This is funny; this is horrifying. What is happening to my country?
21
Note that Pruitt possibly putting on the Ritz, or possibly slumbering on a Trump mattress, is not per se a good reason for firing this cabinet member. Rather interesting that the attacks are on vanity and sucking up. By such standards, most politicians at the federal level, and high-level federal bureaucrats plus their good friends, are subject also to critiques for vanity and sucking up. So why is Pruitt being pilloried? For policy reasons, apparently.
Quit attacking the person on relative trifles, and address the policy, please.
2
I would like to see Democrats in Congress (and elsewhere) give up their unrealistic fantasies of impeaching Trump to remove him from office and campaign instead on the promise of impeaching Scott Pruitt. When even hard right senators like Iowa’s Joni Ernst are calling out Pruitt’s unrepentant corruption, there is a good chance of mustering the required 67 votes in the Senate to convict and remove him from office. We need to “drain the Trump swamp,” and where better to begin than Scott Pruitt? His impeachment and conviction would also establish a precedent for punishing other bad actors like Ryan Zincke and—who knows, perhaps one day even Trump himself.
21
Their bank accounts may be very different, but Scott Pruitt is the one closest in spirit to the president. Pruitt understands that you never know what you can get away with unless you try.
16
Hilarious! This piece made me laugh out loud. So much of this ridiculous administration is disturbing, that it is sometimes healthy to stand back and laugh at some of the absurdities. Thank you Frank Bruni for all of the lotion allusions.
5
If Pruitt prays to know "God's Will," he might start w reading Genesis which is all about being a steward of our environment....that means taking care of our earth, not destroying it!
11
Frank, this is the best NYT column is some time. I lol'd twice.
When Pruitt moves on to wrath, sloth, and lust, he'll close in on emulating the master. Sloth is a tough one. With the servants, wives, and clean-up staff, it's hard to be slothful. If disgust were the 8th deadly, I'd be doomed.
5
I plead with all of my fellow voters to do one thing...vote in November. (get people to register too)Beg your friends to vote too.
There will only be one way to at least start to end this tragedy and that is by voting out the Repiglicans.
Pruitt is a disgrace and a disgusting human. I am so tired of keeping track of ALL the ways he is destroying our planet.
How far we have fallen....
14
Please. Please substitute the word protection for the word regulation.
It makes all the difference.
8
Thank you for writing about the disgrace that is Scott Pruitt. He's the kind of person who read about the robber barons and said, "How can I be like that."
But don't compare him to "government", even at its rottenest. When "government" is good or bad, its more often due to the people behind it, not the idea itself. So while it is commendable to criticize this crook, its not necessary to conflate his awfulness with the idea of "government".
Scott Priutt is the problem here, so lets stay on that. Otherwise you're just furthering the myth that "government" is "bad", too.
8
My fondest wish is that Scottie will have to come back to Oklahoma and work for a living. Working divorce and child custody cases, writing wills and chasing ambulances. Best that can come from his mucked up time in D.C. is that all political aspirations go up in the kind of rancid smoke that comes from a burning mattress.
9
Pruitt smells like a cesspool and no amount of lotion from any luxury hotel can cover that stink!
16
Most of the World's scientists will tell you and show you the proofs and data supporting Global warming and its cause coming from the rise of CO2 levels in the atmosphere through use of fossil Fuels and land clearing via burning.
But don't take most of the World's Scientists word for it, ask NASA, The Pentagon...or even The World's largest Oil and Gas Companies...because they ALSO understand and know that the use of Fossil Fuels is responsible for The Global Warming/Climate Change challenges that will increasingly face all of us as it already has begun to.
Watch these excerpts from a Film on Global Warming called "A Climate of Concern" made by Shell Oil and distributed to the public 28 Years ago...
https://thecorrespondent.com/6286/if-shell-knew-climate-change-was-dire-...
So if the Head of the EPA does not believe what even the Oil Companies have believed for years and which the American Military has built it's future strategies on and NASA has confirmed via satellite imaging and other means...
...The man is an Idiot or more likely, corrupt and putting the interests of others and the pursuit of short term profit ahead of future world security and global stability.
But many of course, already know that.
7
Maybe Pruitt is hoping the Ritz moisturizer will mask the smell of greed and corruption.
6
Brilliant piece. Pruitt’s behavior taints everyone who fails to speak out against him, especially Republicans.
6
Appointing Pruitt to head the EPA is equivalent to assigning a fox to guard the hen house. Pruitt has no science background and has gone out of his way to eliminate science based advice, not only about global warming/climate change, but also on the hazards of environmental toxins, air pollutants, etc. This neglect impacts not just the US, but the entire world. Pruitt' actions should be considered as crimes against humanity.
8
Can Pruitt take 2 bottles of fragrant skin lotion aboard his ARC that he will need to build to survive someday? If he asks his “god”, he will tell him to take 6,666 thousand cubits of lotion with him - just throw the animals off.
Religion, the last refuge of the scoundrel fits this putrid shrivelled soul of subhuman perfectly. Insecure,ignorant, cowardly, and criminally malignant. Pruitt, like his zealous religious fans, have forsaken their beliefs to worship on the altar of racism, hatred, misogyny, and wealth. The entire administration of incompetent, spineless, toady's wallowing in their adoration of, the spawn of the devil, laughing stock, trump embarrass our country, along with the, do-nothing but destroy, lackey's in congress and their easily brainwashed lemmings.
12
What amazes me about Pruitt is that regardless what slime and grime about him journalists dig up, Pruitt will lie that he did nothing wrong, he did not know about it, or its someone else's fault. He is mini Trump, shameless and incorrigible. And Trump will always remain proud of his Mini Me.
18
Opossum face! hope he gets taken out!
I'm all for Pruitt driving all over DC looking for his perfect moisturizer. I think he should do that every day of the week. Small price for us to pay as that at least keeps him out of the office where he does all his horrible damage to the environment.
20
Not just the left hate this man; those who have grown to appreciate clean water and clearer air, not acid rain and unknown chemicals seeping thru our aquifers...they hate him also. However, Pruitt has broken multiple laws regarding public officials. We simply want to see if such egregious law-breaking will be called by the GOP Congress, or if they are in such a rush to emulate him they give him a pass.
Seldom have we seen such in-our-faces illegal misuse of tax payer money (other than maybe Trump and family).
6
Mr. Bruni, Though the subject matter is deadly serious, your piece made me chuckle with your clever and skillful use of words, i.e. The Devil Craves Poultry, a fun sized Air Force One and more. Thanks.
7
Like his boss, Pruitt is a cartoon of a wannabe fascist; sleazy and obvious. Well, obvious to all but the willfully blind.
Evidently about a third of our electorate would be incapable of pouring rainwater out of a boot if the directions were printed on the heel.
10
"Where does he get the strength to slither out of bed each day and face a flabbergasted and repulsed world anew? And why hasn’t President Trump canned him already?
I cannot help with the first question, but I’m all over the second."
Me too ... Trump likes the way he smells.
5
Has anyone checked that mattress to see if it’s stuffed with cash?
16
"Conservative Christians somehow see him as one of their own"
(Well, because he is one of them and they, him?)
I love Trump's catch all rhetoric; 'We'll see what happens'.
(True, so true. We will. . . true. . .)
'We're setting records!'
(In environmental degradation)
Bigly laugh emoji here.
3
Con Don stole the election by claiming to drain the swamp. But as all cons do, he filled the swamp with the most corrupt cabinet in the US history. Pruitt is the prime example. He is a corrupt morally bankrupt individual who is driven by his paymasters. He sold his soul to them. It is no surprise that all of his actions are based on greed and support for the worst polluters in the world. Like con Don, he is fearful of truth which is the foundation of science. As a result, EPA is driven by propaganda created by the worst polluters. It is a shame and travesty that the man has turned the agency into Environment Destruction Agency. People wake up, if you have any love for our great nation. Please do everything to defeat the Republican aka Trump the insane party by a landslide in the midterm election.
6
Hey "president trump" ..... what happened to "drain the swamp"? I guess you don't remember that lie amongst the thousands of lies you have told to the American people. Sad!
5
Pruitt is the leader of the Kakistocracy that become entrenched in Washington!
kakistocracy | kakəˈstäkrəsē |
noun (plural kakistocracies)
government by the least suitable or competent citizens of a state: the danger is that this will reduce us to kakistocracy | every government that has existed since the ancient Greeks has been a prime example of kakistocracy.
• a state or society governed by its least suitable or competent citizens: the modern regime is at once a plutocracy and a kakistocracy | the man on the street must share part of the blame for allowing such a kakistocracy to entrench itself.
5
Look, sadly this is the government that makes sense to most Americans. Civics is dead in this country. Why not profit from position and the suffering of "others"? Pulling everyone up together takes work and sacrifice. Taking care of the common good make peoples skin crawl, because they don't want to finance the "freeloader". This wild west mentality will rule this country until the end. Trump flaunts our wealth and power as if it's his to flaunt. He will leverage it for his own gain. The problem is "we" will owe back the debt, while Trump cuts the ribbon on his new Moscow hotel. But hey why not? It's the American way right?
8
His God purportedly believes that it's our duty to exploit the planet's natural resources without limitation because God put them there for exactly that purpose. How convenient.
3
So when will the ethical communications outlets in our country finally call for a day, a week, or a month of national protest against this grifter administration before we go over the proverbial cliff? How long, and how much worse, does it need to get before we start acting on this? I'm starting to feel, o.k., I've been feeling hopeless.
2
And don't forget his unwelcome habit of frequently eating at the White House dining hall. A cheap way to be at the White House every day, just like Trump. Apparently the folks at the White House have asked him to cut back on that habit.
4
You know, one can purchase that lotion online.
So in addition to all his other fine qualities, add to that ‘poor impulse control’.
4
Past was prologue--his sleazy record in Oklahoma was clear for all to see when he was voted in as a cabinet member. Let's remember the senators who voted for him when they're up for reelection.
6
Pruitt's gleeful overt corruption is puzzling. Trump's casual disregard of it is mind boggling. The elephant in the room is the $43,000 soundproof phonebooth. Why would the head of the EPA have need of such a thing, unless, he installed it at Trump's behest? Think about it. It would explain a lot.
1
Imagine a digital sign posted high up on Times Square with the dollars rolling by and adding up every time Trump goes off to play golf at one of his properties.
Now imagine a smaller sign just below it for mini-me.
5
I can hardly wait for this administration to implode for a number of reasons, but putting aside the horror, sadness, and loss of the country's standing in the world community, its absence will bring about a plethora of books of satire. David Sedaris, Carl Hiassen, Dave Barry, Bill Maher and all the intellectual funny people will provide us with a lot of reading material. The scary part is that it will all be true, because even they could not make this stuff up.
1
Magnificent Frank, absolutely magnificent!
Is it surprising that Mr. Pruitt is corrupt?
Picture him some years ago: a young man “on the make,” but lacking any special talents or intelligence (the University of Kentucky was evidently too tough for him, and no one would confuse the University of Tulsa Law School with Yale).
So what to do?
His decision: sell himself to fossil fuel company owners and executives.
4
My greatest hope is that this administration is thrown out in 2020 and some level headed human beings come in and quickly undo the damage they are causing. That will require a democratic house and senate as well so its a high bar, but do we ever need to rid our country of these grifters.
4
When the collective bill comes due to the American Taxpayer for the Trump Administration, it will be staggering. Make no mistake, the day of reckoning will come. It will make the Great Depression look like a cakewalk.
1
Every week I read the profiles of successful business leaders in the NYT business section. Their comments on goals, organizational structures, hiring, problem solving, align well with how you would think successful businesses operate. As a stark contrast to these profiles, I read news section of the NYT, which profiles one incompetent cabinet member after another, topped off by the most incompetent President ever.
7
I was going to provide a comment on the hypocrisy of Pruitt and the rest of the Trumpian supporters. But, you know what? I’m tired of wasting my breath.
Time for action to get people registered to vote, take them to the polls, and make our government truly representative of the people.
5
Like Trump and the rest of his administration, Pruitt is religious; only the belief is in himself. Perhaps the smell is just in case there is a God and Science. Wouldn't want to be off-putting.
He's about as articulate as Trump, too. When questioned about pressuring Chick Filla for his wife, he uttered "I love, she loves,... they're a company of faith." Until that moment I did not know that religious hypocrisy was another of his odious qualities. There's a fast food joint I'll never visit. Thanks, Scott.
2
I am always amazed at how supposedly God loving Christians can manage to lower themselves to such despicable acts. As well as feathering their own nests at taxpayers expense.
Obviously the part about fearing the wrath of God doesn’t even enter into their vocabulary.
Mr Bruni has covered all the bases in this article and we are still left to wonder why mr pruitt is still in office.
One has to hope that karma will get mr pruitt in the end. Either that or a trump hotel mattress.
2
Add lust to the list of sins. Remember the weekend he spent in Paris with his young staffer just before the "business trip" to Morocco? Why isn't the press looking into that?
2
It is time to stop calling these people Conservative Christians as that they are not. Jesus would be appalled at these people who have co-opted his name for their hatred and fundraising. Time to start calling them what they are Conservative Sinners, for they break every teaching in the New Testament. They are using a religion to destroy our Democracy. Not much different from ISIS in fact, if they had their way.
3
an excellent explanation of Pruitt's world view, that self-justifies everything else he does, and why he is valuable to the decisionmakers in the White House, is found in a blog post by Margaret Talbot of the New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/are-evangelical-leaders-sav...
2
"His ethical transgressions ... are a renewable resource."
Good one, Frank.
2
I hold our congress responsible for this ridiculous grifter. Why aren't both democrats and republicans saying "enough already"? Trump's sycophantic supporters will give him a pass, but it's unlikely that they would defend Scott Pruitt. He's a twenty-first century, Dickens villain. Too bad we no longer have public stocks, it would be an appropriate punishment for his greed, and given the vitriol on social media, a popular Washington tourist attraction.
2
I hope the oil truck drivers who plow through Yellowstone to the giant Old Faithful derrick will have soft hands, too, but the story is not the lotion. It's the desecration of our natural resources.
1
Dear Frank, You say Mr. Pruitt has covered 4 of the seven deadly sins. Looking at his history, I would argue he has crossed the finish line of lust, sloth and wrath as well. He is the full package, the real deal and his own planet destroying asteroid without the asteroid. It kind of makes you miss the likes of James Watt. Eat a tree. RAW
3
Yes, "this fish stinks from the head." One might justifiably argue that Mr. Pruitt distracts us from the main problem. Yet the head is inept and it is Mr. Pruitt and the other body members who understand how to effectively spread the rot.
Donald Trump and his administration represent the true face of capitalism with all pretense stripped away of care for anything except money and power. All the trappings of democracy and public welfare have been trampled underfoot by this crass mob of neo-feudal plutocrats.
1
Scott Pruitt brings an inherent conflict of interest to the government position he holds. His religious views tell him that God is perfect and self correcting and therefore that humans can't damage the earth. As an adherent to the philosophy of Cornwall Alliance for the Stewardship of Creation, he believes that the Earth is “robust and self-regulating” and that “God’s wise design” will correct the damage we do to it. His job at EPA is to keep humans from doing irreparable damage to earth. The two cannot be reconciled. Margaret Talbot explains this is a blog post at the New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/are-evangelical-leaders-sav...
Yes, the earth is "robust and self-regulating." The earth will survive, as it has for over 4 billion years. Unfortunately, the living organisms that populate the world as we know it-- including our own species -- are not so robust. Extinctions, even mass extinctions, have occurred repeatedly in the past when environmental change exceeded organisms' ability to adapt. The EPA should be making every effort to ensure that human activity does not contribute to the natural forces that lead to species extinction. Instead, under Scott Pruitt's "leadership," the EPA is doing everything it can to accelerate the extinction process. Pruitt's flagrant abuse of his office for personal gain is truly disgusting, but his abuse of the EPA's mission is even more appalling.
one of your best columns, Frank. you really have a gift for language.
I would like to know the dollar amount that pruitt and his family and trump and his family have spent on security since this whole sordid nightmare began.
1
You so nailed it.
The mind boggles at the delusions of this administration and its enablers- whatever number of Americans agree with this sort of behavior- and steadies with the prospect of their eventual comeuppance, the light at the end of this tunnel.
What profound mediocrity, slouching toward term's end.
The Ritz is and always about extraordinary service. Meeting the needs of clients and customers is a corporate value. This value is lost on the current administration. All the Ritz lotion in the world cannot mask the stench of Pruitt and his boss. I fell sorry for the Ritz brand which has been drawn into the cesspool of this swampy mess of fools.
You gotta hand it to the "president." No one has assembled a group this notorious since the League of Doom. It's a formidable group. You would have to scour the gutters of the world to come up with such a scurvy crew of unethical, immoral and sociopathic personalities. Pruitt, DeVos, Zinke, Sessions, etc. etc. The forces of evil are allied against us -- and, in "Godfather" parlance, Pruitt has already hit the mattresses!
5
"I’ve been hesitant to devote an entire column to Pruitt, the morally squalid head of the Environmental Protection Agency, because whenever you think that the final stratum of muck about him has been dredged up, you learn that there’s another fetid layer lower down."
Don't be hesitant, Mr. Bruni. Consider it job security.
The desecration of our planet is not noise. However,it appears the end game of this administration is in murdering all of us who cannot afford the monstrous health care costs soon to be upon us. And our children - the removal of millions of dollars of funding for CHIP, done in the dead of night by those paragons of Christian virtual, the house GOP. You cannot protest if you are too ill, or hungry to stand.
3
I can not shake the feeling that when this Trump nightmare is all over Roland Atkinson will be reprise his role in a Trumpian reboot of the British television series, The Black Adder.
Scott Pruitt exemplifies "the banality of evil."
2
Another god fearing evangelist!
2
Trump is Nero. Pruitt is a fiddle.
1
Pruitt was a scourge on the EPA even before he was added to Trump's sycophantic cabinet. As Attorney general of Oklahoma, he filed dozens of lawsuits against Obama-era EPA regulations put in place to protect our water, air and lands. How can letting pollution ruin the Earth be God's Work for this hypocritical grifter? Of this administration's crazy and inept cabinet, Pruitt's legacy of hobbling the EPA will be one of, if not the most difficult to erase in some future decade when sanity rules again. More than any other cabinet member, Pruitt (followed closely by Zinke and Mnuchin) embodies the Trump "slash and burn" mentality, destroying anything done for the common good in the past.
3
Pruitt, like Trump, wakes up each morning and asks, "How can I enrich myself, and can I get away with it?" That's why Trump loves him, and anyone else who decides that integrity is just something to be tossed in the trash.
A few seconds on your web browser will turn up the Ritz-Carlton web site where you can order their moisturizer. They even sell it at a discount to their in-hotel price.
So for $27 and change per bottle Pruitt can have an unending supply of goop sent to his office, his home in OK, and his tax payer subsidized lair in DC. No secret service detail required.
3
tdump and pruitt-two of the worst people in the world.
1
Was Pruitt a graduate of Trump University? Did he kneel at his master's knee before he received his post? In the past we put people like Pruitt in a stockade...now we give them free reign to do whatever damage they care to do. Shame on us.
Pruitt really is a detestable human being.
However, if he would agree to officially name his soundproof phone booth as "The Cone of Silence", I would be willing to forgive and forget everything he's done so far.
Well, maybe not, but you know what I mean.
1
Pruitt : " Let us Prey ". Heck of a Job, Scottie.
4
Mini-Me Pruitt provides trump cover, he out slimes his boss.
5
Mini-Me. Love it.
The cancer infecting the White House has metastasized, no surprise, as both Pruitt and Trump share pretty much the same behavioral DNA. Or put another way, the apple doesn't fall very far from the rotting tree, despite that apple being self-blessed with "Christian virtue", which in turn spawns religious hypocrisy, so often self-serving. Citizens who have taken time to fact check this Administration have diagnosed a GOP Congress suffering from an acute integrity deficiency, feeble platitudes and hand wringing their best response to reprehensible words and actions committed by Pruitt - as well as by Trump and his Administration - with a patently willful disrespect for propriety, established protocols and long standing regulations, never mind science. Will we allow our nation to be permanently disfigured by these thug-like politics? In the current environment Nixon might well have gotten away with his criminal activity.
6
Through arrogance and mendacity, Scott Pruitt has drawn significant scrutiny. The same goes for Betsy DeVos. There was a smattering of concern over Ben Carson's office furniture, and murmurings about Zinke. But as these lightening rods draw our attention, it all makes me wonder what Perry, Azar, McMahon, Lighthizer, Perdue and the rest of Trump's cabinet are up to. Pruitt's an obvious target, but what about, for example, Elaine Chao, the Secretary of Transportation. To what extent has she made policy changes that neatly dovetailed with the legislative interests of her husband, Sen. Mitch McConnell? The swampiness of this administration knows no bounds.
8
One of your best, Frank.
9
If Trump had done nothing else that was objectionable, the appointment of Scott Pruitt would be enough to condemn his presidency.
Trump had to pump out a cesspool to find him.
7
The lotion could prove to be his downfall- it's not from a Trump hotel.
6
Like the futile attempts to cover the stench of the French court with myriad perfumes, no expensive floral lotion can hide the rot of the cancers Pruitt is causing, the ozone he's destroying, and the earthquakes he's instigating with his record-setting deregulation. It all stinks to the high heaven Pruitt claims to pray to.
These ultra-religious types say they are preparing for judgment day. Mr. Pruitt is ready for his real live day in court now.
Lock him up, before he hurts more lives, today and tomorrow.
10
There is no bottom with this guy. He's certainly #1 in the damage he's doing to this country.
5
When will this nightmare end??
4
Ironically, some of the most devoutly religious folks had better pray that there is no god.
11
Trump has said repeatedly that successful people are rich. Poor Scottie. He rubs shoulders with billionaires like Ross, De Vos, and millionaires like Mnuchin and is so desperate to get there that he is even looking into a Chick-fil-A franchise. All of his demands for first class seats, sirens to whisk through traffic, a Trump Hotel mattress, - are signs of a man born on first base and believing there was a mix-up and he should have been born on third, you know like Trump and De Vos.
6
What do Pruitt's religious beliefs have to do with this? Frank fails to point out a single policy that was based on Pruitt's skepticism of evolution. Nor have any of the commenters. Now I'm an atheist but as long as people don't try to impose their religious beliefs on others I could care less if they think a giant Panda created the world. The left needs to stop bashing those who are religious and stop with the -- religious people are dumb, I'm not religious, therefore I'm smart garbage. I mean, does the left bash Muslims for their religion? No, right now it's fashionable. But Christians -- open season.
Bruni is saying Pruitt is a Christian hypocrite. You would think someone with Christian values would be a little more concerned for other people,you know, the one's he's poisoning with all his deregulation of enviromental safety standards.
Reread the article. It's all there.
1
Bruni's point is the hypocrisy. Pruitt and other evangelical Christians flaunt their religiosity with arrogance. They've discovered the absolute Truth, in their minds making them closer to God than the rest of us. However, absolute certainty breeds absolute corruption. So many of America's evangelicals embrace or at least accept greed, selfishness, racism, pedophilia, and intolerance, so long as it offers the path to power and profits. Hardly sounds like a moral messsage. This is, by his own actions and admission, the world of Scott Pruitt.
It's the hypocrisy, Ralphie, of the beliefs vis-a-vis the actions.
Love the outrage, Frank. Love the accuracy. Smiled to see someone write so passionately.
So hopeless that 87% of the Republicans love Trump. Can't say enough about that. In my mind, "How STUPID are these people?" Yes, an insult. I stand by it.
You have to be very naive (the nicer word) to listen to FOX and the likes of Limbaugh. You have to be balmy to listen to Kelly Ann, who can barely use English coherently, and take in her "alternative facts."
Just when you think it can't get worse, it gets worse. The planet and its inhabitants, except for the 1% of the 1%, are suffering due to the unconscious acceptance of DJT by a large number of citizens of this country. Cry, the beloved country, cry. Land of the free and home of the brave? Perhaps land of the conned and home of the duped.
10
I wonder if the son of God would flout the clear and present danger of our moribund globe for the exigent greed that ignoring it affords. Christian fundamentalists should be whole-heartedly ashamed of themselves for their alliance with the crooks we now have in office and who control both houses of congress. Money changers beware!
5
Pruitt is a deeply nasty person, but I honestly don't know what he is and isn't allowed to do regarding driving himself around. Can he? If he has to have a driver then searching for his lotion is a thing he should be fine doing.
He deserves to be booted for numerous reasons, even if this one thing I'm unsure about.
Well-said, Mr. Bruni. However, I feel dirty (and embarrassed and disgusted) having read this about yet another incompetent crook at the helm of government. Everything about Trump and his cronies is nausea-inducing. What kind of religion preaches that what Pruitt and Trump practice is moral and good?!?
7
Frank, allow me to report from a ruby red state, filled with Evangelicals. They are very, very Proud of Pruitt. He's one of their tribe, a member of their team, he's being persecuted by " the libruls " and uppity elites. It's all a part of prosperity gospel, scheming and scamming for Jesus and America. God WANTS them to be Rich. The means and possible criminal activity is unimportant, because Jesus forgives anything. At least for straight White Males and their household help/wives. Seriously.
8
Sadly you are so right. I don't care what people want to believe just hate them trying to frame my life and country in that belief. America belongs to every citizen and resident not just to the religious. I'm proudly "Liberal", liberally promoting the constitution and human values. I'll fight everyday for that freedom and so will ALL of us!
1
All this and more, yet prUitt still sits in the driver's seat because its miscreant-in-chief boss wants it that way. #felonious
4
Candidate Donald Trump promised to drain the swamp. What he didn't tell us was the he was also filling a cesspool. While Pruitt wasn't the first one in, he definitely is making the biggest splash.
Evidently the only admission requirement is to say "I love Jesus!" and then it's off to the club house where all your favorite toiletries await.
3
The stench of Pruitt is strong and no amount of lotion will disguise it.
5
While the incompetent and fraudulently "elected" Don the Con,behaving like the sociopath and perpetually wounded narcissist that he is.......destroys and shreds any remaining semblance of Americas strategic leadership ,reputation and influence with ,traditional US allies around the world..........Scott (send the pollution downstream ) Pruitt,Trumps EPAs chief pretender ,........with public fanfare,from oil and chemical companies........signs an EPA regulation,eliminating the need to measure or regulate air,land,or water polluting by some of the most toxic chemicals ...widely used in the United States.
These transparent self destructive policies ,slowly eroding American democracy, internationally and internally.......while self serving ,treasonous special interests, calculate their profits and corrupt politicians turn a blind eye..........are generally ignored by the majority of Americans............Hence" the people deserve this government which they accept !"............an oligarchic corporotocracy ,operating through their owned and corrupted politicians...........and much more insidious than the monarchy ,deposed in 1776 !
3
Pruitt as Trump's "mini-me". Enough said.
2
Pruitt smells, but not from fancy hotel lotion.
And his smell stinks. Just like the Donald's.
Too bad. Too sad. Too mad.
1
The Bible may say that you must choose to serve “God or Mammon,” but evangelical grifters like Ben Carson, Betsy DeVos, Scott Pruitt et al. realized some time ago that the Trump administration says you can do both.
The “pharisees and money lenders” are firmly in charge in Washington, professing their piety as they fill their pockets with taxpayer funds, and their “golden(orange) calf” continues to reign supreme. When will we put an end to this travesty?!!
6
“Deeply religious”? Fred Rogers was deeply religious, Pruitt is a Pharisee.
5
Pruitt is a "devout" Christian, Mr. Bruni tells us - another one of those "new normal" of the degraded repulsive trump culture that proclaims to the world, "IT'S OKAY TO LIE.... no big deal... no problem.. lie your heart out while flapping that Bible around in front of the cameras." And why not? The highest power in our land is an Olympic liar beyond measure... it takes a entire computer center to track the unhinged man's lies. Oh yes, Chick-Filet, so DEVOUT that they close on Sunday, and I will not be surprised if they haven't already posted signs on their entrances: "No Gays Allowed". America is in its death throes. In the words of Arnold Toynbee: "Civilizations die by suicide, not by murder."
2
Scott Pruitt the anti-science, climate change denier, the self-serving greedy atmosphere polluter fits right into the Trump circle. Lets just look at the Trump circle of current and former members.
There was the former aide, Paul Manafort, a known Russian agent, the recently departed Rob Porter - the wife- basher, the late pro-Nazi White Supremacist Stephen Bannon, Wilbur Ross-the money launderer, Betsy DeVos - the education destroyer, Nikki Haley- the war monger, Gina Haspel - the known torturer, Ben Carson - another obsessed furniture buyer, ..this list goes on and on for pages.
The people surrounding Trump are just as evil, selfish and incompetent as he is. We know that every day will bring us more gut-wrenching bad news about what is happening to our country. No one who sees whats going on can expect any of Trump's hand picked government deconstructors to lift a finger to help our nation.
More fundamentally, we know that the only way to restore decency to Washington and some peace of mind is to throw these all Republican anti-patriots including Trump, Ryan, McConnell and the Republican servants of the extremely rich out of Washington by turning out the vote in every election going forward.
4
One of trump’s army of weasels.
4
Huh. Pruitt is a poor second to Pence when it comes to mirroring the Grfter-in-Chief. But, I understand that Pruit and the president like to dish about the attoney general in their phone calls. Who hates Jeff Sessions more? This isn’t government. This is middle school.
1
How would Jesus moisturize ? SAD.
6
Congratulations, Frank Bruni! This was one of your best columns.
3
He needs the luxurious scented location to cover up the smell of rot. Decaying moral rot. A man who proclaims his love of Jesus but lives like Caesar.
3
I don't care if Pruitt is snorting gold dust off of the tops of Cararra marble tubs while soaking in Sevruga grey caviar. He is destroying our planet, our country, our future. Forever. He must be stopped, somehow.
8
Smells like....a 1970's times square peepshow.
Just saying....
1
Right on! Scott Pruitt smells!
2
Pruitt is the embodiment of the republican party under trump -- pure evil, greed, phony christian sanctity, and absolute lack of shame.
8
I think that, rather than being Trump's mini-me iteration of the boss, he provides enough scandal and outrage to distract from Trump's own outrages--at least for half a news cycle. Trump may see a mirror of himself; Pruitt had better do as Pence does and remove his water bottle from the table or Pence will continue to be the successful suck-up in the administration.
I had no idea that Pruitt considers himself religious. Poppycock! He's no more religious than Trump himself. Mini-me, indeed.
1
The sound of the monster singing "Putting On The Ritz" in the Mel Brooks' masterpiece Young Frankenstein ran through my head the whole time I read this.
But Pruitt isn't funny. Or decent or honest or anything other than a pseudo-religious rat who has done what a lot of the evangelicals do here where I live: They convince themselves that god wants them to be rich at any cost to humanity because they're better than everyone else.
Bad news, Pruitt. Not only are you not better, you're trash. And nothing will hide your stink.
4
Pruitt is slime and everything he touches turns to slime. He has turned what used to be one of our finest government agencies into a corrupt joke.
3
I can barely read about this slime ball. He really makes my blood boil and my stomach heave.
3
I am waiting for Deacon Pruitt, like Jesse Duplantis, claim that God wants him to have a 54 million dollar jet, as well as a slightly used mattress.
2
"Scott Pruitt Smells Like the Ritz"
Nah, Scott Pruitt smells. Full stop.
3
I would bet that even the Ritz lotion wouldn't cover up his stench.
2
Pruitt might smell like the Ritz but he's the pits.
1
Let stop beating around the bush here people . Pruitt is a crook and his "beliefs" are only his beliefs because he is paid to believe it.
One of the most disgusting human beings I have ever read about.
5
No amount of lotion can disguise a lowlife.
3
Mr. Bruni, you could have saved some pixels or ink merely by shortening the headline to "Scott Pruitt Smells." More accurately, he stinks.
1
The man is a pig, just like his boss. And there's no putting lipstick on this pig, only lotion. But remember, even if you put lotion on a pig, he's still a pig.
3
sic transit gloria America
1
Mr. Pruitt is The Swamp.
2
“Okies” fled their state due to the great depression, dust storms and drought as told by the Oklahoma Historical Society.
Many, like the Joads fled to California as told by Steinbeck in, The Grapes of Wraith.
Today, one Okie fled East to debauch, defenstrate their Offices charter and dine on the taxpayers dime as told by “Monterey Bay”.
2
Pruitt may be "set on smelling like the Ritz," but the reality is anyone in the same room with him for five minutes has to take a shower.
1
No doubt that this administration gives a whole new meaning to that old La Cosa Nostra expression about "going to the mattresses."
2
This all starts and ends at the top. Trump needs to be voted out. And if he yells the election was rigged and refuses to go, we come in and remove and arrest him. This has got to stop. This has become The United States of the Deplorables.
2
I worked for the government for decades as a career employee. It was pretty typical for Republicans to come in, redecorate their offices, obtain someone to drive them around, and otherwise to suck at the tit of the big government they always derided. The swamp is all about how money buys access and influence with the government, and of course, Trump is doing nothing to clean up that swamp--to the contrary.
Chick-fil-A Pruitt's essential corruption is that he works for the industry he is supposed to regulate not the American people. The rest is merely small time grifting.
5
Scott Pruitt makes me very, very angry, but in my more reflective moments that surface emotion is swept away by a tsunami of sorrow. In terms of Orwellian cause and effect, how has it come to pass that this man, with his well-known values and his history, is - of all things - our nation's official advocate for the environment?
Those of us who have been around for awhile recall that it was Republican President Richard Nixon who first proposed the creation of the EPA and then signed it into law. Please don't think I'm naive about Nixon's likely reasons for doing this: most historians believe Nixon himself was more or less neutral on the environment, but this was a brilliant tactical move for him politically.
The fact remains that in 1970 Americans were becoming increasingly convinced that our world was vulnerable to harm from unbridled human industry and that we'd better muster the collective will to do something about it before the damage became irreversible. This was a *partisan* issue, yes, but there were partisans on both sides of the aisle; it wasn't a *polarizing* issue.
Why and when did this change?
It's said that we get the leaders and the governments that we deserve, and the truth of this should send a shudder up our spines. As Hannah Arendt wrote, “The sad truth is that most evil is done by people who never make up their minds to be good or evil.”
Pruitt and his boss are what we deserve, until we collectively decide that we - and our children - deserve better.
4
I doubt they will allow this redneck into any Ritz hotel.
Unless he tells him he is looking for a job as a janitor or garage attendant.
4
Sloth, Wrath, and Lust....
Sloth--Do you think that man lifts a finger he doesn't have to? You have to wonder if he goes to the bathroom by himself.
Wrath--Just how petty is he? We'll find out when the Sierra Club gets to teh bottom of the email pile.
Lust--Oh, come on. You know this guy's been to Vegas and has interesting stations on the office cable package.
1
I am even surprised this redneck knows what's Ritz-Carlton is? There is no Ritz in the whole state of OK, so where did he learn about it?
Uh ha, government service.
Now he is a federal worker, he can stay @ Ritz for good rate.
I wonder if his "religious" sermons involve teaching on looting, embezzlement, bribes, graft. If there is, he clearly skips.
The Dear White Leader has truly brought us "the best", didn't he?
6
USEPA Administrator Edward Scott Pruitt is a mosquito compared to the vulture President Donald John Trump.
Grifting at the Ritz is nothing compared to the corrupt barbarian pirate organized crime royal House of Trump family's pillaging and plundering from the Oval Office of our White House. The foul stench smells like Mar-a--Lago, Bedminster,Trump Tower and Trump Hotels Golf Courses Resort plus 666 Fifth Avenue.
9
The acrid odor of corruption gushing from this administration like an oil spill — from the Oval Office and west wing, to every cabinet leadership appointee — is no doubt having an effect on my health. The cadence of foul-smelling news is getting impossible to keep up with.
If only we had a Senate and House with Republicans who care as much about their country as they do about their own power-through-corruption. This is where one-party rule has come back to kick sand in the faces of all Americans. When the newly installed Bush43 administration met shortly after that stolen election, all three branches of government were in the hands of the Republicans. In a meeting with new appointees, the new Treasury Secretary, Paul O'Neill, asked the new Veep, Dick Cheney, "How do you expect to get away with this (expletive)." Ever the opportunist, Cheney replied, "We own the White House, the Congress, and the Supreme Court. It's our due."
So here we go again, locked in the Vice-Grips of a Republican Party bent on having everything their way. No debates (unless among themselves), no negotiations, give no quarter-winner take all. To the victors go the spoils. The American People be damned, unless they are members of the rich and the super-rich. (Did I leave anyone out?)
The only common denominator amongst these Repugnants is, they know their behavior will cost them their government jobs. The fact they will land on their feet with Corporate America must be a comfort to them.
8
I think they're scared to death of the very same cult of perpetual insurrection they armed up themselves.
Kwame Kilpatric went to jail for less corruption than this guy. GOP silence is complicity with this administration’s corruption and ineptitude.
8
I like to start the day with a grin, and Bruni provided one today. I know there is nothing funny about Pruitt. However, Bruni's first few sentences are so clever that I did laugh.
6
"pipsqueak"--great word, perfect.
The man is his own Superfund site.
6
Keep those fires burning.
I'm shocked, shocked that Pruitt doesn't use Trump Hotel lotion;such disloyalty!
3
Literally, greased palms.
1
I think that I’ll just wait until Time-Life releases its 12 volume series on the Pruitt scandals.
2
I think the Time Life volumes would be too slim to document all of Pruitt’s transgressions. Almost Encyclopedia Brittanica like
"The phone booth, the body guards, the $3.5 million on security ... specially armored vehicles ... $50-a-night condo in Washington, courtesy of an energy lobbyist’s wife ... first-class plane tickets ... a $100,000-a-month charter aircraft membership ... " Wow. A poster boy for drunk with power. But to Donald "Mar-A-Lago" Trump, nothing out of the ordinary.
5
No amount of Ritz-Carlton lotion will mask his toxicity, Pruitt is a loathsome creature of entitlement, intent on eviscerating as many beneficial protections as possible. Remind me again, what parts of his behavior are Christian? He's a hypocrite and a sham, who could care less about protecting citizens or our environment, simply there to pave the way for polluters. Like the rest of Trump's swamp cabinet, the modus operandi is always “what's in it for me?” He is repulsive.
2
Pruitt and Trump are ignorant about how their lives and the biosphere are part of a great continuation of life.
I once had a conversation with a man who worked with super rich people who firmly believed that they could live in their own private places with everything they could ever want and isolated from all the bad taxation all others might experience. They were wealthy and connected with the most powerful people and institutions on Earth. They included billionaires with favorite places recreated on their private estates. One of them was offended by a rule in the harbor of a U.S. port forbidding emptying the bilges into the harbor. Instead of paying for a hazardous waste disposal he had the ship sail to Hong Kong to dump the bilges in the harbor, there. Of course this vain fool could not understand that no matter where the waste water entered the sea it would circulate and by sea food or rain become part of what is inside himself. The ability to make money is no indication of anything but that ability.
No matter what a person’s I.Q., ignorance will make that person a stupid person.
7
“ the bad taxation”
I did not write this, the grammar revision program using a big data algorithm made this change from from, “ the bad things “. It’s what happens when a program trying to match patterns without any context that is relative to the mind being second guessed produces. This is what the big software companies claim is A.I. is all about, the magic of pretending that a thoughtless system is a better than a thoughtful one.
1
I FIND IT INCOMPREHENSIBLE, REPUGNANT, DISHONEST, THAT
PRUITT IS STILL IN OFFICE. THIS PRESIDENT REPRESENTS THE SWAMP, AND HAS DEMEANED OUR GOVERNMENT, AND INSTITUTIONS THAT BLOOD AND GUTS BUILT, WHAT A DISGRACE. THANK YOU MR BRUNI, AND THE TIMES FOR SPEAKING UP AND ADDRESSING SUCH CORRUPTION.
4
The competition to be the worst member of Trump's corrupt, incompetent and self-serving administration is fierce.
But Pruitt is opening up a sizable lead.
1
Pruitt is doing a swell job dismantling all of the Obamas regime's tree hugging hate business agenda. That is why the media hates him. Pruitt is going nowhere. The charges against him are all picky picky picky. No one cares except the 24/7 hate Trump all the time media.
24/7 to keep exposing the lies and explaining the truth. Some people just don't want to hear it.
He is one of the most corrupt of this administration.
I do get a kick out of him wanting a USED hotel mattress. Yuk!
2
Maybe Pruitt needs to send an aide to France to pick the specially grown flowers used to perfume those costly Ritz Carlton lotions. On the other hand, after Trump's disastrous G7 tantrum, the only flower he'll get from the French will be stinkweed.
1
Scott Pruitt. When will this grimy little man be held to account?
Pruitt. Zinke, Mulvaney, DeVos, Pence, Carson, Pai.
It is as if Trump recruited a think tank in Moscow to choose the most venal, unqualified, unethical, immoral, arrogant, cynical, indolent, Irresponsible, shiftless, hostile, ignorant people they could find to run our government agencies and serve as vice president.
29
really, President Trump doesn't need Moscow when he has all the assets of our own GOP right at his little fingertips.
2
I keep maintaining a cautious optimism, in order not to become subject to anxiety that this aberrant administration will pass sooner than later. That after having experimented with an obvious liar and grifter (just for starters) the voters will come to their senses in 2018 and throw all of the corrupt members of the GOP out on their rumps. Then all the damage that's been done can be reversed before it becomes irreparable.
3
What is with these supposedly Christian conservatives. Are they all corrupt like a boatload of Christian televangelists? Seems so.
11
They don't even conserve the meanings of words. They are reactionaries responding to the superiority of reason over faith.
1
Pruitt got God on his side. He got president Trump on his side. So what can go wrong?
5
Another tiresome column about Trump corruption, but no demand that the boss of these bad girls and boys be held accountable. Impeach! Convict! Imprison!
16
It sometimes feels that the Times is afraid of upsetting Donald Trump. Reporting the news is one thing. I agree with Ed. Take a stand already.
Trump wants journalists is jail. Doesn't that bother the Times? Guess not.
1
Why won't Trump get rid of Scott Pruitt? Corruption breeds corruption. Two peas in a pod.
5
Mr. Trump said. “We’re like the piggy bank that everybody’s robbing and that ends.”
Did Scott Pruitt get the memo?
5
Trump cashed himself in while going bankrupt six times.
How many carbon credits did Guatamala just waste when it let that giant volcano blow up?
2
"Pruitt’s $50-a-night condo in Washington, courtesy of an energy lobbyist’s wife, was like a Trump real-estate deal on training wheels."
Thank gosh for writers like you Mr. Bruni who can make us laugh at the idiocy of this administration!
11
a haiku to EPA administrator Pruitt
a little man Pruitt
with no thought but his own good
when will he depart
2
You people don't get it. Religion for men, over many centuries, has served primarily as a get out of jail free card, enabling, excusing and excising all manner of transgressions.
Pruitt is a righteous, God-fearing man. He's only doing what God told him. We can't know why, as it is beyond our mortal ken. There is a plan, and it obviously includes moisturizer.
26
And used mattresses.
What does one do with a used hotel mattress ?
Haiku
Moisturize Pruitt
Not with Ritz-Carlton lotion,
Just a fire hose, please.
17
I think you minimize the unholy religion-business marriage that manifests folks like Pruitt, and James Watt before him and hundreds in between.
Their professed dominionism and bidness gospel give them a two-fer in their delusion: a ticket to eternal salvation (not to mention a pat on their heads from their preachers), and a figleaf for rampant profiteering and kleptocracy. Pruitt is godly and is "doing God's work" (an assertion also professed by the head of Goldman Sachs as he scurried away from any responsibility for selling clients investment paper designed to lose them money).
They don't like same-sex marriage, but they're fine with satanic dollar marriage. Is corrupt vulture capitalism the Antichrist?
16
Awesome!
Hooray. Easy to write outraged colunmns on this insult to decency----we all agree! Lets just bash this amoral exploiter. A columnist’s dream.
But what's the poisonous political soil that's been allowed to grow, to infect US politics with a greed disease? What's the antidote to a president who picked this grifter?
Start tracing cause and effect, Frank, and NY Times.
First is politics whose norms are set by the richest mega donors and corporate power elites. This has redefined right/left/center and lowered standards. So the Pruitt types now crawl out of the woodwork, and grab whatever they can.
The GOP and its power elite donors have pulled politics to the right, and dominate are 3 govt branches and most states. The Dems may try to fight back, but are weaker than what we need, as they compete for big money to run for office, and often have to choose between public duty and big donor money on various issues.
Our politics won’t attract a better class of politician, and presidents and cabinets, until we change who pays for our elections. That means reform of campaign finance to let We the People restore our voice, in the country that was once model of democracy for the world. We have to block the crooks from easy entry.
Otherwise our big money politics will again attract a political criminal class, who arrogantly think they are totally entitled, and with billions to pay for campaign ads and propaganda to manipulate US voters.
Please grapple wih this, Frank
5
Meredith--Yup, get the money out of politics.
https://www.stampstampede.org/
Corporations are not, and have never been, "people, my friend." The Supreme Court's sophistry has destroyed the nation. It didn't take long, did it?
ChesBay....thanks for link to interesting website.
Says, ‘Money in politics and barriers to voting are two sides of the same coin — or dollar bill — they both deny the voice of the people.’
Cites America's unfair tax rates, outrageous drug prices, high poverty rates and profits from prisons.
And see Washington Post the other day “An explosive U.N. report shows America’s safety net was failing before Trump’s election.”
Perhaps one day soon, Scott will get his answer from God when he is sent to prison. As they say, God moves in mysterious ways. Let us pray.
15
No writer worth his or her salt seems able to find enough words to describe the sleaze and corruption and ignorance of the Scott Pruitt, Donald Trump assault. These two men, forget the other grifters for a moment, by themselves have taught us all what rape feels like. They are literally, figuratively raping and assaulting America.
There's not enough lotion on the planet to cover the smell.
10
Scott Pruitt smells more like sneeze than the Ritz.
2
Nick--Like the Republicans, who have their own dog whistle vocabulary, that none of us can really figure out, we need to invent a language that is strong enough to accurately describe the sleaze, corruption, shiftlessness, lack of principles, and serious slime, that will satisfy our need to feel satisfied with our attempts to speak out. THEN, go to the poll and VOTE! Vote in every election, if you want to continue to have the right to vote.
onion--Smells more like the "drinking water" in so many cities and towns, where Republican government, and the EPA have failed to serve the people.
Haha, sorry, the spellchecker's revenge. Breathe in the sleaze will surely make you sneeze.
I pray to let go of material concerns, living in the endangered species category of fulfilled, responsible humans who create instead of consume.
Pruitt also resembles Trump in his destructiveness for profit--his function is to rape the environment to reap the spoils of toadyism. Neither David Lynch nor Jonathan Demme nor Ridley Scott could have created cinematic demons as vile, pernicious and scornfully hilarious as this gang of Trumpian Pod Cretins!
7
# 45 has earned the rank & honors of occupying an intolerable office of the presidency in history of the USA.
trump, the cabinet lead by pruitt and the white house administration are a den of thieves & liars.
the oath of office in which he pledged to defend the constitution & our country from foreign & domestic threats, were disingenuous & an insult to the american people.
He is a narcissistic, misogynistic, lying racist who worships two things, himself & money.
The label psychopath as defined in the The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM 5) fits trump like a cheap suit.
His cabinet & administration of enablers, claiming allegiance and love are a mirror of this wannabee monarch.
2
Ritz lotion smells like brimstone? Who knew.
12
Well Mr Pruitt, you are in luck. Six days ago, I scored a free king size cherry bed frame in perfect condition, that we hoisted on the roof of our 1998 Honda CRV with over 208,000 miles. You can send your private jet to Columbus where I will give it to you, free, for the photo opp with your used mattress as a testament to your being a thrifty kind of guy.
5
There is a companion piece to this column in today's NYT entitled "Trump Says U.S. Will No Longer Be ‘Piggy Bank That Everybody’s Robbing’".
Darn right! We can't let those pesky foreigners get their greedy snouts into our public trough. The only people allowed to rob us are Trump and his cronies. Take that, Canada!
12
Pruitt smells like something, but it sure ain't the Ritz.
11
Well, what do we expect when the head of this gang is Trump? Trump, Pence, Ryan, McConnell, Pruitt, Zinke, Kelly and Bolton.
Trump once again embarrased us at the G-7, calling Trudeau weak and a liar, being late for meetings, giving inane interviews this imbecile going to "make a deal" with North Korea
8
You forgot Betsy DeVos, whose family billions-with-a-B are going to the noble cause of dismantling quality public education. I find it both intriguing and troubling that her brother's money, as head of the Blackwater private security firm, came from providing mercenaries in Iraq and Afghanistan.
I was completely revolted by the Bush Jr. group, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Feith, Alberto Gonzales, Rice, - etc. - a truely gag-worthy bunch. But Trump and his group have managed to push the gag meter to 11.
34
Cheney was the tough guy like Trump who says he knows how to negotiate with gangsters.
1
Accomplishments often are rated by the degree of difficulty. In the case of Scott Pruitt, his triumphs are measured by the degree of ridiculousness.
Apparently, Pruitt has been rescued from banishment by his willingness to promote Donald Trump’s favorite natural substance. Together, they sing the praises of the highly profitable, unfairly maligned mineral known as asbestos.
Years from now, for those of us who survive the Trump presidency, we can try to explain to younger Americans exactly how Scott Pruitt got away with it.
7
The most obvious things in the world are almost impossible to get over.
"God, what do you want to do with me?”
How very sad that Pruitt heard this answer: "You shall be my instrument for ravaging this beautiful planet I created. What the heck, it only took me six days."
Ask mere mortals to do with him and you'll get a very different answer. The place we'd like to see him visit--for a few years at a minimum, time off for good behavior--would have sleeping accommodations for multitudes, but no high-end lotion. The mattresses would definitely be used.
20
Yes, he abuses our natural resources and our tax dollars, in the name of the Lord. Truly not interested in what purpose he has for the expensive lotion and the extremes to which he goes to acquire it.
Yet, the circus continues and in my home we are concerned about the removal of protection of prexisting conditions from our ever expensive health insurance and the many other indignities suffered,that a good moisturizer will not cure.
17
There are many problems with Scott Pruitt, but thankfully the condition of his skin is not one we need to worry about.
My question is, do businesses proceed as if the regulatory rollbacks are permanent, or do we proceed knowing that smarter people will put them back in place in the near future? Climate change, along with the public's need for clean air, food, and water aren't going away, but Trump, Pruitt and all the rest of them are.
22
Even from a distance, Pruitt smells like a balance of untreated sewage and the sulfuric choke of burning coal, with a top note of burning dumps. The stench will remain when he - and his boss - are gone.
16
While Canadian and EU consumers are reportedly avoiding American products, the politics are only part of the answer as to why.
Safety regulations are being gutted fast so American producers and farmers, cattlemen, etc. are freer to use pesticides, hormones, and antibiotics in their products.
Germany, for example and on the other hand, has rules regarding adulterants of any kind. This may explain why Trader Joe's and Aldi are so successful here. In addition to generally lower costs, their products can be trusted.
18
Words, words, and more words. Good words. Effective words. True words. But no action. Nothing changes.
We know the problem; we see the problem, but we can do nothing about it because we are powerless to change it due to our form of government: a republic. Thanks for nothing, Ben.
Only duly elected leaders have any political power. We can fruitlessly write, text, email, call, or visit them, and nothing will change one iota. Why would my senator listen to me when he gets richly rewarded by large corporations for doing their bidding? It's in his best interest to side with them. And if he gets voted out of office, he can join a lobbying group or go to work for his former corporate sponsor. It's a win-win for him. The best of all political worlds.
We need more democracy. We need to vote on our nation's actions and policies, not be dictated to by a charlatan who may well have bought, cheated, and lied his way into office.
Living in a global village, we now have the electronic means to vote on all significant actions our government takes. Or we can continue to hamstring ourselves with the current way of governing, which is via oligarchy.
We are basically back to Square One. The king and his court make the rules and we peasants pay the piper. We can hang together or hang separately.
24
To do what you're talking about requires an overhaul of the constitution.
Which is long overdue.
Other than Trump, Pruitt wins the crown as the most repugnant character in an administration filled with people that would put villains in Dickens novels to shame. Smarmy, unctuous, religious hypocrites are in full display as never before while almost half the country cheers and the other half rub their eyes in disbelief.
43
Eighty percent of Trump's appointments to Cabinet and high-level federal positions are exactly the wrong person to carry out the responsibilities of their job. Pruitt is just the tip of the iceberg, or the stinkiest layer of the toxic dump. Ryan Zinke, Betsy DeVos, etc. Don't forget, folks -- the Republicans in the Senate voted to confirm these buckets of slime. Any individual who votes GOP in upcoming elections will be voting against the future of our country.
Thank you, Frank Bruni. Well said.
5
I beg to differ. I see both Pruitt and Trump as a equally pathetic scammers. Pruitt, however, has had to work at his scams. He was, after all, only a modest lawyer before learning his dark arts by first plundering Oklahoma for all it was worth. Trump had all of his parasitic scaminess handed to him on a silver platter--and still couldn't handle it.
23
Neither Trump or his minions have any understanding that they are supposed to be PUBLIC SERVANTS. There is little concern for the greater good, just fealty to big business and the monarch's whims. Twitter and "reality" TV have taken us low. Pruitt stars in this week's episode. Cue up Irving Berlin's "Puttin' on the Ritz."
6
Pruitt is exactly the type of employee no tax payer could possibly want in federal service. His lack of integrity and honesty is an abomination to not only all citizens but to all civil service staff.
16
To develop great notions, you need a great lotion Must be in the EPA playbook according to Scott.
No wonder, he is having problems. He is running short on his lotion supply.
It will be interesting to see what happens next.
1
Pruitt makes Jim Inhofe and his snowball on the Senate floor seem nostalgic. The good old days...
4
A Trump mini-me. J.K. Rowling called Trump a "tiny, tiny, tiny, little man".
Make that two. Tiny men with despotic desires.
We need to get rid of both of them. And soon.
22
Sinclair Lewis had this kind of hypocrite pegged decades ago: the sanctimonious crook and con man. The religious types like him? The question is not how religious you are but how are you religious? There should be something other than patriarchy, authoritarianism, and contempt for science, knowledge, and the environment
11
Frank - your best column ever. The Times should run it every day until he’s gone!
7
Using Gail Collins' Cabinet survey, let's examine our choices.
Scott Pruitt - we die earlier than we should, roasting in triple-degree heat, choking on bad air, drinking water polluted with pesticides and fracking chemicals.
Betsy DeVos - keep the next generation(s) hopelessly ignorant, while making sure those responsible for it earn a handsome profit.
Ryan Zinke - lie about your occupation, award a $300M contract to a crony who has no hope of accomplishing much of anything, sell out the nation's pubic lands to oil and gas interests, ranchers and "sportsmen."
Gotta go with DeVos this time. You can't fix what's wrong when people don't have the education to understand what's happening to them, either now or the consequences in the long-term.
3
Batman had Robin and the Lone Ranger had Tonto. These sidekicks revered their senior partner hoping to emulate them and helped them do good.
Trump has Pruitt. Likewise, Pruitt reveres his boss and is merely emulating him in amassing as much wealth as he can when the going is good.
5
Shocking revelation here! Why would Pruitt want Ritz skincare products when Trump's DC hotel must have the best in the world? Is this the first sign of disloyalty to all things Trump? We'll see.
14
The increasing number of articles about Pruitt seem to reveal, besides his non existent ethical standards, that he likes something for less. A discounted meal at the White House, a used mattress from a hotel, an upgraded airline seat; all are satisfied consumptive wins that show Pruitt is an eccentric cheapskate. Recognizing that he's just a freak, lessens my disdain for the show he's providing.
6
Sorry folks, but we're probably too late.
With no ethics, everything is on the table from pollution to selective or mass annihilation. When the indictments drop on His Lowness Donald Trump I, Pruitt and all his other scurrilous minions will leap to support him as he seizes control.
"Round up the usual suspect" meaning all the liberal/progressives and people with ethius he can lay his hands on, will be the call.
ICE has been getting a lot of practice lately, haven't they?
5
When this extended crime family finally gets booted out of D.C., the city will need to be fumigated to make it habitable again for decent politicians and civil servants. This is so disgusting, and as long as Trump remains in office, it *will* get worse.
3
"Conservative Christians somehow see him as one of their own"
Why the "somehow"?
12
There's a question that I don't see either the NY Times or WaPo asking, although I sincerely wish they would. Pruitt justifies his flying first class as a security measure with the claim made that there have been death threats (note the plural) against him. That being the case, these death threats surely must have been documented and investigated especially if they are used to justify the added security expenses. So, NY Times, so WaPo, please ask Pruitt for this documentation. Of course, we all know that no such documentation exists, that Pruitt's lackeys will fabricate it, but the question should be asked.
14
The 'death threats' have been written about extensively, here's The Gurardian ,but you can find the same stories in the WAPo and the nyt..what the threats have consisted of is covered extensively
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/apr/10/scott-pruitt-epa-dea...
At least, with all this "notoriety" Pruitt's plans to run for President may have to be put on hold.
1
If Scott Pruitt was a member of my congregation I would change religions. What a loathsome, slimey representative who surely is detrimental to the word evangelical or Baptist.
17
so repulsive. as a Christian, I feel ashamed that he claims that faith as his own.
27
Yes, it's true, Pruitt is very religious and prays almost constantly. And the Lord, being the Lord, has to listen to Pruitt. What Bruni didn't mention is the Lord having to take several anti-acid tablets afterward.
11
Next time don't pull your punches!
1
"It’s to do all of that while fragrant and moist." Thank you for the spit take. I needed it more than you know. (Now I'm going to read the remainder of your column.) :-D
10
Trump insisting that Pruitt is “doing a great job within the walls of the E.P.A. I mean, we’re setting records”, was not about the number of investigations. The records Trump is talking and cares about are the record tons of toxins released in the air Americans breath, the record number of asthma attacks and bronchitis, cancers from Volatile Organic Compounds, and increased retardation from mercury, a neurotoxin released in the atmosphere when making electricity with coal.
I know that sounds perverse, but by all signs we got a pervert in the White House. Indeed the fish stinks from the head.
7
Setting records at??? Fleecing the American taxpayer , dismantling the EPA , catering to those it behooves to foul our air , water , food and all for the profit . Pruitt is an affront to God and all that is decent in religious belief , apparently the Baptists are fine with his immoral behavior , which says a lot .
11
The fish stinks from the head. It‘s getting worse every day.
Dear Democrats can you please generate a presidential candidate who can win against this deadly force which threatens the whole planet !
23
Used mattresses??? Pretty tawdry stuff.
5
I’m wondering why the good career employees at the EPA can’t simply grind Pruitt down to the nub he is. I doubt there’s a waiting list of political appointees bent on ruining the planet (or looking for just the right hotel lotion). Pretty soon, Scott will be all alone in his telephone booth, with no one available to implement his deranged and imbecilic needs. As I say, wait him out, GSA stalwarts. Whatever edicts or policies he dictates can be easily lost in the bowels of bureaucracy. Bring the agency to a halt. Gum up the works. Shut ‘er down. Save us from this evil eraser.
14
I’ve always been astounded when people claim that Trump won because he “wasn’t a politician.” On the contrary, Trump and his greasy acolyte Pruitt are everything that decent people despise about politicians. They are both egomaniacs, concerned not with the public good but their own sacred image in the mirror. They are both zealots, convinced of their overarching wisdom about any and all things. They are both greedy, and belligerent toward anyone who calls them out on their gluttony. And they both lie, lie, lie—about everything, all the time. In short, they are politicians. Twain was correct. Anyone who actively seeks political office should be immediately disqualified.
25
Addendum to letter just sent: Hasn’t he crossed some prosecutable line somewhere?
7
You want to know the difference between Republicans & Democrats? Picture what would happen if a Democratic president did half the things Trump and his cronies have done.
Nuff said.
The only way to change things is at the ballot box. Democrats have the votes, even with all the gyrations Republicans shamefully do to impede citizens from voting.
Come November, VOTE or don't complain.
35
Why no mention of Pruitt's billionaire backers?
Tom Price was history after but one investigation. This guy's stacked up 12 and counting, with nary a budge. . .
Fracking and Coal, we can start there.
8
Pruitt is the poster-boy for the rot in the Trump administration. This hayseed from my home state (Oklahoma) has delusions of grandeur, but absolutely no class. He thinks that he is some kind of tin-pot potentate. The petty perks he aggregates to himself on the taxpayers' dime are truly embarrassing.
It is even more annoying that he is protected by Trump, who has even less shame than Pruitt. Everything is OK by Emperor Donald the Dumb as long as his minions bow and scrape to him, and protect the oligarchs that support the GOP.
And in this regard, Pruitt is dong his utmost to see that the billionaires profit by polluting and poisoning our nation. Essentially we are paying for Pruitt's malfeasance with our lives!
Taxpayers should sue Pruitt for his transgressions. There appears to be no way to persuade Trump to fire him, but something must be done before he utterly destroys our environment and robs us while thumbing his nose at his legitimate critics.
11
Scott Pruitt evidently spends every hour trembling in terror. Perhaps rather than the current half measures we should designate an Abrams tank as his personal vehicle. For the rest of us, it could be fitted with child locks to keep him inside.
6
But Trump misspoke if he said that Pruitt wasn't a model cabinet member. He is, indeed, just as simple-minded, slippery-fingered, soulless, avaricious and evil as all the others.
"We're setting records," indeed.
5
You're missing the point that Pruitt is cheap, cheap, CHEAP. He wants the mattress so he can sleep in his office. He's eating granola bars to save money. He was cadging dinners at the White House for a while. The lotion is the most embarrassing, because it means going into the men's room at the Ritz and getting those little bottles or packets of hand lotion. By sending an aide, it means he doesn't even have to tip.
4
I misunderstood totally.
I thought he wanted them to purchase some fancy lotion from their gift shop.
Lotion Boy wants the free packets??
What is up with that? He really is pretty darn weird.
Maybe Trump could bring him back some from his own travels.
1
Skin lotion? Special deals on used mattresses from the Trump International Hotel? Aside from the kleptocratic graft of it all, these anecdotes are just weirdly creepy. Yuk!
Mr. Bruni asks, "And why hasn’t President Trump canned him already?" He gets at the answer to his own question later in his column. Trump and Pruitt? They inhabit the same can.
8
Mr. Bruni is entirely too kind to Mr. Pruitt. Far from smelling like the Ritz, the vile mix of odors exuded by Mr. Pruitt much more closely resembles that of the noxious and toxic substances he would allow to contaminate America's air and waters. And oh, yes, one more ingredient for the mix: Money.
2
Having been a successful businessman, I hope those readers from the business community would realize the importance of stability and predictability in the regulatory environment, to allow companies to undertake effective long-term planning. Scott Pruitt represents anything but. He is ushering in an era of extreme volatility as the nation will have to undo many of his reckless actions as well as address rapidly evolving environmental challenges (more wildfires, hurricanes and rising sea levels) in the coming years. In other words, he is exacerbating the very regulatory environment he claims to disdain.
12
Our government, in its inception, was centered around a concept of a separation of church and state. How come so many of our current leaders claim their evangelical Christian beliefs as the basis for stripping any and all science-based study, actions and protections from every aspect of our government?
Members of the current administration (and some members of Congress) are using references to God, religion, evangelical beliefs, etc. as buzzwords to put up a front to protect them as they take a wrecking ball to our country's lands, resources, protections and social nets, all for their own financial gain. Like a protective spell in Harry Potter stories, this renders them (and their heinous deeds) untouchable. To question them or their actions is to attack God and Christianity.
It is time for us all to dust off those critical-thinking skills that we learned back in elementary/middle school. Connect the dots, recognize propaganda in its many forms, use reason and deduction. We can't rely upon our leaders to initiate any action - and we have so very, very much to lose if we don't stem this tide of destruction.
6
Please, stop writing about these superficial manifestations of low character. Start writing about Pruitt is dismantling safeguards against clean air, clean water and all the other things that he is doing that is part of Trump's wrecking ball. I have had enough of "now look what they are doing" when it comes things like buying used mattresses. Enough of the shock about the depravity of morals. I want to hear about the ill effects of their destruction of government. I am beginning to think Trump is right when he says he's accomplished more than any other American president in the first 45 days. He has not only bankrupted the country with the tax cuts for corporations (not necessary in the first place) but is proceeding with a destruction of everything past presidents have built patiently over the past 250 years.
2
I can envision a time not too far off when Pruitt and his master are finally held to account for their outrageous, destructive, and hateful words and deeds, publicly disgraced, fired and impeached, indicted, convicted, and imprisoned. We face some challenging weeks and months ahead, but I believe there is still time to turn this ship around and to get it on a much better course.
1
Scott Pruitt IS everything that the Republicans accuse Nancy Pelosi of being, except he is the real deal and she is just a pinata that the Republicans bring out in dark ads at election time.
How can anyone vote for a party or leadership that leaves Pruitt in his job?
3
I would quibble with the throwaway comment that Presidential motorcades and sirens are "necessary". I have seen Queen Elizabeth stuck in Oxford traffic without benefit of sirens. And I have seen the west side of Manhattan eerily emptied so G. W. Bush could travel unimpeded to a ceremonial appearance. A great gulf separates the dignity of British royalty from the unbridled swagger that is manifest in Secret Service operations.
1
Trump values Pruitt because Pruitt's petty graft is a distraction from the much larger fraud and personal aggrandizement that Trump, who retained ownership of his "Trump Organization" and its hundreds of subsidiary companies, is undertaking. So long as the media is focusing on Pruitt's grift, they aren't publicizing the dozens of Trump golf weekends costing the taxpayers hundreds of thousands which flows into the Trump organization's revenue when Secret Service, White House aides, and news organizations book members of the hundreds of people who travel with the president into Trump-owned properties. Then there's the foreign countries and corporate interests booking events at Trump venues to curry favor from Trump's administration. And the foreign countries clearing permits for Trump developments, granting trademarks and licenses for Trump business interests, and the foreign investors funding developments with, or licensing, the Trump brand. While Pruitt is drawing the attention while grifting tens of thousands or a few hundred thousand, Trump's organization is making millions from the presidency. So long as Pruitt is a newsworthy distraction, Trump will keep him in front of the cameras.
2
Listing the numerous examples of his malfeasance obscures a crime far worse than Scott Pruitt's others, the denial of global warming for the benefit of Oklahoma's oil and gas billionaires.
3
Pruitt will get his. Meaning that when he’s done with his “government service”, he’ll be awarded a cushy 7 figure job working for Exxon, or one of the other fossil fuel companies that reaped $$ billions from Pruitt’s dismantling of environmental regulations. If only there was an after-life. Pruitt’s chains of misery would be far longer than Jacob Marley’s...
5
We now have a scandal involving used mattresses and hand lotion. How much indignity must we suffer?
3
One has to ask why Pruitt is not under indictment or in jail. The abuse of power and privilege is pretty evident.
3
Even worse is that Republicans in Congress tacitly accept Pruitt's corruption because of his devotion to the only two constituencies they care about.
Pruitt's zealous antipathy toward the EPA's mission and eager destruction of regulations that burden important donors generously serves the primary Republican agenda of redistributing the nation's wealth to the wealthiest Americans. And his equally zealous commitment to eliminating everything the Obama administration's EPA accomplished serves the racists and white supremacists Republicans depend on to win elections. The Republican commitment to eradicating Obama from the history books speaks to that "base," who believe people like Obama belong on plantations rather than in the White House. It's saying "We're with you, and we're doing everything we can to make America white again."
Given Pruitt's dedication to partisan objectives, Republicans are willing to turn a blind eye to his corruption. They may even believe he deserves to place himself above the law, and to use his office and taxpayer money to enrich himself and his family and live an entitled lavish life, just as Trump does. As long as Pruitt (and Trump) are useful for enriching Republican donors and pandering to the bigoted "base" of loyal Republican voters, they can do whatever they want.
Pruitt is just the tip of the iceberg of a corrupt Republican Party that regards the country as something to plunder on behalf of itself and its wealthy donors.
4
Trump continues to excoriate the one member of his cabinet who has taken a principled stance on anything: Jeff Sessions, who recused himself from the Russia investigation. Meanwhile, Trump disregards the benighted behavior of Scott Pruitt, the cabinet member who actions may have the greatest impact on his son Barron and his unborn grandchildren.
Perhaps, Mr. Pruitt needs to read the NYTimes article about the Pope Francis' meeting with the Chairmen of big oil companies--ExxonMobil, Eni and BP. "We received the earth as a garden-home from the Creator. Let us not pass it on to future generations as a wilderness," Pope Francis, and "There is not time to lose."
(https://nyti.ms/2MeCIUy)
8
"We received the earth as a garden-home from the Creator,” “Let us not pass it on to future generations as a wilderness.”
-Pope Francis
What's wrong with these evangelicals? I do believe Pruitt comes from the dark side. Has to, no one can be so devoid of compassion for our planet and be one of the most senior political figures in the world responsible for the protection of the environment.
"Pope Tells Oil Executives to Act on Climate: ‘There Is No Time to Lose’"
Headline today in NYT. At least we have one religious leader trying to preserve the earth for future generations.
2
Pruitt has the backing of billionaire donors, I don't think he's going anywhere no matter how much the rest of America despises him.
2
Why do any of those investigations require more than an hour's work to conclude that Scott Pruitt is the epitome of corruption and shameless grifting? As for his blatantly illegal actions (and lack of action) to destroy our planet, I propose that there be a separate branch of the judiciary to deal with governmental corruption and law-breaking, so all the lawsuits brought by environmental organizations won't languish while the earth is destroyed in one way or another, by action or inaction.
1
Trump undoubtedly hesitates to fire Pruitt in part because the latter's shenanigans deflect attention from the grifter in chief's behavior. If Pruitt's bizarre activities garner too much press coverage, however, Trump's passion for the spotlight will overcome his need for protective cover, and the president will dispatch this particular swamp creature back to Oklahoma.
The first rule of survival in Trump's circus is to recognize that it is a one ring show, not a three ring one. The president will tolerate, even celebrate, corruption, but he will not turn a blind eye to efforts to steal the limelight. Pruitt can continue his activities which divert criticism from his boss, but he must be careful not to become the center of attention. This nursery has room for only one tyrant in diapers.
2
In any other place, Pruitt would have been fired long ago but no, at the WH, he sits supreme, ignoring science, enriching himself and his cronies and dictating personal errands to his staff. Surely there must be a way to fire him! I keep thinking he can't sink any lower then we read about the Ritz lotion and mattress. What's next, an exclusive face cream and a private jacuzzi? He's worse than Trump and that's saying a lot. But bravo to his aides who are exposing his corruption. They are the ones who deserve a promotion, and a raise.
3
I don't doubt anything that Mr. Bruni writes, not the facts he reports, nor his assessment of the motivation behind it all. What I do find remarkable, and this is a general comment, is that these pieces always come back to the particular situation that exists, but do not address the simple fact that what you have is a systemic collapse. Most of what gets reported and commented on is indeed egregious, but, by all accounts, it is NOT illegal as such. If you feel it should be, you have to change the laws so that it cannot happen again. That is what effort should be poured into, not in boring an exasperated public with yet another example of behavior that is deemed immoral, wasteful or otherwise unacceptable, but is in fact not unlawful. Yes, I know that this supposes that politicians act, and yes, I know too that this is -astonishing though it may seem- not forthcoming from the GOP, but this, too, is a systemic failure. Unless and until you find a way to change the system, this will remain galling, but inevitable.
3
The corrupt Nixon allowed the creation of the EPA because that is where the political winds blew. Trump wants to destroy the EPA because that is what he thinks will get him more votes. Pruitt wants to keep all his rich oil moguls who support him happy. All the while, earthquakes occur in Oklahoma and Kansas that should not occur, streams are choked by pollution and air quality is an afterthought. I thought God wanted people to appreciate their resources.
2
What is appalling about this grifter is the level of ambition shown. A side show carney at the Oklahoma State Fair has higher appetites than used mattresses and free chicken.
It is revealing of him as a cheap, third-rate mind. His agenda at EPA is what ever Oil and Chemical and every other association of extractors wants. No independent ideas on any subject of his purview except a generalized sense of pleasing any Vampyroteuthis infernalis (v.squid) who comes bearing UK basketball tickets.
With the recent opinion in McDonnell v. United States, this administrations occupants, who have even a middling intelligence, should be be knee deep in Cayman Islands paperwork!
To be so profoundly ignorant about the environment, Pruit must associate only with people who feel about it the way business leaders in Herbert Hoover's day felt about it. That concerns about the environment are way overblown, and should never be allowed to reduce profits.
He is aware that most people know differently. These people, he views as pests to be avoided.
Let's party like it's 1928.
It's easy to understand how Democrats loathe Mr. Pruitt, based on his dismantling of environmental protection and his corruption. But where are the Republicans of integrity and honor? Is Mr. Pruitt's ludicrous behavior acceptable to Republicans, simply because he is doing away with regulations? If you are a Republican and you think Scott Pruitt does not represent your standards of integrity, perhaps you should write your congresswoman or congressman.
3
The Base cares not a whit about any of this. The Base might find amusing the used mattress of that hotel supporting the body of an elite- rated mistress of a particular commander-in-chief. But the lotion? That's over the heads of The Base, to be sure, as is that thing called the EPA.
6
First DeVos and now Pruit: two people not only unqualified, but people whose past belies their fitness for the posts to which they have been assigned.
Where is Trump taking our nation?
I wish journalists would call a moratorium on amusing patter, original modifiers, and unique expressions to describe Pruitt and his boss.
Just get to this point and stick to it, plainly and clearly.
Scott Pruitt and his boss are lawbreakers who should be fired and prosecuted.
1
Pruitt's lethal administrative actions show an animus toward science and what we common folk regard as common decency. I think his paranoia may be justified. I expect him to demand a food taster be added to his security detail.
1
From Genesis through Revelation, the Bible has a lot to say about the physical world; all of it can be summarized as, “it’s beautiful and useful; take good care.” Don’t know why Scott Pruitt hasn’t stumbled across at least some of these when he’s searching for direction—honestly, you can’t skim but a few pages without landing on one. Know what else is in there? Admonitions against filing lawsuits. Lots of stuff about living humbly. And nothing that greenlights fracking.
1
Simply put: nouveau riche
1
I'd like to know just how successful Mr. Pruitt has been in demolishing and rolling back regs. Will we return to the 70's when the skyline of Manhattan wasn't visible a few miles away and there was foam on the Hudson?
Has he been effective or shall we let him be, smile at his silliness and ride this nightmare out?
1
Yes Scott Pruitt is a nightmare. The editorial just dealt with his abuse of power, and his constant dishonesty. Why is it that these articles which describe what this creature is doing do not also focus more on what this beast is doing to the health of the land. His constant attack on the environment deserves far more attention than this editorialist, and others are giving.
1
Thanks for this Frank! With political leaders from both parties seemingly unable to articulate any outrage or even mild snark for some of these swamp dwellers, we can rely on sharp columnists to call out the swill!
2
Jane Mayer's latest update about the Koch's decades old plan to overturn the government is here: https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-meaning-of-a-koch-brothers-.... Pruitt ( and Pence) are two of their most effective henchmen. Can 11/18 and 2020 come soon enough to rescue us and the world?
Pruitt absolutely doesn't get an assist from God. God has spoken to Pope Francis who has convened a meeting on Saturday at the Vatican of oil magnates and money managers.He is telling them to act on climate change and that there is no time to lose.The Pope declares that the Lord gave us a Garden of Eden and we must not turn it into a wasteland.The Pope is eloquent, authoritative, and a crucial conscience of our time.Let's go with the Pope and try to ignore the miserable misfit at the EPA.
4
I bet all presidents besides our current one would have fired Scott Pruitt long ago. Pruitt seems to be on a mission to deliberately harm the environment.
Scott Pruitt probably uses Trump fragrance to earn points with the commander in chief:
https://www.trump.com/merchandise/trump-fragrance/
1
The crux of Southern Baptist belief is that the Bible is the literal inerrant word of God. Since the Bible contradicts itself very frequently, and is totally out of synch with modern physics and cosmology, such belief is not consistent with great intellect. It helps explain the backwardness of Dixie. Although Yankee born and bred, I had the dubious pleasure of Military service in th segregated south. Sorry, folks, the earth is 4.5 billion years old, and no evidence for talking snakes promoting apples.
3
Pruitt and Trump are little men who want to look Big, and I mean Really Yuge.
When Trump tore down the Bonwit Teller building and destroyed irreplaceable art deco bas-relief sculptures on its facade, the NY Times reprimanded him stating "big buildings do not make a big man". And that was way back in 1980.
The limousines, the five-star hotels, the long cigars, those tacky fake gold interiors and all the trappings are needed by these little guys to convince themselves that they are Big Shots. They hope we envy them and wish we could actually be them.
The warped fun-house mirror I looked into at the state fair when I was a 10-year old made me look 18 feet tall, but it was an illusion.
But these guys buy into the illusion as reality.
Life must be so much simpler without a soul and a conscience. It is all just grab grab grab without a trace of doubt or regret, and hey, they are getting away with it in broad daylight and are applauded by 40% of the public. It would all be terribly funny if we were not paying for it.
5
You just can't make this stuff up...if it was satire it would be hilarious. But it's not...so the only thing funny about it will be his deeply satisfying and inevitable fall into the muck. He won't smell so sweet then no matter how much lotion he has managed to acquire for his reptilian scales. It will happen sooner or later. Yesterday would actually not be too soon....
2
I have no doubt Pruitt needs his security force: countless commentaries and articles attesting to his greed, corruption and narcissism - not to mention his systematic attempts to leave this country wallowing in industrial wastes - makes the collective citizenry of this country want to wring his neck. Personally, I'll be satisfied the day he's put in prison.
4
I understand that Pruitt is another religious zealot in this trumpian administration.
Most people in this category are hypocrites and sycophants.
Pruitt’s actions are set to ruin our environment and our standing in the world.
I don’t understand the catatonic behavior of the GOP .
If republican politicians don’t care about average Americans , perhaps should care about the future of their own children .
7
Scott Pruitt's behavior is just the opposite of everything Christianity should stand for, but he fits perfectly into the morally corrupt Trump administration. As long as he continues to destroy the EPA, his support by Trump and other Republicans will remain strong.
2
Pity Oklahoma!
This criminals grifting skills are not newfound, they are inborn; probably a long hereditary line of 'Flim-Flam' men. The people of Oklahoma should demand an investigation of his finances & expenses during those years he served as an elected state official. God forbid what they will discover.
It's no secret that this petty thief is intending to run for Governor; thus the routing of flights and weekends in OK to campaign....coupled with security detail, sirens & flashing lights he can look & be real important.
The good news, inevitably everyone who attaches themselves to Trump is eventually exposed for what they really are and always will be.. Sad.
1
There are no grown-ups who believe that nature has a human personality.
1
Darryl Rogers, the famed football coach, after another losing season with the Detroit Lions asked the Press out loud, "just what does it take to get fired around here?"
Scott Pruitt should be asking the same question.
2
Pruitt, like many people and things associated with this administration, is a mere distraction. You can bet that Trump is laughing up a storm at his antics and the outrage that they invite, and does not see any connection between Pruitt's character and his own.
Hey, give the guy some credit. He makes his boss look good, which is quite difficult to do.
Pruitt might be practicing so when he runs for President he'll know which perqs and luxuries he prefers. And he can have a Chic-Fil-A franchise in the White House. He and his would get a discount on their purchases, of course. As would his visiting heads of state.
One of your sharpest essays ever, Frank. PLEASE keep up the good, and valuable, work.
2
Somehow, isn't it a necessity for most of the country to believe, through thick and thin, that this ugly chapter in American History will end, and sanity will return to Congress and the White House?
Maybe it means returning to gridlock, and compromise, but hasn't the country learned something from this sordid monstrosity of a presidency?
We cannot wish it away, we need to vote it away.
2
We the people are letting this happen. Simple as that.
1
Davis,
Please make further suggestions for how to stop this debacle beyond voting. Millions are calling, marching, emailing, canvasing, working for polling stations, even running for office etc.
Please, what more....besides the unthinkable?
It is beyond comprehension why Trump has turned a blind eye to Pruitt's numerous transgressions and feedings at the public trough. Granted, Pruitt's environmental rollbacks mesh with Trump's blatant disregard for clean air, water, or environment. But surely another piggish EPA administrator could (and will) be located to continue Trump's destruction of the environment (America First, takes on new meaning). Until then, Pruitt will continue his version of Super Market Sweepstakes, grabbing all he can, because Trump lets him.
Zero Shame, from Pruitt or Trump.
The most remarkable--and pathetic--thing about Pruitt is that his ambitions as a grifter are constant and all-encompassing, yet his "achievements" in grifting are so absurdly small time and pathetic--$50 per night accommodations, a used Trump mattress. It would be conceivable to have a certain backhanded regard for a grifter who thought (stole) big time. Pruitt has revealed himself to be small time not just morally, even as an entitled pol on the take.
Pruitt is a gift in waiting; just as Tom Price was. Well timed FIRING will show the base how he cares about good behavior.
Despicable promises made. Despicable promises kept.
I do hope some reporters are looking closely at Scott Pruitt's personal finances. These unethical lapses are appalling, but probably chicken feed. Question #1-How did sole earner Pruitt, as an Oklahoma Attorney General who earned $133,000 a year, afford a $1.2 M house? #2- Is it believable that a man with his taste for luxury had no liabilities over $10,000 in January, 2017 except the mortgage on his Tulsa home? (This according to his Federal Financial Disclosure Form.) All vehicles owned free and clear? No credit card bills?
4
Trump wants and needs to be flattered. Imitation is the best form of flattery.
1
Regarding the "used" mattress: that most likely means a mattress purchased by the Trump hotel and then sold directly to Pruitt as "used" and at a fraction of the price. In other words, another one of his pathetic little scams. Pruitt is unique- his deranged deeds range from mattresses and sirens all the way up to doing unbelievable damage to our environmental protections.
1
Of course, swamp creatures smell. The perfumed lotion covers up and hides the stench. It’s needed so as cronies as possible will crawl in bed with Pruit on his used mattress.
What I don't understand is why he would want to buy a used mattress. If he could afford a brand new $43,000 phone booth, can't he spent $3000 on a pristine, factory-fresh mattress? Or does the Trump International Hotel have nothing new? I was always told that mattresses are one of the things you should never buy used.
9
He didn't pay for the $43,000 phone booth - you and I paid for that.
3
We bought him the $43,000 phone booth, not Mr. Pruitt.
Delusional parasite Scott Pruitt thinks his version of god is the guiding hand in everything he does. And now he will be remembered for eternity as Used Mattress Guy.
God gets the last laugh on this one.
1
All the hotel lotions and creams won't cover the smell coming from the EPA. Fresh water doesn't have a smell. Neither does fresh air, Both are endangered by this administration and it EPA chief.
Having lived through the metamorphosis of Pittsburgh's smoke and grit to one of the most livable cities in the world, I'll take clean air and water over coal and chemical pollution . Resist and vote the traitors ouit!
27
That bloody fool Trump probably believes the South Pittsburgh Works is just mothballed, and ready to fill the gap of reduced steel imports.
1
It would be more acceptable were Pruitt to have used his security detail to help procure his favorite scent of Air-Wick solid. While it wouldn't begin to make a dent in the stench he leaves wherever he goes, it would at least demonstrate that he has some concern for our environment. Alas, it is not to be.
Now Pruitt seeks to purchase his favorite Trump-branded mattress used, and on the cheap. It reinforces the notion that he is a poseur, seeking to hide taxpayer money in his mattress, while giving away the fact that he is behaving like a Princess and the Pea.
Unfortunately, we are not witnessing a fairy tale but, rather, a horror film. Cue the popcorn, and the hook. It's time for Pruitt to exit stage right.
15
I use my car, basically, for driving to work and back. On my days off I will combine my errands to one day plus work out the best area of town where I can get everything done, avoiding driving here and there.
Your article of another disregard Pruitt has for the environment was on a level I could easily relate to. It's the little things each of us can do to help....or in Pruitt's case, hurt.
5
And let us not forget to consider the deadly consequences for so many truly vulnerable people, not to mention endangered species, as a result of Pruitt's disregard of environmental realities. Of course the donor class of energy moguls who will line his pockets when his "service" is over, will simply shrug at the collateral damage.
35
Pruitt's petty acts of living in the style to which he thinks his rank in society entitles him date back to Oklahoma. He seems to think that if you have a motorcade with blaring sirens, you're a big shot.
His religious take on things puzzles me. Of course the seven deadly sins are a Catholic construction. A good Baptist probably never heard of them, and in any case would have thought all of those sins forgiven. Perhaps more no more understandable, but more alarming, is the Evangelical mindset in the Cabinet, as explained by Margaret Talbot in The New Yorker, is deeply anti-science and deeply set against doing much of anything about human health or the environment that we depend on. God is omnipotent and ensures we have the world we deserve; it's blasphemy to suggest that humans can alter the earth's climate through their activities. I'm not making this up.
38
FYI: https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/are-evangelical-leaders-sav...
The two cabinet members I’d most like to see replaced by Trump are Jeff Sessions and Scott Pruitt, Sessions for a racism that has been deep-baked and manifestly on display for a political lifetime, and Pruitt not for the small-ball rent-seeking that Frank attacks as so conveniently abominable merely as an excuse for not being able to successfully attack his excess in regulatory disassembly; but for the excessive regulatory deconstruction itself. He’s already gone too far in that deregulatory excess, and we’re only 17 months into the Trump administration. I’d also prefer that if Trump is going to award important benefactors who nevertheless could benefit by buying thirty IQ points positions in government, that he stick to the classical – ambassadorships to Burkina Faso or Monaco -- and not to the Dept. of Education.
But you descend to such levels of political ineffectiveness as we had before Trump that you’re forced as a nation to sign a pact with Satan to climb out of it and start signing important legislation again, then don’t be surprised when you’re repelled by some of the imps and demons who serve him.
Frank, like all the pundit liberati, appears already to have lost the argument against deregulation generally; so what’s left is to focus on the kind of small-ball rent-seeking that we see with many high-performing senior executives in the real world. But the true animus remains the deregulation, only by another feint.
3
To stick to environmental regulation and not amble off into general enforcement of our laws or how we attempt to give inspired central guidance to education in America, we were smothering under this economically choking pall of excessive environmental regulation manufactured under Obama, some of it days before he turned over the presidency to Trump. It may be that we needed a berserker like Pruitt for maybe one year to take a machete to it and prepare the ground for not a builder but a maintainer who would then take the reins. However, careersters will tend not to go gently into that good night but will seek excuses to remain in office, forever seeking that perfect moisturizing lotion.
Time for Trump to start considering some personnel changes. I can think of three off the top of my head. Time for Frank and others to make better and more compelling arguments than disdain over a penchant for private jets.
I would be interested in knowing a couple of examples of the excessive regulations you refer to in your statement: "...we were smothering under this economically choking pall of excessive environmental regulation manufactured under Obama." In general, the EPA has done an outstanding job over the years cleaning up the toxic mess left by industry and providing ordinary citizens like me with cleaner air and water. Without an agency like the EPA, that would not have happened.
2
Last year, Pruitt signed a proposed rule rescinding the Obama administration’s “Clean Water Rule.” The Obama rule is designed to clarify which streams, lakes, wetlands and other water bodies fall under the protection of the Clean Water Act.
As Oklahoma’s attorney general, Pruitt unsuccessfully sued to kill the rule, which he has called “the greatest blow to private property rights the modern era has seen.”
1
The only record he appears to be setting is the number of concurrent investigations over his own wrongdoing.
22
It never ends well for guys like Pruitt and Trump. Like Harvey Weinstein, they appear to float just above the chaos that they create, until someone turns off the anti-gravity machine and the entire artifice of their lives comes crashing down.
In a sign of desperation, Trump is lashing out with irrational, ill conceived statements. His call for no tariffs, no subsidies, no barriers in Canada must be creating panic in the agriculture and automotive sectors back home. Dairy subsidies alone are $20 billion a year and the US light truck business is protected by a 25% tariff. According to Forbes, the loss of US automaker profits of up to $20,000 a truck from reduced tariff protection would put them out of business.
Then there are huge subsidies to the US aircraft industry from defense contracts. And the ethanol subsidies for the grain growers and refiners.
By Monday, Trump will be denying he suggested a tariff free world, Sarah Sanders will have some bizarre explanation blaming Democrats and Pruitt and his security detail will be off on another junket, escorted by a major GOP donor.
In other words, pretending its business as usual, even as Mueller gets closer all of the time.
49
Two of the most egregious scammers , probably of all time, in the same administration. Coincidence ? Not really. As Mr. Bruni suggests Trump must see a mirror image of himself in Scottie Pruitt. What repulses voters who see Pruitt piling up dozens of ethical violations and breaking every norm , makes Trump smile and think imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. And lord knows , if Trump is fond of anything it is flattery. Only if Pruitt threatens to steal the spotlight from Trump, will he irk the patron of unethical behavior and breaker of all norms. Otherwise , there is enough for both to line their pockets.
55
I find it incredulous that Pruitt or anyone would want to buy a used mattress. Costco sells perfectly suitable mattresses for less than $100. If his gourmet tastes prefer Chick-fil-A yet flies 1st class, this guy has very skewed tastes and priorities. I wonder if he prefers Perrier to tap water or has HEPA filters purifying the air in his house and soundproof telephone booth? If he continues to demoralize the EPA it may be time to change the agency's name to IPA Industrial Protection Agency.
36
Ah, but Costco brand mattresses don't carry the scent of Trump. #smellsliketrump
1
I understand Pruitt buying a Trump brand mattress to suck up to the boss by mentioning his sweet dreams frequently. But to be so cheap as to not buy a new one? Especially when his boss claims to be a germophobe?
1
Not being much of a TV viewer and not knowing a whole lot about Anthony Bourdain, I watched Frank Bruni's AB interview from a decade or so ago. Now, I regret that I hadn't turned on the tube to view his fascinating, wry, insightful culinary/cultural adventures. Anyway, Bourdain mentioned durian as being an inexplicable favorite of his. Were he alive today , I think he might have compared Pruitt's odor not to the Ritz, but to durian and that comparison would have made it impossible for him to even think about having another bite.
15
Bourdain might have suggested having a edible durian fruit drop from its tree branch onto Pruitt's head too...
1
Wonderful illustration. Has all the greatest hits, thus far. Maybe him sitting in first class, next time ??? In a portable cone of silence, surrounded by bodyguards and praying lobbyists. And free flowing CASH.
20
Thank you Mr. Bruni for laying out the long (although not fully complete) list of what in a by-gone day would have been called terminal ethical, regulatory or administrative transgressions.
As an attorney working on the regulatory side of environmental law for 35 years, I am compelled to point out that you are just scratching the surface, although commendably and ably articulating the rot at the top. It's just that ethical, regulatory and administrative norms and obligations now are the mode of "other people" who no longer count to this administration. Protecting the environment will thus become more litigious and fractious unless those left behind by corporate raider interests, including those enraptured by the promise of a return of king coal, see past their noses.
44
About the mattress: The asking price didn't happen to be $130,000, did it?
41
I also graduated from Georgetown College but in 1964. We had not gone through the Reagan years of "greed is good" as Pruitt did. Guess the religion taught during those years changed a lot from my time. My latest alumni magazine from G'town has a jockey sitting on a race horse. I recall that gambling was considered a sin. Now, it's okay. Especially with someone like Pruitt who wants to "run with the swanky". Forget who said that but Pruitt really does want to be just like Trump with his version of the Golden Rule. The one with the gold rules. Old joke but definitely true now.
11
The EPA under Pruitt is setting records for rolling back any and all protections of our air, our water, and our soil.
I guess being a devout Christian, Pruitt does not worry about the effect of not having safe air to breathe, water to drink, and food to eat because he thinks he will be in heaven soon anyway.
What always confounds me about Pruitt is how he can justify his lack of commitment to protecting the environment (that's his job after all) to his children and grandchildren. Surely they will pay for his record-breaking rollbacks of environmental protections, along with the rest of us.
But then as long as he smells of the Ritz, I guess he sleeps well on one of Trump's used mattresses and doesn't give the rest of us a second thought.
34
Frank, in addition to a moisturizer, Pruitt may be interested in an exfoliant to remove those flakes of skin too dead to breathe further life into. I've heard a certain bodily fluid works wonderfully for that purpose. Liberally applied and allowed to dry, it forms a white crust that, when peeled away, removes those unsightly epidermal flakes. The best part is, it is free and handily available. No rousting up a brigade of security persons and a fleet of armored, gas-guzzling Suburbans needed. Carbon neutral, too.
14
Ewwwww.
In this administration all one say is GIGO: Garbage In, Garbage Out. They have no class at all. Not one of them. Lipstick on a pig would be a class act compared to these clowns.
91
Watching Scott Pruitt and hearing the phrase "Drain the swamp" makes my head explode. Trump and his base aren't about boring stuff like policy -- only destructive mischief and driving logical, thinking people insane.
69
Pruitt does not work for us. His real masters are Koch, Exxon, Peabody, and Georgia Pacific. None of those people cares if America becomes a wasteland of stumps, polluted rivers, and toxic air.
Our media prefers to discuss small time grifts like soundproof rooms and first class air travel. Meanwhile, a livable climate is quickly careening out of control.
Scott doesn’t care. He and fellow pirate Zinke are looking at blueprints for giant ranch homes, with “heaven” in the distant future.
They belong in prison, of course. Step up your environmental coverage before it’s too late, Times.
312
It is too tempting for the media, even great columnists like Frank Bruni, to write/talk about the appalling behavior of the Trump people, but it is really important for their terrible actions to be written about even more often. The deregulation and destruction of all the things that improve and protect us all is criminal. And the role of religious zealots behind this is dangerous. We need to pay more serious attention, not in humor or mockery, but to save our country from these people.
89
I couldn't agree more. Thank you for your well written response.
I guess the science-fiction movie Elysium may go beyond fiction. It is conceivable that some of the 'chosen special few' such a Pruitt and Zinke are thinking of a similar preserved and protected environment for themselves while the rest of the US or the Earth as a whole is damaged beyond redeem due to their condoned unbridled over-exploitation.
5
Mr. Bruni, you've demonstrated (as has been shown sometimes before) that words can cut like sharp knives, and simply by telling the truth. Masterful.
188
Whether the pernicious policies, outrageous flaunting of norms, rules and regulations, and the downright illegal actions of "45" and the enabling GOP continue or not, I take a small amount of comfort that history will judge them harshly. They may be able to subvert the history texts available here in the US, but the rest of the world is watching. Historians around the world will record the regressive and destructive actions which threaten to wreck the US and perhaps even the entire world. Pruitt's name will loom large in the historical records of the barbarians who brought down this country. They may destroy everything good about this country and reverse the positive actions of the previous administration, but history will remember.
119
All that is true, but none of trump, his lackeys and enablers, and “The Base” will care.
1
So it came out that a Pruitt staffer was asked to look for a used mattress at the nearby Trump hotel. Seems strange for many reasons for a guy who is not ever going to do things second class. On the other hand, if he paid Trump enough for the mattress through the hotel's books as a cover, it is a payoff that would have never been noticed. Just saying.
83
Exactly- just another deceitful con.
Pruitt's emulation of royalty mirrors the actions of the most notorious televangelists, who by no coincidence are in large part responsible for cultivating support for Trump. Pruitt knows they will be no more interested in holding him accountable than they are their religious leaders. Like everything else in the Trump presidency, it's based on the calculation that the majority of voters can be kept at bay.
74
Scott Pruitt's sliminess would be bad enough on its own. He is fleecing taxpayers, degrading a powerful position, and acting more like a king than a public servant.
But it is beyond the pale that his sliminess is tarnishing our one planet. Pruitt's professional obligation is to protect the environment, yet trashing the earth is a small price to him for enriching himself. Scientists have been marginalized and lobbyists embraced.
Other people have been corrupt and cynical; that damage can be reversed. But the destruction to our earth and to the value of science itself won't be easily repaired, if at all.
The hideous legacy of Scott Pruitt will outlast his lifetime, let alone his tenure.
149
Can much more be said? I'd love to be there if an ardent trump supporter read this (among those of them who read, and who are willing to read anything which doesn't already agree with their worldview), but I'm sure it would just be shrugged off. "It's a new way of government"; '"Who cares what the rest of the world thinks"; "He's shaking things up"; "he's not conventional"; "he's not a democrat". The willful blindness and apathy would be stunning, I'm sure.
101
For fun, I've recently asked a few Trump supporters (I go in disguise) what the letters EPA stand for. When we get that straight, I ask them what all they suppose the agency is there to do for us.
They don't know for sure. But they heard that within the walls, it's setting records.
7
Without tolerating his petty corruption, the main focus on Pruitt should be his incredibly damaging leadership of the EPA, as well as his more significant corruption in dealing with industrial polluters.
225
Indeed. "Under a law passed by Congress in 2016, the E.P.A...was required for the first time to evaluate hundreds of potentially toxic chemicals and determine if they should face new restrictions, or even be removed from the market. The chemicals include many in everyday use, such as dry-cleaning solvents, paint strippers and substances used in health and beauty products like shampoos and cosmetics," reports the NY Times.
"Pruitt's E.P.A. has in most cases decided to exclude from its calculations any potential exposure caused by the (top 10) substances’ presence in the air, the ground or water."
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/07/us/politics/epa-toxic-chemicals.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/21/us/epa-toxic-chemicals.html
12
That's what he's "setting records" for, don't you know? Setting records for decimating out land.
6
If there are absolutely no ramifications for being corrupt, why stop?
Pruitt suffered no consequences in Oklahoma and he is suffering none at EPA. His boss (certainly no stranger to ethical lapses) doesn't seem inclined to fire him and, despite a few hearings, the Republican Congress can't or won't do anything.
Pruitt is the perfect acolyte for Trump: It's not what you do, it's what you can get away with.
298
I think there were used mattresses available cheap from the Moscow Ritz Carlton, but they might have an odor problem….
266
EWWWWWWW.
2
Sorry, cannot be imported into the US under current, soon to be revoked environmental laws. They would listed as a biohazard.
1
It must be increasingly difficult for writers like Mr. Bruni to capture the depths of the loathsome behavior of Trump administration personnel although he certainly does an admiral job of it. Unfortunately, I think a lot of people like myself are becoming so dispirited and so over-saturated with the bottomless cesspool that is the Trump Administration that it is harder and harder to care anymore. This is truly a sad situation for our country and I fear it will get much, much worse before it gets better assuming it gets better at all.
116
Admirable. I mean, besides correcting the misspelling, an evaluation of your comment: all too incisive about the danger to decent Americans watching the cess, Greg.
21
Did not take long to drop into 3rd world status, where the citizens just expect a corrupt government and no services.
Nice work, GOP.
8
AutoCorrect strikes again, Greg.
BTW, the inventor of AutoCorrect died recently. May he restaurant in peace.
9
These people put the gilded age to shame.
back in the days of royalty many of the fancy chateaux in the Loire Valley and elsewhere were built by those working for the King. As they did favors for their friends using royal power they were richly rewarded, and no doubt they steered projects to those where they were in silent partnership with.
As Guiliani made clear the other day, we have another royal monarch. He can't be indicted, any act he does is legal, and he can pardon anyone doing his bidding that runs afoul of the law.
Its not surprising that those around Trump emulate their predecessors and feather their own lives.
61
Pruitt is currently facing 12 federal investigations into his questionable behavior including renting a $50 a night bedroom from the wife of a lobbyist, excessive spending habits on security, first class travel, trip to the Rose Bowl, He tried to arrange a meeting with an executive from Chik-fil-A to acquire a franchise for his wife. The list is endless.
He is dismantling rules on toxic chemicals and leading the EPA to weaken how it devises standards on hazardous chemicals.
He needs to either be fired or resign.
93
On the other hand, his replacement might be even more effective at dismantling the EPA than Pruitt has been.
10
Pruitt won't be fired. He won't resign. He needs to be indicted, tried, and (I hope) imprisoned.
7
Neither will happen, unfortunately. His boss, the unspeakable current president, likes him and what he's doing: he picked people to ruin the agencies they were put in charge of. Pruitt and DeVos, and their grifter colleagues, are doing what they were brought there for.
Ruin everything, take all the money, and leave the suckers (us) to deal with the consequences. Naturally they don't say so--they're liars, like the boss.
And resignation is also out of the question, since none of these thieves would dream of ever feeling as though they failed, or any sort of remorse. Failure, after all, would mean a government function left standing, not broken--or broke.
And this, they claim, is Christianity. What an example. No wonder the younger generation is running away from it as fast as they can.
5
A shabby two bitter, is Pruitt
"Destroy the Earth, Scott", and he'll do it,
His Master of Con
Our great Potus, Don,
Beams at what he does, doesn't rue it.
Ethics to him is a misnomer,
He is after all, a Trump homer,
EPA misuse
Is abstract, abstruse,
To smell good becomes a far roamer.
201
Larry, is it true that you are 99 years old?
You limericks are wonderful and when I go through the NYT comments, I am always looking for them and wondering whether I could be ever as witty, poetic and pertinent as you are?
6
On one hand we have environmental organizations that can fund-raise off of Pruitt's unsavory behavior while quietly recognizing that he's in fact ineffective (see https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/04/07/scott-pruitt-epa-acco... on the other hand we have a President who energizes his base by defending someone who purports to rollback regulations but really doesn't. This is a recipe for Pruitt's staying exactly where he is, for as long as he wants, while 45 is President. He's a gift to both sides.
12
Trump's affection for Scott Pruitt is simple; it's one sociopath's admiration for another sociopath.
Trump's and Pruitt's methods are different, but the results are the same; pure unbridled greed, corruption and a complete flushing of all ethics down the toilet.
Trump's tools are bullying, insults and pathological lying.
Pruitt's tools are corporate puppetism, 'Christianity' and sustained delusion.
Pruitt is a former trustee with the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and he says his faith forms the foundation of his politics.
"A Christian worldview means that God has answers to our problems," said Pruitt, per the seminary's website. "And part of our responsibility is to convey to those in society that the answers that He has, as represented in Scripture, are important and should be followed, because they lead to freedom and liberty"....including religiously bigoted opposition to same-sex marriage, abortion rights and transgender rights.
While voting for an abortion restriction measure in the Oklahoma Senate, Pruitt once said, "I'm voting to say that an unborn child from the moment of conception should be considered a legal person under the 14th Amendment."
Here's Pastor Pruitt on fossil fuels: "The biblical world view with respect to these issues is that we have a responsibility to manage and cultivate, harvest the natural resources that we've been blessed with to truly bless our fellow mankind."
Pastor Pruitt thinks he's working for 'God'; no ethics need apply.
401
It’s convenient that Pruitt’s interpretation of the Bible enhances his bank account.
What’s that quote in the Bible...”God is not mocked”?
86
Pruitt and the saintly Roy Moore,
The Scriptures rendered their acts pure.
118
Ditto Sarah Huckabee Sanders who--if completely candid--would admit that serving God (her belief) gives her license to lie, prevaricate, contradict, and slander the truth and decent people here on Earth.
59
The swamp, far from drained, has coughed up another slimy creature. While every member of the current administration could be plugged into Mr. Bruni’s excellent rant, Pruitt does seem to be the most flagrant (and fragrant, if you take the lotion into account).
The environment happens to be where I live, so someone as inept, unethical and destructive as Mr. Pruitt should not be let anywhere near the environment, much less be put in charge of it.
I’m getting the sense that devout religious belief is almost a requirement if you’re looking for someone who has no clue about the real world, denies established science, violates every norm that religion is supposed to hold dear and is willing to be a first-class hypocrite.
Of course, Pruitt isn’t the main problem. He’s merely the rash that a sick country has broken out in. What were we expecting from an administration headed by a low-level tacky-to-the-max mobster wannabe? Did we think that a man who’d never read the books he’s supposedly written would be all about high-minded principles and care about people other than himself?
Did we think a certifiable narcissistic con artist would not pull the biggest con of all on a country so dumb that they couldn’t tell that the man they were voting for was an idiot?
So when the environment contains people who would vote for the president, Pruitt might be just the man we need to tend it. We're doomed anyway. Might as well get it over with.
368
You might be on to something. Maybe the Master Plan is this: to despoil the planet so much, to violate every single norm and rule that states and restates the Golden Rule, and to become so vile and hateful a people that God will have no choice but to destroy the world, at which point the "faithful" can get into Heaven?
3
Think of all the taxpayer dollars going towards the almost weekly visits by the Don to Trump golf courses. What's a $43K phone booth compared to that? Trump has set the tone and Pruitt, and I am sure others, (see: Carson, Ben) are just following his lead. They feel they are entitled to the perks of the position even if it means stealing from the very people they profess to care about, the little people who really do pay taxes.
159
Agreed. Trump has visited his clubs once every 4.7 days since his inauguration. Coupled with the rumored 4 to 5+ hours of Fox (Unreal) News he watches, we're paying a lot for his non-work and incompetence.
Cost to taxpayer: At least $67,769,219**
https://trumpgolfcount.com
https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/donald-trump-time-spent-watchin...
14
Bruni does not include Sloth among the Seven Deadly Sins that Pruitt has already scored. He should. Several commentators have noted that while Pruitt has often declared laws and regulations void (or simply declined to enforce them) he's done almost nothing in the way of new regulations and new bills to refer to Congress. These don't require tons of work, but they require some work. Scott Pruitt isn't into that.
177
Cancelling regulations does require work in the U.S. government. There are procedures that have to be followed, including public comment. However, I believe Pruitt has slacked off on following that law in some (or many?) cases. So, maybe Sloth is accomplished after all.
23
I just visited the Ritz Carlton Hotel Shop website and noted a very large range of elegant bathroom products for sale. There's even a range of scented candles which are sure to add a sweet fragrance to Pruitt's $43,000 phone booth. Makes me wonder if Pruitt knows how to use the Internet.
115
It’s quite possible he doesn’t. Maybe that’s why he asked for the phone booth.
47
My thoughts precisely.
He'd have to pay for the stuff if he used the internet. No doubt, he calculated that, if he arrived with his full security team in tow and with lights and sirens going full out, he could simply ask for the lotion and the concierge would provide it 'compliments of the house.'
1
"He has disputed evolution, saying that there are not “sufficient scientific facts” to prove it, and he has spoken of years spent “earnestly praying” and “asking the question I don’t think we ask enough: God, what do you want to do with me?”"
Boy, I'd love to hear how God would answer that!
It's said that one has to be careful "listening" to God because of the all-too common human tendency to project until the supreme deity one's own wants and desires.
Pruitt surely is doing this. As for your seven deadly sins, let's not forget the 10 commandments, which includes 'thou shalt not steal."
When Pruitt endlessly games the system, he's really stealing from us, the taxpayers. In the same way Trump doesn't care how much he stiffs the nation, neither does Pruitt.
Because you're right Frank, he has amazingly thick skin, which is likely why he needs so much of that Ritz Carlton lotion.
Both the president and the EPA chief are notoriously cheap. Were it his own money (and time), I'm pretty sure Pruitt would do what most of us do, which is buy the product (for less) on Amazon.
I suspect grifting is a powerful aphrodesiac for Trump and Pruitt. Because if both spent as much time working as they do scheming how to milk the taxpayers, they might come closer to earning their salaries.
487
Christine McM, when both You and Socrates comment on the same excellent Frank Bruni article I know it's time to put the coffee on and get ready to read. Thanks to all three of you for providing intelligent food for the brain. It is most unfortunate that we have disgusting examples of human beings as Trump and Pruitt. We should try and teach our children to never emulate these piriahs.
37
The existence of Scott Pruitt is proof enough that evolution is a hoax.
11
LOCK THEM UP!
8
Pay attention to what Pruitt is doing in the EPA - that is where the real scandal is. He and his co-workers are undoing all the struts, nuts and bolts that hold up environmental laws that protect all living things on this planet. Remember LOVE CANAL? They are deconstructing our government so the likes of the Koch brothers can rape all for quick money. All this other stuff is just a distraction. Write about the rules he is reversing. That is what we need to hear about. The entire Trump Administration is corrupt and stinking with rot, that is not news.
128
Exactly!!
Pruitt's religiosity, while perhaps incongruent with his venality, is entirely consistent with his skepticism of climate science. The eschatological doctrine of his sect is, variously, either that humans are incapable of corrupting the deity's creation, or that the end times are nigh, so it doesn't matter. Piety is just another ingredient is this human amalgam of conceit, pettiness, and contempt for public service.
146
If I were the owner/operator of The Ritz, I'd be offended by the notion that Pruitt smells like The Ritz. He has a stink about him (and always has, even in Oklahoma) that should ultimately get him out of public life. Wouldn't that be nice?!
112
You got that right about many in Oklahoma. He was in the pockets of the oil industry. Schools, teachers, fresh air, all suffered because of his greed. I have relatives there.
5
It is hard to imagine a more loathsome individual. Like his boss, there are no pejoratives that have not been used. What gets me the most is how the heck did he rise to such important positions? There is nothing likable about him.
That said, the actions of the EPA of rolling back protective regulations is just awful. The next generations will suffer.
196
How did it happen? Because insecure egotists need lackeys to work for them who share their "values" and do whatever they are told.
7
The record of Pruitt's use of bribery and other forms of corruption in his climb to AG of Oklahoma is well-documented.
3
There is nothing likable about anybody in that administration. Trump's cabinet makes Nixon's look like a Boy Scout troop. I can't imagine spending more than 5 minutes around any of them without being seized with the overwhelming desire to find a desert island where I can spend the next several years decompressing from being exposed to their overall moral decrepitude, utter venality and rank stupidity.
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The thing you have to understand about Scott Pruitt is that is he essentially a poor Okie. According to Vanity Fair, he's one of a a handful of Trump's "poor" cabinet nominees, estimated to have "barely $1 million in investible assets; $5 million at best." Now I know that would be fine with 99 percent of the rest of us, but when so many of his Cabinet counterparts are multi-millionaires many times or billionaires, it's bound to give the poor man an insecurity complex. When such "poverty" puts a hole in your soul. you try to fill it, even if it's with ritzy hand lotion, used Trump mattresses and sirens that go whee-whee-whee on the way to your favorite fancy restaurant. The crime is that he uses out taxpayer dollars to feed his insatiable demand for luxury he's too cheap to pay for himself.
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As a man who does not appear to have ever held a job outside Oklahoma govt, how is it possible to have b/t $1M and $5m in assets? Just wondering.
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There are thousands, millions of people raised poor who have more moral and ethical standards, are successful, more intelligent, and more comfortable in their skin than Pruitt. He's rotten through & through, and no background analysis as to the why's and wherefore's of why he is the way he is can excuse him. He belongs behind bars!
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If he's canned, rumor has it he wants to run for Governor of Oklahoma. Just what we don't need.
PS He's not an Okie.
8
Trump is also pushing Pruitt into our face and saying "Do you not see: I can do anything I want!" Pruitt is a useful symbol for Trump to further assert his power.
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It is always good to have a bigger crook then you in site ,to sooner or later say "What about that guy , he was so bad I had to get rid of him " . Trump thinks having "chopable" around is good for misdirection. He is right ..
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The left really hates this man because he doesn't agree with their religious belief in global warming and is undoing some of the nonsensical regulations that Obama's various EPA chiefs enacted. Leftists will do anything to get rid of him. He's doing a great job and he would be hard to replace. He has learned his lesson, I hope, about his extravagance.
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Based on his behaviour, It would appear that Mr Pruit doesn't agree with his own religious beliefs.
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Let's see... the CIA, the Dept of Defense, most of the world's scientists, and the leaders every single other nation on this planet (who signed the Paris accords) are leftists blinded by ideology, and folks like you, who doubtless have no training in any relevant discipline, are the ones who are reality-based?
Wow. Who knew? Thanks for letting us know!
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Why is it great to pollute more? And to have fewer scientists at the EPA?
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Frank, buddy, you're missing the main reason Pruitt is still there. Trump needs someone he can move laterally into the Attorney General slot without needing Senate confirmation. As former AG of Oklahoma and an already confirmed Cabinet member, Pruitt is Trump's back up for AG when he cans Sessions or forces him to resign. In the meantime, Pruitt can open his own Trump mattress warehouse and lotion store, and Trump will let him survive, although the environment won't. There are further depths yet to plumb. Stay tuned.
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Imagine the confirmation hearings if Trump nominated Pruitt to replace Sessions as AG. If this is Trump’s plan, he clearly hasn’t thought it through.
But what else is new?
5
He won't need Senate confirmation, that's the whole point. He's already confirmed as a Cabinet member. Trump can just shift him over to AG without needing Senate approval.
The horror. The horror..
Coulda saved the shopping trip around D.C. https://www.ritzcarltonshops.com/productSub.aspx?spa-fresh-moisturizer
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But he wants it NOW!
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It's not just the availability or convenience of ordering.
It is the self-back-patting feeling of being able to order someone else around to go fetch something for this mealy dog. Someone that is being paid by someone else: us the taxpayers.
6
We have been ritzed. We are treated with condescension and superiority by Prince Pruitt and King Trump, Bobbsey twins of corruption and narcsissism. We are the great unwashed, the heathens and pagans, the poor schlubs, while Pruitt and Trump, look down at us from on high, using government to enrich themselves at taxpayer expense, and we are expected to be grateful for the privilege to be at their service. They are indeed "putting on the ritz," making an ostentatious show of their wealth and living in grand style while the rest of us can eat Entenmann's donuts.
We have paid for Prince Pruitt's trips to his home in Oklahoma, where, no surprise, he is a Deacon at a Baptist Church, and until he commits blasphemy by tweeting something negative about King Trump, he will remain Trump's BFF. We are in a game of limbo. How low can we go?
There are at least 12 investigations into Pruitt's malfeasance. We groundlings paid for his $40,000 trip to Morocco where he conducted no EPA business. In his first year, we paid for his 20 person security detail, including at the Rose Bowl Game and in Disneyland, at a cost of over $3.5 million. I shudder to think what would have happened if one of the characters in Disneyland was a registered Democrat and in a moment of insanity, pushed Pruitt off of the Tea Cup ride.
He has gotten rid of the scientists on the Science Advisory Committee and replaced them with industry people. He is dismantling the EPA.
Pruitt stinks of greed and arrogance.
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Pruitt stinks of swamp muck, a creature of the black lagoon...let's call a spade a spade.
3