon's Deconstruction Roadmap is indeed alive and well in the Trump/GOP Mandate to reverse every step of economic and social progress made in the United States for the past 200 years.
6
Well deserved humiliation. Unfortunately all of us around the world will suffer the consequences of this mini-monarch's mini-reign for decades to com.
5
Back to that bed for a moment, please. He didn't want to find out where these mattresses were made so he could buy the same brand. HE WANTED A USED ONE! I have two questions. Why? And was the aide asked to find a specific mattress from a specific room? If the answer to the second question is yes then he really has some explaining to do. Now I have to pull my head from the gutter and get ready for work.
2
Whoever follows Pruitt is likely to be a lot worse. He/she'll be less likely to be personally corrupt and will be several times more destructive to the environment and the EPA. The Trumpy administration has been staffed with terrible people, and they are only replaced by those who are even worse.
3
The Trumpian chutzpah of the brazen theft of public money has always been spectacular to witness. I always wondered what insanity was next around the corner. DT fired him not because he was guilty, but was stealing the headlines from him. And one wonders if he was like this in OK, or is he being some kind of Myna bird for Trumps ego?
3
Why keep him around any longer? He's already accomplished what he and Trump set out to do. He's ruined the environment and the agency that was to have protected it and us.
3
I sure hope it comes for the president — and soon. The pillaging of our democracy for personal gain in plain sight is horrifying to watch. Why do the “Trumpers”not see he is stealing from their futures?
7
This poor little man—he is the Fredo to DT’s Don Corleone. If only he had settled for being a civil service lawyer, taken care of his family and gone to church on Sundays. He overreached and it has cost us real environmental degradation. What it has cost him I will leave to him and our maker. My sense from his letter of resignation was that he has Donald badly confused
with someone one much kinder and much more important.
4
Trump is more like Paulie, the "strutz who sold the old man out."
And Pruitt is more like Fredo's wife, hysterical and stupid.
I never thought I'd say this (without being ironical) but we have Laura Ingraham to thank for this one. Fox tells Trump what to do, and they told him to kick Pruitt to the curb. Job done.
3
Why are we painfully only observers of our own government? Why aren't our Congress representatives in the Senate and House taking action against these incompetents? And while I am complicit in a cynical chuckle while reading a recap id Pruitt's search for moisturizing lotion, I cannot forget the clean air and clean water he (and now his replacement) put at further risk. That should be the story.
4
I'm thinking that El Trumpo asked Pruitt to resign because he looked "weak" while being scolded at lunch. It wasn't a matter of ethics, it was the optics of Pruitt's sitting there with a blank expression and no rejoinder.
5
Wikipedia: King Henry VIII 28 June 1491 – 28 January 1547.
His contemporaries considered Henry in his prime to be an attractive, educated and accomplished king. He has been described as "one of the most charismatic rulers to sit on the English throne".
Perhaps Pruitt is confused as to the century he is living in.
1
Frank Bruni, I lOVE you! I thought i was the only person to use "festoon" in general discourse. You bring some happiness to my heart in these sad times. It is unfortunate that we won't have Pruitt to kick around anymore, given the impending midterms. However, this being the Trump regnancy... well, one can only hope. Again, thank you for the pointed comments.
3
Pruitt's primary function, it turns out, was as Official Dis-tractor. The steady leak of Pruitt's egregious acts and acquisitions was a desperate attempt by the Whitehosue to distract us from everything else...I wonder what deal Trump struck with him to finally fall on his sword and leave.... Maybe he just outlived his usefulness. As a distraction...
1
Bravo to the Times. The silent majority is aching in our seems so let get out and VOTE!
1
As Oklahoma's Attorney General was his behavior already egregious? Or was he corrupted by Washington? Likely the former. Maybe Oklahoma ought to investigage and demand re-compensation if warranted.
2
The statute of limitations has expired on them.
We can thank the media for getting rid of Pruitt, for it was their relentless coverage that annoyed Trump, not the corruption itself. Bravo!
1
We get irate and excited when somebody wants to waste money on fancy fountain pens. However, we accept a multi-trillion dollar delivery to Military Contractors to destroy wide swaths of the Middle East, and, kill hundreds of thousands of locally born (in other countries) people. Somehow, in this country, that is called "patriotism" or "supporting our troops". Really, Pruitt was not so bad. And, what we get excited and irate about is trivia. Not real, clear, unadulterated examples of sponsoring a horror show.
2
Frank's commentary completely misses the point. The damage Pruitt has done to the environment and water will have lasting repercussions for all of us, our children, grandchildren and generations unborn. Yet not a peep was alluded to in Frank's petty column. Countless lives are now at greater risk of cancer and poisoned water and what you can talk about is how much he stole?? Not that that's not important, but let's not lose sight of the real damage here
5
Blame your Congress for not enshrining environmental protections into law. Then they could not be so easily overturned. Sadly, too many of them are owned by the fossil fuel industry, so they do their bidding. Elections have become a joke in this country. No one cares about service to the greater good, to the country as a whole. All they care about is what's good for them and what their corporate masters require of them.
3
Scott Pruitt's behavior looks clumsily gauche, his chiseling a symptom of mere greed. But, just like Trump, he takes a sadistic pleasure in shocking and sickening decent people, especially those, like environmentalists, he sees as his enemy.
1
It is hard for normal people to understand this resignation. Pruitt and Trump live in an alternate universe where oligarchs and money are good and nothing else matters. Pruitt subscribes to a form of Christianity that rewards you financially for making money however you can. They have brought us into their alternate universe and I want out.
5
Please. please don't anybody say "well, he's gone, lost his job, paid the price...let's back off and let him go on his way"...I say we pursue him for every sleazy transgression, see every law suit through to completion, and make this character pay for the colossal damage he has brought on us all. Make him pay!
5
Karma, you say? That's my only hope for our country. Since it seems that the Republican Congress has become too spineless to do the right thing.
As the saying goes: you can evade civil law; you can evade criminal law...but Cosmic law is inexorable.
1
I'm still curious about the mattress thing. Did Pruitt want a randomly selected used mattress from the Trump Washington Hotel, or did he want a particular mattress from a particular room?
2
It's all about optics.
As Trump wants "good" press when he meets Putin,
and Pruitt was spoiling the optics.
Also, this could be a deflection as the Special Counsel is about to publish his reports into the Russian conspiracy to hack and attack American democracy in favor of Trump.
Optics have their own meanings as Trump's meeting with Putin his handler shows that Trump who is Putin's subservent is going to meet his handler and get more instructions about degrading and destroying the American democracy.
They are doing this in plain sight.
4
Unfortunately, Pruitt cast such a wide shadow that reporters also looked into how he was compromising our environment. Andrew Wheeler, former counsel to Sen. Inhofe and former lobbyist for Murray coal, will continue the legacy without the fanfare. We must be vigilant!
12
My hope is that the reaction to this administration is so strong and so severe that they will all have to face criminal prosecution during the next. That includes the president and his family. I hope that the rectification is so deep and stringent that it reaches back into the Bush era and we finally see that cabal trembling in the docket for war crimes.
9
Greed served a useful purpose for us. It ended the reign in the EPA of the person that has done his best to make our planet warmer, our water less clean and our air harder to breath.
Un fortunately the mishandling of our environment will probably continue, but at least the new administrator may not pick our pockets.
7
Another example of the GOP which is pro-lifestyle. Money, arrogance, drawn to the gaudy and unapologetic
12
The difference between Pruitt and the rest of Trump's cabinet glitteratti is that he does not have a personal fortune. The public money he should not have but did (or tried to) spend on personal luxuries was far beyond what he could have personally afforded. It is interesting that Dr. Carson, better off financially but not in the Munchkin, DeVos, Roth category, has pulled similar stunts. At least for Munchkin's similar stunts there is the excuse that he was merely replicating his experiences in private life.
I am not saying that makes Pruitt more or less culpable than the others, only that he had more reason to have known the optics of, say, $100,000 a month or journeys from Ritz to Ritz. Any of the expenditures that Bruni cites were inconsequential to the federal budget, but they were very consequential to Pruitt's personal budget. They were not ovesighted details in his life but a case of getting what he could when he could. And then he cites God as a reference in his resignation letter. He makes Trump look like an amateur in the grifter contest.
I am horrified by the ecologically unsound policies he managed to put in place and his eviceration of the EPA but fear that Wheeler will continue that program while personally flying under the radar.
15
Pruitt shows what you get when you don’t vote. Nothing the Clintons did or might do compares with the venality of Scott Pruitt. Here in a Texas we have our own version of Pruit, Ken Paxton. Paxton made the mistake of fleecing his friends unfortunately. Now he’s facing criminal charges.
12
Make no mistake about it, Pruitt was sacrificed at the alter of Public Relations. Now the GOP can continue to tell their base that their goal is to "drain the swamp" and they have a ready made poster boy for this dubious commitment.
10
Moist? Eeeee-yew.
Pruitt resigned because Trump told him to resign. Why? Primarily because Trump had gotten pretty much all he wanted out of Pruitt in terms of environmental regulation roll-back as a builder, and it now was time to install a maintainer – Wheeler. A maintainer who would likely operate FAR less flamboyantly and cause fewer problems with traditional senses of propriety.
It’s hardly a “mystery”, Frank, “moist” or dry as the Mojave in August.
Gawd, but you guys are seriously professional haters. Pruitt must have REALLY scared you.
But you should consider what Pruitt’s departure REALLY means. It means that Trump has succeeded in turning the tide on excessive environmental regulation and has entered maintenance mode. That doesn’t mean that Pruitt’s roll-backs won’t evolve further, but that while they evolve more slowly the entirety will be patiently fortified so that it’s less susceptible to challenges while Trump is in office and, perhaps, more permanent when he leaves.
And Wheeler likes to operate sub rosa, so you might not even be able to attack him for what he says or for Trump bedding. You’ll have to attack him on substance, and that’s a lot harder.
Have a great day, Frank; and consider regular application of talcum, which is good for controlling “moisture”. Pity that talc or talcum must be mined then refined – I know how you guys dislike extractive and refining industries.
1
You've been in "maintenance" mode for a long time, dear Richard:
maintenance of absurdity;
maintenance of ignorance;
maintenance of cluelessness;
Or does corruption by a politician resulting in waste of taxpayer dollars no longer mean anything to your polluted soul?
Have you, at long last, shred the final vestiges of common decency and morphed into a trolling apologist for the worst president in our nation's history?
It is apparent that the flop sweat moisture oozing from your reptilian pores is in recognition that the jig is up and Diaper Don will be leaving D.C. very soon.
Which side are you on, Richard? The side of snide snark and cowardly commentary, that's what.
74
Frank knows what most of us do, Richard. We know that the short sighted policies of rolling back every regulation without considering its effect on a health children and other vulnerable people in the United States is legal. However, you may not know as the rest of us do that while legal these policies are the most reprehensible in decades, and they will cause of thousands of additional deaths due to pollution, increase the rate of global warming and its attendant disastrous weather changes for the United States and the rest of the world, cause shorter spans of the people Trump reports to represent, and in the long run will cost the United States far more financially than following the more reasonable policies from past administrations to sunset fossil fuels and becoming world leader in renewables like solar and wind.
22
Richard: I don't belive the swamp builder will be replaced by a free-wheeling swamp-maintainer based on some great and sinister plan by DT. He obviously isn't capable of such a thing, based on his all too well known swampfeeded gutfeelings. And no hate to this selfdecomposing swampestablishment. We are just holding our noses because of all the emitted H2S
2
How is Tom Price doing? The former Sec. of HHS spent as lavishly as Pruitt, if not more so. Has he reimbursed us for his $1,000,000-plus private flights (on chartered and commandeered military craft)? Answer: No, except for ha'pennies on the dollar. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Price_(American_politician)#Private_je...
21
The first sentence of this piece is amazingly well written. Good journalism. Fantastic writing!
24
The next one will be worse-- a coal lobbyist to run the EPA.
43
I hope they count the silverware from the EPA dining room, along with what else he may have pilfered from the government as he slithered out the front door.
64
At least he got the fork out of the EPA.
That's what "counts."
When you’ve cut down the last tree, killed the last fish and received one last bribe, what’s left?
Fox News?
90
Go to the DMZ in South Korea. See the trees and scrub brush on the south side. Look across to the barrens on the north side. Reflect.
Minus the fox.
What made Pruitt do it?
6
And why did he need so much lotion to do it?
And he leaves a trail of bright, shining, swamp slime. The BEST people. Yeah, right.
37
Mr. Bruni! Thank you.
I am not so young anymore. Seventy looms on the horizon. What are the effects of this?
Well sir--I like movies that END. I am not a fan of "ambiguous' or "thought-provoking" endings. Endings that really AREN'T endings. That leave you hanging. I could give you examples of this. . .but I won't.
WHICH EXPLAINS. . .
. . .why I am feasting my eyes--mind--heart on articles probing the long-overdue demise of Mr. Scott Pruitt. Not only an ENDING, sir--but a HAPPY ending. . . .
. . .and most of us (writhing under the feet of Mr. Trump and his iron-shod minions)--most of us are THIRSTING for a happy ending. ANY happy ending.
And THIS, Mr Bruni, is a happy ending. "Ding dong--the witch is dead." THAT kind of happy ending.
That said, I enjoyed your rundown of Mr. Pruitt and his various delinquencies. Now that the man is GONE, it was profoundly satisfying to refresh my memory. Oh yes! I murmured. . . .oh right! yes, I do REMEMBER that one. . .and oh yes! how COULD I have forgotten?. . . ..
My all-time FAVORITE?
STILL--not riding coach when taking a plane.
"Because," said British paper, The Economist . . .
". . .people might be mean to him."
Reading THAT (back in the day), I sat back and LAUGHED.
Just as I did right now.
Thanks. Loved your piece.
40
Being greedy is one thing, but Pruitt was stupidly greedy.
What took so long to bounce this loser?
22
I wish Pruitt had stuck around. He’s a piñata of corruption for Democrats to whack. And he actually is not the most effective deregulator. The video of him sitting in a restaurant smiling until he realizes that this woman is going to verbally punch his smug little face is classic comedy. His corruption is so small scale as to be laughable. And it sucked all the air out of his ability to get things done. His successor promises to be less inept and more effective. And we’ll all pay a huge price for this in polluted air, water and soil. But you know...coal...
40
An under-recognized observation. These people are like felons in prison: now that they know the riles of operation they will be able to do some real damage.
1
"The mattress, for example. Let’s not forget, as he rides into the sunset, that he rests (or would like to) on a used mattress from the Trump International Hotel in Washington. That may sound humble and thrifty..."
No, it doesn't sound humble and thrifty, it sounds gross and/or like a first-class suck-up.
19
Scary, the social media meaning of "moist" as in your "Moist Mystery of Scott Pruitt's Resignation", Frank Bruni. Moist is gross, and that's what Scott Pruitt was and is. We are all just hoping that karma will strike twice in the White House or in any other of Donald Trump's myriad White Houses including his Tower above Tiffany's, his pricey golf clubs, and his Southern White House, Mallomar-a-Loco in West Palm Beach. P.S. Pruitt wore red gingham at the White House's odd celebration of the Fourth of July yesterday. Not that there's anything wrong with wearing a red gingham shirt to a farewell party. A lot of Americans are singing, "Glory, glory Hallelujah!" -- just a day late -- today.
10
They’ve so mean to him!!!
6
Greasy, oily, unctuous, oleaginous, smarmy, etc. etc.
12
re Marisa: Wait, are you talking about Mike Pence, or Scott Pruitt. I'm getting confused
The man needs a strong cleanser for the grease and an exfoliation of the reptile scales from his skin. Moisturizer not so much..
Only someone with the arrogance to speak for God would behave as Pruitt has. He is the logical next step for all prosperity preachers.
11
Woodrow Wilson, he thought the same thing. There is a lot of history and personal writings about Wilson, and when anyone didn’t agree with Wilson, he would break out the “I speak for the people, I know what they want”. Except, he was extreme like Trump, and when he needed the democrats to back him after WWI, they didn’t, and he lost congress as well......there is a lesson for Trump, and his followers, who seem to think his rein is well...forever.....
Seems it took Ingraham's airing a thumbs down to put out the Pruitt.
Fox in the White house.
11
The swamp is slowly getting drained of the incompetents that Trump stocked it with. But, who will slither in to fill Pruitt's tiny shoes?
4
"Why quit when you’ve already endured all the mortification that he has? Why not crawl, in your reduced and pitiable form, to the finish line and at least get points for devotion?"
Because this was in no way a resignation, when there was no way the Phone Booth Planet Killer would willingly give up his hopes of using his vile "experience" with gutting the EPA to try to succeed "covfefe" as the 2nd occupant of the White House in 2024.
No, Frank Bruni. He was FIRED, by a boss who realized the Planet Killer sought to outdo his own illegitimate legacy—the most deplorable sin in the eyes of one of the most deplorable sinners in US history.
You can't crawl through a race Security whisks you from.
2
There is no apt description for this fellow. His scurrilous deeds are unparalleled even for his fellow cabinet cabal of thieves, liars, cheats and pretenders. I can live with his craven gluttony but woe for our children and grandchildren who will be the tragic recipients of the incalculable damage this self-serving, hedonistic cretin has done to the environment. Equally despicable is POTUS' unctuous praise for this creep.
14
The wording is pure trumpian. Pruitt didn't write this, it was presented to him, he signed it and the rest is history. Now, what is this supposed to divert us from? What fresh mess are we supposed to ignore? And what is this fresh mess doing to our country? It has MAGggAt ( maggot in nontrumpian spelling) written all over it.
13
Pruitt the petty grifter forgot he was not in Oklahoma anymore.
27
Pruitt's resignation: more proof that the Wicked Witch of the West Wing is melting. Trump is cornered by the forces of good. Even his pathological peabrain knows this.
5
In the next election, Trump can now honestly claim he drained (part of) the swamp. Can't blame this smelly mess on President Obama! After all, the self-admitted groper hired a swamp unlike any other. All that's left are alligators and stinky, brackish water. I wonder if Mr. Trump can smell the stink or is it only smelly to us?
8
Like other species, alligators eat their young, so do lions, bears.....
You wrote, "That’s a restaurant that doesn’t usually pop up in political scandals." Frank, I'm surprised you didn't mention Chick-fil-A and founder Dan Cathy's anti-gay agenda.
14
Pruitt demonstrates how dangerous Trump is.
7
Pruitt was a shameless thug all the way, and at least partly due to his boss' example of profligacy and self-enrichment at tax payers' expense. Otherwise, it is not possible to understand why Trump tolerated Pruitt's extravagant expenses, again, at our cost. If Trump deserves the title of 'Ugly American' in-chief, then Scott Pruitt may be called the 'ugly jerk who stole Christmas'. Sure hope that justice catches up to him and sends him to jail...where he belongs. Perhaps his deeply unethical and arrogant stance will serve as a disincentive for the other cabinet members, who may still believe that abusing their power is a god-given right.
13
Did you mean to say Javanka instead of Ivanka? Either way, we know who it is... I wonder how Pruitt had any time to "work"...
1
Carolyn, Javanka is the nickname for Jared and Ivanka, like Brangelina! It was an intentional play on names.
1
Javanka is the combination of Jared and Ivanka, like for example: “kimye”
I will miss Scott Pruitt. He gave color and flavor to the Trump Whitehouse. A toxic orange diesel spice, fit for dead fish and a dying planet. From the Paris Climate folks – Au revoir Monsieur Pruitt. Now if only The Donald would launch himself into the past, we'd be almost there.
7
As to Pruitt's successor - "Meet the new boss, same as the old boss." - The Who
7
What gets me about Pruitt is his constant religious-based comments like how he was “blessed” to work for Trump or how he & his wife liked Chic-fil-A because it was a “faith-based” corporation. Come On!
15
Pruitt is a toxic substance! Moist? More like the sticky stuff in a yet to cleaned, EPA Superfund site!
2
You have to read his resignation letter to truly understand what craven moistness is.
17
So much blood on the sidewalks in DC from all the knuckle dragging politicians. One of the best things about being in my mid-sixties is that I won't have to endure this calamity much longer. Sorry kids...for the bigly sad country we're leaving you.
13
All politicians should have to wear the platform shoes of the 1970s, to keep their knuckles on the ground.
Pruitt resigned? Good. Now let's get on with the impeachment.
16
It's a tremendous achievement to get kicked out this WH for being too corrupted.
13
Frank Bruni, you outdid yourself this time. Punishing, yet never a nasty word. My response spontaneous - a hearty laugh, without animus. I came not to praise Caesar.....!
10
May Ryan Zinke at Interior be next ...
18
“It’s God’s providence...” said Pruitt, on his way out the door.
God’s providence, indeed. And She’s coming for the rest of Trump’s grifters, too!
21
Scott "send the pollution downstream "Pruitt, deserves to spend the community service part of his sentence ,after his prison time,
doing work release........at the, closest, Super Fund toxic waste cleanup site.................for American to get some, truly POETIC JUSTICE.............thank you in advance !!!
6
May Trump's karma run over his dogma!
7
That criminal grifter religious hypocrite was as odious as he was unctuous.
And for all those creeps who claimed he was "effective" in destroying the EPA and trying to kill the planet through his denial of climate change and grifting for the fossil fuel grifter, news flash -- a lot of what he's done, just like when he was fake Oklahoma AG, has been thrown out by courts.
So, he's a criminal and incompetent, your typical manchurian candidate kakistocracy choice.
10
Pruitt had to be pushed out. Any ideas? Was the Pruitt swamp dirtying up the GOP to the point it was beyond stench?
2
I can never erase the thought of him on a used Trump mattress with a bottle of Ritz Carlton lotion.
20
Although historical heat records have been broken around the globe this week, the powers-that-be went back to their usual Clown Car for Pruitt's replacement.
7
Haiku
One swamp critter gone...
Ascends golden parachute---
Alligator drools.
6
We are going to lose thousands of square miles of forest in the service of paper mills for the tell-all books this clown car of an admistraton is festering.
5
I don't understand petty grafters. We have politicians here in Oz who have gone to prison for years, lost their wife and kids, lost their friends, lost everything, because they got a contractor mate to put in a new bathroom on the taxpayer's dime.
Why would anyone do that? I mean, if you're going to graft and risk ending up in the clink, why not do it properly and try to grab millions or better still, billions?
Think big guys. Think big. Look at former Malaysian prime minister Najib Raza. Look at Putin. Now that's graft.
4
“As Scott Pruitt awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect.”
Cockroaches need a lot of moisturizer.
5
The differenxe here is that Gregor Samsa was an innocent victim of his transformation, whereas Scott Pruitt is a self-made cockroach.
For those of you who remember Mark Twain's "Huckleberry Finn" this is as close to the tar-and-feathering of the two grifters as modern times allows.
Pruitt is done. He will leave DC destroyed, he'll buy is own moisturizer from now on ... but it's more likely to be the Wallmart brand.
He won't run for office; he'll be lucky if resigning closes down those investigations (probably will. but maybe not), but they'll hang over him and make him a political pariah. Odds are that none of the Koch/Murray/Blankenship types will give him a no-work pay-off job either -- too smelly, and he's too big a jerk.
It's worth remembering what happened to Anne Gorsuch Burford. She was Reagan's Pruitt, and very narrowly avoided going to jail with Rita Lavelle in the Superfund scandal.
According to Neil (her son, now supreme court justice), she spent the rest of her life as a small-time lawyer chasing dead-beat dads.
Betcha Pruitt can't manage anything honest. We may not have heard the end of Pruitt ... the next news may be jail ... for something he hasn't even done yet!
5
This type of public corruption is what the Death Penalty was made for.
4
Tonight a new sound has replaced the sound of 4th of July fireworks.
It is just as loud, but different, lighter, human.
It is the sound of con men and grifters laughing.
They are amused at the amateurs like Pruitt, Cohen, and the entire Trump family. Amateurs who wouldn't know how to keep a con if their lives depended on it....and some may.
1
Trump didn’t drain the swamp. WE MUST IN NOVEMBER!!!!
7
Trump is firing Pruitt on the day he is hiring Bill Shine. That really says everything that needs be said, if you think about it.
9
Thank you! Your usual dry wit, alerting us on this occasion to the dangers of moistioid addiction, and offering a deliciously detailed portrait of one of the most Gifted Grifters among all those gathered in Trump's Name. Can't wait for your response to the "You're Such a Blessing and It's Been a Blessing Working With You" resignation letter he kissed and sent on to our Dear Leader as reported widely on Thursday afternoon.
3
"Why not crawl, in your reduced and pitiable form, to the finish line and at least get points for devotion?"
Perhaps because even slime has a hard time sliding uphill?
4
Spectacular news! Spectacular writing!
The money he spent in seeking self-enrichment is nothing. What this administration is doing to the environment is going to cost us and our children trillions in health and energy bills. There is virulent cancer in our government and it has to be urgently excised.
8
If you were going to design a foul-smelling swamp, you could not come up with a better slithering reptile with which to fill it.
2
Nothing happens for no reason. It is naive to assume that Pruitt left because of all the investigations and misconduct, to which he and Trump already had thumbed their noses. What is missing from this picture is the true triggering event. It is most likely that Pruitt, apparently capable of most any deceit or corrupt self-dealing and self-aggrandizement, was caught, shown to be involved in, or stumbled upon in conduct so improper and egregious that he could not survive its disclosure. It had to have been so bad that Trump could no longer protect him and allow him to hide under his swampy skirts. Likely it will eventually surface.
4
I am sure Pruitt sees a very lucrative new job ahead for him maybe as a lobbyist for fossil fuels or something back in Oklahoma. I think he should pay back the American people for all his stuff - like the phone booth. He can keep the disgusting used hotel mattress. He did exhibit some shall I say "curious" thinking and behavior. I don't know about that job. Who would want to work with him? He has fears about his safety and has some disgusting habits and he spends way too much over budget.
I would hope that this puts an end to Pruitt's future political ambitions but this is bizzaro Trump world where the is bar is so low that Pruitt may have a future!
2
"I'll have the best people". "Drain the swamp!"
Lock him up?
3
Trump was jealous that Pruitt was even more of a lying, grifting, crook than Trump is. Trump couldn't stand the competition.
3
Pruitt's only deficiency in this administration is that his press regarding replacing Sessions upstaged DJT. Not enough space in all of Creation to accommodate both egos simultaneously. It would lead to an implosion of the universe.
How fortunate the people in Oklahoma are to not drink the same water, breathe the same air, eat the same food and endure the same climate as the rest of us mortals. I'm sure Pruitt will find a welcome home for himself back in that paradise.
My guess is that all the investigations involving him were going to turn up dirt on people like that senile ogre James Inhofe and his fellow fossil fuel stooges in the OK statehouse. Time to cut bait.
8
Pruitt is the most vivid example of how Trump is "draining the swamp" to make room for his cesspool.
14
Brilliant as usual. Mr Bruni wields his pen like a surgeons knife
9
Moist Trump.
Moist GOP.
Moist Wall Street.
Moist Russians.
Moist Swamp.
Moist likely to be impeached...
26
Gotta be a felony in there somewhere, no? Get him in there with Manafort.
Next up; DeVos, then Zinke.
15
Lock them all up!
4
A positive sign? Trump will resign next? Pruit knew it could only last so long so he stole as much as possible as fast as possible, just like Trump is doing.
While we are talking about the swamp, why is Trump hiring still more foreign workers for Maralago, but insisting that the military dump non citizens/take away military services as a pathway to citizenship? Trump appears to support only lying thieving swamp monsters like himself.
7
Nice column, but....Donald Trump usually does not do something unless it is in his interest or someone offends him. So the question is, how is this in his interest? How does he benefit from it personally? Clearly, he does not care about the environment or his reputation. It must be that Pruitt treated him derisively. Knowing that Trump is an idiot, he probably tried to pull a fast one, as one is wont to do when then boss is not that bright. That is probably what happened. He genuflected with a grin that somehow did not strike Trump as sufficiently sycophantic. At that moment, that is when Trump decided, in his own cruel and sadistic way, to ask for his resignation. Not only does he get rid of this phony sycophant but he also sends a message to the rest of the staff, don't forget who the boss is. Now will someone bring me another piece of cake.
5
Yes! To all of it. Yes, yes, yes!
5
Proving once and for all that a cone of silence, Is NOT. Go back to Oklahoma, Scottie. They are VERY proud of you, soon to be Governor.
Hallelujah.
6
just not all of us ma’am
2
Chik-Fil-A's religion in politics policies ARE a political scandal.
5
Trump, Pruitt, Sessions, Mnuchin, and the rest of the grifter posse that rode into Washington on their black horses are not the real the problem. It's the rich donors, feckless Republican Congress and their fervent and vengeful base that approve 100% of what they are doing They are the real criminals.
34
great first paragraph!
3
Would someone please check his pockets before he leaves the building. Thank you.
12
Before your official last day or is this your official final day—-I want you, Pruitt— to re-pay all those extraneous and dubious official flights, activities that cost the US taxpayers. Just because you resigned doesn’t mean you are off the hook, Pruitt.
14
Swamp Man/Thing from OK. A drive in movie playing in DC.
2
Scott Pruitt's resignation will make no difference to the incompetency of the Trump administration.
The whole White House is infested.
17
Trump didn't see anything out of the ordinary in Pruitt's behavior. Says more about Trump than the grifter Pruitt.
10
An interesting time to play the Pruitt diversion card, what with a sudden reemergence of Novichuk in Britain while the Republican Congressional delegation is in Moscow, wouldn't you say, Frank?
9
Scott Pruitt's resignation letter tp POTUSmakes it sound like NOT protecting the environment as head of the EPA was a mission from God and a service to the Dear Leader. The language of the letter is deliciously delusional.
9
Let’s just start at the beginning, a very good place to start.
When you rule you begin with E-P-A.
When you lie you end up with Chick-Filay.
E-P-A. Chick-Filay.
Say goodbye today.
So long.
Farewell.
Buh-bye....
14
Childishly competitive for contempt laurels, when you know that the point of every complaint was to extinguish his diligence. Have the guts to say so, and earn the respect you attempt to buy so cheaply.
He wanted a used mattress from the Trump International Hotel in Washington.
Come on man, that's creepy.
9
Apparently, he didn't flinch!
He wanted to use the mattress as a “first class flying carpet” for his exit from The Donald’s Swamp!
I read that Pruitt was thinking of running for president. If that's so, DT must've seen it as traitorous, hence Pruitt's ouster.
1
Lock him up in that $43,000 phone booth.
4
If Pruitt screams in the phone booth can you hear a noise?
6
Maybe now that Pruitt, who is synonymous with sleazy, is out of the picture, we can focus on the EPA's degradation, which is sure to continue with his successor.
3
Resignation is allowing this screed to get of the hook cheaply. Pruitt needs to be publicly pilloried, followed by incarceration.
1
You can't blame poor Scott Pruitt. He has to try to keep up with the Devoses and the Rosses and the Mnuchins and the Trump's.
It was a lot easier to pretend he was a wealthy aristocrat on a public servant's salary when he was living in Oklahoma.
7
According to Oxford University Press, 'moist' is the least favorite adjective in the English language.
Perfect fit.
10
Pruitt was second only to Trump in his incompetence and corruption. Maybe Trump didn't like the competition.
6
Pruitt is a descendent of the snake oil salesmen, carnival barkers, and three-card monte hustlers of old--just the kind of guy who'd be drawn to Trump and vice versa. Trump lost patience only when Pruitt's hustles and fetishes became too public; he likes his grifters to slither less conspicuously around his DC swamp.
1
From your lips to God's ears. May karma come soon, as a beat-up old sedan that leaves the entire Trump regime as ignominious road kill. Even a 'possum deserves some sympathy, but not this corrupt crew.
2
I get it...again. Pruitt is as low as they go. Why was he there? Why be so absolutely villainous?
I do not know and honestly I am beyond caring at this point. What I do care about is the PARDON. That thing hiding behind the potted plant in the corner.
That's what keeps me up at night. The thought that these perpetrators, these traitors, will skate off into the sunset and reappear on Fox for years to come and profit from their crimes.
Thumb their noses at all of us. Every stinking day and twice, or three times on Sundays.
Tell me about the PARDON and how we can remedy that.
4
My guess is that the good folks of Oklahoma will eventually elect him as governor....
Wonderful! He’ll make good karma for ‘em....
2
Frank you left out the religious frou-frou this outrageous fraud wraps himself in. Elmer Gantry has nothing on this guy.
Pruitt will be gone from the Bible Study with some of the Trump administration and he can go back to being a deacon at First Baptist in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma.
Maybe he will resume his career of lies about women contracting breast cancer if they get an abortion or take up his board membership on one of those false-front crisis pregnancy centers or ponder evolution. Or hone his victim talk that we heard today and take it on the road.
Most Americans will remember him as the most dishonest wastrel in the Swamp Cabinet.
5
His corruption was so excessive that there was no question he was crackpot. And so was his boss who retained him so long.
2
Let's hope that this stay's on the news lead for at least a few days. Anything that keeps Mueller out of the news and off the short attention span of trump is good.
2
Two words: Claw back.
How much did Pruitt cost us in waste and graft? I want it back.
7
If you asked 10 Trump voters about Scott Pruitt 8 wouldn’t know who or what you were talking about .
They would also be proud of the fact they didn’t know who he is . Trump himself probably never heard of Pruitt before someone from Fox News mentioned him or told him to make Pruitt head of the EPA .
3
Yes, it's lesser vs greater grifters. His true colors, vivid and indelible.
Psychiatrists have analyzed Trump proud narcissism, but Pruitt is a case study that’s morbidly fascinating ---of amoral lack of conscience and total disregard of responsibility to the public.
Pruitt's amorality is just more blatantly symptomatic of the autocratic reign of Tsar Trump and his courtiers. He was more publicly shameless, and exploitive.
They may hide it a bit better, but the rest of the Trump courtiers have a similar credo--- we are superior and can do whatever we want to aggrandize our power and wealth. You, the public have no clout, so we can exploit you, so just shut up.
This is the credo of dictators. Where are the guardrails to protect us that America was once identified with?
The Trump Tribe lives in their fantasy world right out of the Gilded Age of plutocrat privilege----an age before universal voting, when the mass of citizens had no rights, but were simply to be used and plundered by their 'superiors.'
Strange but true in 21st Century USA. Maybe we've all been living in a fantasy of sorts. Now we have to get real, and revise our theories of American 'progress'.
6
Yes, exactly. That's their attitude and they don't bother to disguise it, which is what scares me.
1
Mr. Pruitt proved that the "swamp" didn't get any smaller under Trump.
2
Great piece Bruni, spot on, funny.
"That yacht sailed long ago."
I would ROFL if it all wasn't so heartbreaking.
1
Look for a coal- and crude oil-fueled Chick-fil-A opening soon near you. Bye, Scottie.
2
Good job, Frank. Sums up this wretched administration.
3
Trump probably thinks that some time into his second term he can begin whitewashing this whole charade as the crucifixion of a true believer; that the ethical morass will fade as the hoax of human-induced global climate is proven, and that Saint Pruitt will be resurrected as the holy patron of resource extraction and wealthy luxury.
2
I'm sure he emptied the "cash registers" into his pockets as he went out the door.
3
In a weird way, Pruitt was Trump's whipping boy.
While astute observations about Donald Trump's evil character and foul behavior got dismissed as partisanship or sour grapes, there was Scott Pruitt in all his greedy glory. It wasn't a party thing. It was an exploit or preserve thing. He was an exploiter without limits. But now he's gone, at least temporarily.
So who is to be Trump's 'bad cop' next? That combination of expert groveler (see resignation letter), the hide of a rhinoceros (impervious to criticism) and complete disregard for his duties or public land and funds will be tough to beat. But you can count on Trump to find another "best" person.
So do the investigations and potential fall out end when he leaves on Monday, or does he still have culpability once he is gone for all the brazen, corrupt behavior? I have not heard this discussed anywhere today. I want my tax dollars returned.
2
It's all about 'reality TV'. The 'Trump Show' needed a martyr to the forces of evil (aka humanists who care about the planets ecosystems). Pruitt is now a Christ-figure, as he was always positioned to be. But lets be frank: anyone who thinks Pruitt is not going to be much more highly paid in his retirement than he was in his public service is smokin' the good stuff. Thanks to 40 years of tax cuts on the rich, the wealthiest 1% of Americans now own 40% of the country. Among other things, that form of excess wealth can easily pay someone like Pruitt to bleed like Jesus in sacrifice those who think fossil fuels are responsible for more than a 'Chinese hoax'.
The down side to Pruitt's resignation is that Trump seems unequaled in his ability to find even worse candidates to replace the dreck leaving the administration.
2
“I believe you are serving as president today because of God’s providence,” he wrote. “I believe that same providence brought me into your service.”
God must surely have a great sense of humor.
1
Maybe the real reason he got canned is because he was taking attention away from Trump. Can't have that!
1
There's no mystery about Pruitt's departure. He's done what he came to do, and now he can crawl back under the rock. His fealty has always been to (1) himself, (2) his friends, (3) his patrons - notably Koch Fils, Devon Energy and the Duck currently occupying the White House. The next in line, Wheeler, is no doubt just as bad: Oil got their guy, now it's Coal's turn. Then well have a guy from Chemicals, then a guy from Nuclear. By the time they're finished the red states will be a toxic waste dump.
2
This is what the State of Oklahoma wrought on the nation. I shouldn't be too hard on them; my state gave the nation Devin Nunes.
3
Thank you for your summary of Pruitt’s known grift. When overwhelmed historians catalog the ethical breaches of Trump’s Cabinet and staffers, this column will be useful.
1
Perfect and brilliant. Thank you.
"Gauche and greedy and dirty to the core," describes this whole ongoing criminal conspiracy which some keep insisting on calling an "administration." More like a de-ministration? It's just another version of the mob, people. Treat it like organized crime and all will be understood.
6
Really, though. The used mattress thing—what was that about?
1
Pruitt's moist grifting pales in comparison to the havoc he has caused our environment. He is simply another dangerous, premium priced distraction.
4
Within the ''base'' of the republican party (roughly 35% spread across very red districts). one can do no wrong. ( especially when they have been put in place to do the ''dirty'' work - literally for the EPA )
They can aggrandize themselves in doing their ''duties'', all in the name of extreme ideological principles. They can radically change what has been the norm from past administrations, and get praise that the ends justify the means.
They are then jettisoned once the public pressure reaches critical mass, and then can go back to their safe ruby red district to carry on the torch. There will be no retribution and there will be no consequences. There will be only a new job within the base to carry on the graft that is accepted, condoned and promoted.
This is your gangster government at work.
4
I think the great buffoon spoke the truth when he said Pruitt was excellent as EPA administrator - in his view. He did exactly what the BG wanted - worked at dismantling all the efforts previous EPA administrators accomplished. Of course, it will all come back to haunt the GB, because impure air, water, etc. will make us all sick to death.
1
Pruitt was just a symptom, much like Trump is. These are greedy, self indulgent men who came to power because of a disgruntled segment of the population. Trump preyed on people’s pain, and now he’s cashing in. And Pruitt was an accomplice. Ugly Americans, indeed.
2
Once again, Bruni has it right - load up the truck while Trump is your wheel man. When he stops for a cheeseburger, get out, run away, thank the driver profusely.
Where is the Chief of Staff cutting this larceny and larcenous skulduggery off? Where is the moderating influence of Ivanka on any single day of the week, on ANY single issue? Where are the checks? The balances? Do they ONLY exist at a voting booth and not in the consciousness of our elected officials?
Don't answer that...I'd try but I am drowning in swampy bilge water - a body the EPA forgot to clean up.
1
When he was confronted by an average citizen in a restaurant who told him what we were all thinking, that we actually knew he was a skunk was probably the first time reality hit him. He turned tail and ran. And next resigned. Good riddance! Now, will he be prosecuted? He should be in jail.
1
It's the end of the first quarter, people. Let's wait until it's all over before we spike the ball.
1
Fortunately for Pruitt, like Tom Price before him, there is so much corruption in the Trump administration that the press will forget about his theft of government funds once he leaves. When is the last time you saw any investigative reporting on Tom Price paying back the money he owes for all those private jet flights? Will Mnuchin ever have to pay for taking his wife to watch the eclipse? Not worth print in the paper.
A job in the Trump administration is a license to steal. If you get caught, the worst that can happen is that you resign. If law enforcement comes after you, they are condemned as biased. If you are convicted for your criminal acts, you can count on a pardon. That's what we call making America great again.
6
The fish rots from the head.
While Pruitt buys expensive pens and lotions, his boss profits from the privately run migrant camps on the border. While Pruitt has his dry cleaning picked up by his security detail and flies to Morocco for fun, his boss secures trademarks for his daughters products from China.
While Scott Pruitt uses government aides to find an executive position at Chic a Fil for his wife, Kushner secures over $500 million in loans for his troubled 666 real estate deal in Midtown.
Unfortunately the list goes on and get some more troubling with each detail.
It’s not that it’s unacceptable to grift, It’s just that it must be done in not such an obvious manner. Scott Pruitt was a dork grifter, this is unacceptable in the upper echelon’s of professional grifting carried on by the president and his cabinet members.
And the GOP Congress watches while getting their own slice on the side.
7
Nice piece Mr. Bruni, and amen to your last line.
1
Excellent article, Frank! Your use of sarcasm was outstanding. I agree with another commenter that we'll just get a more subtle raper of the environment to replace him.
3
Will someone please frisk Pruitt on his way out the door? One can only imagine how much he will try to grab (including the personalized pens) as mementos of his stay at EPA; in fact, I wonder just how much 'stuff' beyond the pens was ordered to memorialize his appointment. It would be great to see an inventory.
4
The air and water are still getting filthier by the minute, but at least the stench is gone.
2
But Pruitt did make sure to poison our waterways and pollute our air to grease the wheels of commerce, so there's that.
1
Dear Scott,
I believe in God, and I believe in reflecting upon whether my daily words and actions are what God wants from me.
I know for a fact that God wants us to be stewards of the earth.
And God does not care for liars and money grubbers, unless they repent. You have abused your power.
Please don't blame the rest of us.
1
As a Catholic I'm kind of disappointed that the Vatican didn't deny him entry.
I imagine Pruitt back in Oklahoma, sobbing about how he could've taken more, could've stolen more, kind of like the inverse of Oskar Schindler weeping about how he could've saved more people.
Hopefully one of his man made earthquakes happens to occur at his home.
4
Nicely written Frank Bruni. Vivid, punchy, and true.
1
I’ll miss Scott Pruitt. He conveniently embodied everything that is wrong with the Trump administration: the greed, self-dealing, pomposity, the touting of rollbacks as “achievements.” If he’d managed to stick around a bit longer, I’ll bet his name would have become an adjective - for example, “Ivanka just pulled a real Pruitt move with China.”
2
Go ahead, have your fun.
We've exchanged a blundering, blustering embarrassment named Pruitt for a savvy and efficient industry hack named Wheeler as head of the 'Environmental Protection Agency.'
That's humorous? That's good news? No, it is neither. It doesn't even merit a moment of schadenfreude.
Pruitt was pushed out as Trump clears out the underbrush for his next devestating Supreme Court pick. He couldn't let Pruitt jeapordize one Senate vote, because Trump is going to need all that he can get.
I know for sure that I'm not the only one who has woken up at 0 dark hundred for the past year an a half craving to read this kind of news. And thank God for the free press, without which this would never have happened. Boy, oh boy, did I enjoy reading this epithet Mr. Bruni! Especially the final line, "Perhaps someday soon it will come for the president as well."
1
First, please place (ewe!) directly after usage of the word moist. I know so many women who are skeebed out by that word.
Can we track all of the federal dollars spent on this family and cabinet to date and jam it down the deficit hawks hypocritical mouths?
If these are laws that he broke, he should by prosecuted. Just like the rest of us would be.
Trump supporters have out twisted Cirque de Soleil defending this administration. We, the people should shout down and shun these people.
Scott Pruitt was terrible at his job. Now that will be held by a competent climate change denier. We're all doomed.
1
Has Donald J. trump ever had any shame ?
Obviously not otherwise why would he hire dirty rotten scoundrel like Scott Pruitt as the head of EPA ? It is such a laugh and sad at the same time.
Some of the things Pruitt did was known to us from day one. Then months have gone by , his Fox interview we all have heard where Pruitt was adament .
Good riddance , now next one will be trump ,
Country needs to vote the lying, corrupt president out.
2
No mystery. He is our next AG.
If only this was an indication of the beginning of the end of Trumps Swampland
1
I read your columns for inventive phrasing and wit, and they (you) never disappoint.
But this reader has reached a point where the humor no longer has a place to land. The environment, encompassing all sentient life, is being intentionally and systematically trashed, and I have run out of laughter.
1
Somehow you knew if we waited long enough Ronald Reagan's pronouncement that "government is the problem" would be realized. Congratulations Mr. Pruitt! It only took 40 years but you've proven the Gipper to be right. Sad!
2
Just a few days ago, Mr. Pruitt was confronted in a restaurant by woman holding her child, who asked him, impassioned, to resign.
The cynic in me knows this is just a coincidence, but the hopeful idealist in me would like to think she got to him. Or perhaps, at least, she got to somebody.
Even if it was a matter of image and not conscience, at least the right thing was done.
2
I reckon the US hasn’t had an EPA director the likes of this fellow since James Watt occupied the office.
6
Scott Pruitt is proof of two things that should give us pause:
1) Donald Trump cares not a whit about Americans and the air they breathe and water they drink; and,
2) Part of Donald Trump's appeal, is that he gleefully gives the metaphorical middle finger to everyone who is not a devoted member of his base.
31
It is probable that this is something he has been doing all his life. Surfing, abusing, cheating, taking advantage. The giant swamp just got smaller.
3
I agree with just about everything that's been said. Pruitt is typical of many of those in the Trump White House, and the President continues to show intolerance and hate toward all people of color and the LGBT community. It saddens me how many have jumped on his wagon of intolerance.
2
Mr. Pruitt's resignation signifies the contribution of journalistic professionalism in American politics. Please continue to keep us all honest. . . as well as yourselves.
10
Even in this administration of con men and grifters, Scott Pruitt was unique. From the $43,00] phone booth to the first class travel, the expensive pens, the junkets to Morroco and Italy, the unauthorized use of government employees to find used mattresses, job for his wife, and the search for Ritz Carlton moisturizer Pruitt has been the poster child for Trump administration graft and corruption.
4
Totally corrupt to the core is not a problem, as long as you push Trump's agenda. But displease Trump and your gone. Downside for the environment is doubtless Trump will install someone equally determined to destroy the EPA.
1
Pruitt represents the very worst of humanity.
He is someone who happily took on a role (protecting the environment; the clue is in the name EPA) he had no intention of fulfilling. He worked to deregulate not in the interests of the environment but in the interests of the businesses that were impeded by entirely sensible environmental regulations. The free market economy would destroy the environment - that’s why the EPA exists. Trump would willingly sacrifice the environment for short term economic gain and found his shameless henchman in Pruitt.
What’s even more depressing is that the existential crisis that is climate change is at our collective doors. We need strong leadership and environmental protection to fight it. Instead we have the pathetic corporate shill that is Scott Pruitt.
Pruitt deserves no sympathy or mercy, and must be held accountable. He should be investigated and prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
24
Sure enough Pruitt put a refreshed old face on grifting, but for true style points from the real old school look no farther than Lockheed and its F-35 "fighter jet for the next generation," a program begun in 1992, still not delivered in usable form and with Lockheed still raking it in, generations later.
Pruitt was a minor moocher. The Old Guard still define the edges.
Just as Trump dictated his physician's medical report, he no doubt dictated Pruitt's obsequious letter of resignation. What else can explain the incredible words of devotion and fidelity to Trump.
I hope investigations continue and Pruitt is found to have knowingly and willfully broken the law and will serve jail time and be required to reimburse us.
6
Be careful what you wish for. Former coal lobbyist, Washington insider and lifetime climate-change denier Andrew Wheeler is his replacement. He’ll likely focus on destroying the EPA rather than wasting time on self-aggrandizement, the used mattress, jobs for wifey and a cone of silence.
2
Trump was asked on Air Force One today, after the resignation, if he had any problems with Pruitt's behavior(s). One word answer...No. So even though the nation has spoken very clearly that they don't appreciate their tax dollars being squandered, rampant corruption, the total lack of any moral compass, all those things are fine with the leader of our country.
14
"But he could stud his regal ambitions and festoon his kingly narrative with wholly original details." Frank, this might be the most gorgeous sentence of the year. Bravo. And, yes, for the point of the article, too.
How do you know when corruption has reached the very core of an institution? When people no longer even attempt to conceal larcenous and imperious behavior.
11
Somewhat ironic, if not a cruel joke, that it was the protest votes to the Green Party in the three key States that put Trump into office, and that led to Pruitt. His successor whoever it will be will be equally disgusting.
2
Well-done, Frank Bruni! You bring laughter and a smile to my face today!
1
I certainly hope that we haven't seen the last of him.
We still need to see him in court. And then being led out in handcuffs.
9
Looking forward very much to your take on the last sentence of Pruitt's very recent "Dear Don" goodbye letter, especially the last phrase:
"Thank you again Mr. President for the honor of serving you and I wish you Godspeed in all that you put your hand to."
1
He must not have stayed at a Trump hotel when the option was available.
2
"... to be replaced with a coal industry lobbyist". Huge step forward for mankind.
1
"the unrelenting attacks on me personally, my family, are unprecedented and have taken a sizable toll on all of us"
Is Edward Scott Pruitt thinking that Americans will be denied the full accounting of each and every ethics violation alleged?
In his dishonorable retreat, PRUITT DARES TO LAY THE BLAME ON OTHERS for "attacks" upon his family.
Does Pruitt think that there's an escape hatch under his cowardly smokescreen?
8
A reasonable guess surrounding Pruitt's mysterious departure is that a federal indictment is on the way related to cash kickbacks received for promoting the interests of his oil and gas handlers while ensconced at the E.P.A. He's willingly shattered every other ethical norm and restraint in his hyper corrupted tenure there. What's the big deal about additionally pocketing some undeclared, secret cash? Be on the lookout for yet another Trump-related perp walk.
5
Why does the President care or feign concern? Perhaps his own environment is more threatened than we know and the so-called protector of the environment, to borrow a Trumpian slur , must be removed to protect the President’s habitat.
Would that this were true.
1
I'm surprised no one has mentioned Pruitt's actions of behalf of his own self importance. For example, when he wanted to dine out (along with his 20-person troop of security guards), he would stop traffic on the way with vehicles having red lights flashing and sirens blaring, just so he could get his dinner without having to stop at traffic lights like 'the little people' did.
As you say: there is no making sense out of it. Yet recommended reading may help: Snakes in Suits by Babiak and Hare.
1
I have to wonder how much Pruitt was trying to impress his boss. Was he surrounding himself in extravagance hoping to be like the rich guy? His methods were clearly the same - always a scam.
Should I also wonder whether his boss was impressed? No, the answer is obvious.
1
I have a question I ask myself about public figures and persons in the new: Would I want to have lunch with this person? A follow-up is always "Would I be willing to pay for the lunch? How nice a restaurant would I be willing to foot the bill at?
I wouldn't eat lunch with Pruitt from the dollar menu at Mickey D's, particularly knowing that he would stiff me for the burgers and fries.
The taxpayer money he spent may have been unconscionable, but he remains a low-rent street corner hustler.
2
The greatest insult to the American people, is when Trump leaves the White House---hopefully sooner than later---his parting comments will be simple---I did it by way, and made millions, many millions...and those coal miners in West Virginia, --well, there is sucker born every minute.
1
Thank you, Mr. Bruni, for so wittily skewering the inventive and won't-be-missed Mr. Pruitt. If only the damage that he has done to his department and (more important) to our world were so gaily laughed off.
Apparently his temporary replacement is a lobbyist for the coal industry. Looks like more material is headed your way. The only bright spot for your fans. Please keep writin'.
Harriet in San Francisco.
This guy and his enablers are so afraid of data and numbers they lost track of how many sins were in the stack of potential crimes and abuses of power. And this on a day when a Bill Shine, what with his baggage, is brought into the White House and Jim Jordan watches as more wrestlers sign on to endorse his perfidy.
This all said, we MUST learn much more about the precise damage Pruitt has done to the environment. Its protecting the environment that will win Democrats votes, not another goofball to attack. And, thank God for people like that woman with baby who was clear, effective, and yes, civil.
1
do we get to keep the phone booth ?
2
Hold the Schadenfreude, everybody. Andrew Wheeler, a Washington insider who is now the acting Environmental Prostitution Administrator, will be less colorful than the ineffable Mr. Pruitt, but probably more effective at enacting the same dreadful agenda. This swamp can’t be drained because it has no bottom.
3
This man should be prosecuted. A blatant grifter with a shady background, his financial affairs should be investigated and exposed.
7
While I had momentary satisfaction today that Pruitt is finally gone, I turned immediately to fear and wonder about his successor.
Thanks for this Mr. Bruni--as always, your pitch perfect use of language made me laugh. Almost. 'Moist'. Perfect.
3
A public official so blatantly corrupt and contemptuous of any public duty doesn't come suddenly from out of nowhere.
We can cite his long list of corruptions, and say--- whew, good riddance. But we need to analyze how the ground has been well prepared by the general trend of US politics---tethered to big money donors that set the corporate/profit agenda. And what types this attracts.
The Trump outrages are simply extremes that develop out of this poisoned political culture.
Thus, “We the People” will stand in long lines to elect representatives ---thank God temperatures in Nov are usually much cooler. We'll desperately hope they’ll please also live up to their public duty to our needs---- but they have to also stay within the limits their corporate donors set up for public officials they finance.
The automatic response we get from Trumpite malefactors of our democracy is to blame their critics. They play the victim role, even as they truly victimize our system for their own profit and power. They’re propped up by the extremist party that dominates our 3 branches and most states.
What are some ways out of this, Frank? We all share your moral outrage.
In America today---
Up is down, black is white.
How can we ever set it right?
2
“It turns out that while the Trump administration has interred many cherished principles and traditions that we thought were keepers, karma isn’t among them. Perhaps someday soon it will come for the president as well.“
From your pen to god’s ear.
7
Going way back, the EPA, Depts. of Education, Housing and so forth, were targets by the Republicans to be ABOLISHED. Couldn't be done. Next best thing was to get the likes of Pruitt, deVos, Carson, et. al. to destroy the institutions from within. They're doing a pretty good job of it. We gotta stop them. Vote in November.
15
Pruitt's grifts weren't impressive; more like what you'd expect from a provincial rube who stumbles upon an unlocked Brinks truck. Making him no different from his boss. Shamelessness is the cornerstone of the Trump operation.
Of course, the real scandal is the ravages he and his cronies perpetuated upon the natural world. One assumes this will continue apace. Our grandchildren will reap that harvest.
1
Mr. Bruni, thank you for this entertaining and exceptional capture of the humor and schadenfreude of a very well deserved good riddance to the epic EPA dismantler.
Pruitt is - was - a toxic combination of Trumpism and prosperity gospel. In his endless grifting of everything he thought he could get away with stealing, he was Trump's mini-me (me! me! me!) Armed with his prosperity gospel faith, he probably genuinely believed the good Lord had placed him in a Cabinet job where he could enrich himself in ways large and small. Mostly small, for alas unlike his role model Trump, he didn't start his grift with a million dollar head-start. Ah Scottie, we hardly knew ye - just enough to loathe you. Now you can sink back into the oily, fracked swamp of Oklahoma politics whence you emerged, and leave the Washington swamp to the big boys, like Trump.
2
And this is just the stuff we know about. You can bet there's more under rocks yet to be turned over.
8
Pruitt was so blatantly acting like a "creature" of the "swamp" that dismissing it as fake news was not feasible, so he had to go.
Mr.Pruitt was not only an incompetent director of the EPA , he also,was "nutty".What sane person has a 43,000 dollar phone booth and has people run around looking for bottles of lotion from Ritz-Carltons. He did a lot of damage to the climate while he was director and his acting successor will also.This all speaks to just one of Mr.Trump's follies which include separating children at the border, starting a destructive trade war, and running all over the world to visit dictators who have nuclear weapons.
Of course Trump doesn’t give a hoot about the man’s scandals but good riddance whatever the tipping point. His audacity was a wonder to behold, as is Trump’s. But the pen thing I don’t get. You could spend more than that for 12 pens at Staples. To my mind the cost wasn’t the issue but rather the man’s self important mimicking of Presidential signing ceremonies. Then again, the fat man uses $2 felt pens to show off his psychopathic signature.
1
Pruitt made Trump look less crooked by comparison.
There are more like him auditioning for that position
1
The fact that he did all that you detail and sailed out of the E.P.A. without the slightest attempt at apology for his transgressions...or any forseeable criminal prosecution for his actions...tells you all you need to know about the state of justice in our government today.
13
We need mass demonstrations against Trump and the Republican Congress. Lukewarm wit is really not a relevant weapon anymore. Time to call a spade a spade and prosecute these petty crooks and thieves. Significantly less seem to have caused the French Revolution.
6
The ranks of the best people must be getting awfully thin.
4
Let's not get too distracted by the mattress, the phone booth or Chick-fil-A, this man's administrative moves, in the mounting evidence of global warming, puts him in a class with Wrong-Way Corrigan and Marie Antoinette.
5
I have a simple question, How does any Republican Senator or Congressman find Pruitt's actions acceptable.
Everyone, republican and democrat simply wants to be sure they stay in office; they have little if no ethics, so it does not surprise the silence of one party.
But.. The democrats would do exactly the same thing.
Being in power, being re elected comes way before country.
That is our biggest threat, not Russia, it is our broken political system.
6
What rubbish. Democrats may embellish the truth for various purposes but in my experience in general they have not smugly, brazenly and maliciously destroyed the commons for a cheap buck.
1
And what are you doing about it? We need as people take the initiative back in our hands. Street protests worked to stop apartheid in this country and the Vietnam War.
Air we can chew. Toxic soil. Carcinogenic water. Trump will find another to do all of this. Pruitt was a dime-store version of the Trump family of grifters. We could relate to his small-time hustle. Tactical pants. Cyber phone booth. Trip to an exotic venue with a pretty girl. Job to keep the wife distracted. Nothing on the scale of the Trump family branding machine. Hundreds of millions in loans and laundered $ from international oligarch-thugs. Ivana in Azerbaijan. Warlords with money. Beyond the scope of our comprehension. Pruitt's mistake was grifting at a level we all understood. Sad.
24
Ah, what difference does it make? For this administration, there's plenty more where he came from. Just lift a rock in the swamp that Trump was supposed to be draining a dozen more Pruitts will surely crawl out.
127
More like, ah, what difference does it make? This country is broken and there's no fix in sight. And even the most dedicated, crusading EPA administrator would be powerless to check the damage the human race is doing to the environment.
Am I a pessimist? No, just a realist.
2
Stu :Exactly!
1
Goes to show not even a $43,000 phone booth can shield one from embarrassment.
16
In view of all the damage he and his department have done to the environment and its protection, there is no satisfaction here, just depression. Depression over the vast and time consuming task needed to rehabilitate the EPA, to roll back the present free-for-all destruction of our environment. Some damage is permanent, much will need to be done, new regulations will need to be put in place, all this after the Trump nightmare occupation of the White House is over.
78
Pruitt accomplished his mission of rolling back modest but effective regulations. We are now living in a more chemically and environmentally dangerous world. Let's not forget the acting director was a former coal lobbyist, and others now in the EPA are if a like mind with Pruitt, so the erosion of regulations and theft of natural beauty and resources will not cease. I believe the only reason Pruitt is leaving now is because he was offered a job that paid lots more and has many more perks. His new employer is probably a company who benefited from the reduced regulations.
62
I doubt Pruitt has been offered another job. He's too well known as a grafter who will soak the company for his own profit and perks. In this case, he soaked the American taxpayer.
Others in this administration have done the same, but not to the extraordinary graft levels of Pruitt. What CEO in his or her right mind would bring this thieving thug on board?
1
Let's not forget that his guy was approved by the Senate as part of their responsibility to advise and consent. Everyone who voted for him knew what they were getting in kind if not in degree. To be honest, at the confirmation hearing for the EPA successor; senators should advise the nominee to keep a low profile and not embarrass the country before they give their consent to let him (her?) continue or expand Pruitt's disastrous policies.
38
@Rodger Madison: Every Republican voted "Yea" for this man- except two: Susan Collins voted no and John McCain did not vote.
Of course the faithful Democrats- Heidi Heitkamp and Joe Manchin III voted Yes.
Let’s not remember him just for his lack of ethics and his money-grabs.
Let’s remember that he was a complete failure at his job: protecting the environment.
It’s not as though he was out cleaning up American rivers and lakes all the while buying insanely expensive pens. No, he was out systematically trying to allow for more pollution and damage to our great country while lining the pockets of coal companies and the Koch brothers.
His attempted damage is far greater than any $43,000 sound booth.
175
Ah, but unquestionably, his "job" was not cleaning up America, but dismantling all restrictions on industry. And that he did supremely well, unfortunately.
2
Scott Pruitt's resignation is no victory for anyone. The policy of unwinding EPA will continue, now unimpeded by distractions about an utterly corrupt and contemptible person.
38
While Pruitt's resignation may cause some surprise, his behavior certainly did not. He belongs to a political party whose Reaganesque scorn for the federal government discourages any deep commitment to the ethics of public service. Trump, of course, set the standard for using tax dollars as a source of personal enrichment, but few of his minions enjoy the kind of immunity from congressional scrutiny granted him by his enablers in the GOP.
Some politicians who see no useful role for the federal government (except in national defense and the prevention of abortions) simply conclude that they might as well enrich themselves by exploiting such a useless institution. Corruption infects both political parties, but Democratic belief in the importance of the federal government imposes some restraint on the members of that party.
Most Republicans do not engage in the kind of crude practices favored by the EPA secretary, but his behavior does reflect one trend within the party.
20
Let's hope this brings Pruitt's political career to a well-deserved end. He went to Washington and made a fool of himself. That should disqualify him from future electoral success, even in Oklahoma.
11
Nah... he fits right in in Oklahoma.
1