Yesterday Dave Catanese interviewed Jay Nixon and hit a touchy subject: E.Coli-Gate.
Nixon told Catanese that he learned that he was "responsible for a lot of things" - but avoided answering if he had any regrets about how E.Coli-Gate was handled.
Let us get this straight:
One of his appointees (Joe Bindbeutel) helped conceal a health risk at the Lake of the Ozarks, disingenuously assumed the role of a scapegoat and was rewarded with a new $100k appointment. This appointment was only withdrawn once Senate confirmation put it dead in the water. Two of Nixon's aides lied to the public and the press about their knowledge of the test results (Jeff Mazur and Jack Cardetti). When they eventually released the information, Jeff Mazur tried to limit its release, even though the Lake of the Ozarks is a major state tourist donation.
Not only did Nixon refuse to discipline any of the involved parties (barring one two-week suspension), his administration engineered a probably unnecessary reorganization of the DNR that (1) protected everyone involved in E.Coli-Gate (2) fired lots of non-political, career employees who did their jobs properly.
In all this mass of information, Nixon can't find one thing that maybe he regrets a little bit? We can think of one or two things.
The source of the original problem, an unfortunate mix of incompetence and dishonesty in the DNR and Nixon Administration, is still there. Nixon's in a hurry to avoid a politically toxic issue, but we shouldn't be ready to move on until we know that real and responsive action has been taken.
That hasn't happened yet.
Nixon told Catanese that he learned that he was "responsible for a lot of things" - but avoided answering if he had any regrets about how E.Coli-Gate was handled.
Let us get this straight:
One of his appointees (Joe Bindbeutel) helped conceal a health risk at the Lake of the Ozarks, disingenuously assumed the role of a scapegoat and was rewarded with a new $100k appointment. This appointment was only withdrawn once Senate confirmation put it dead in the water. Two of Nixon's aides lied to the public and the press about their knowledge of the test results (Jeff Mazur and Jack Cardetti). When they eventually released the information, Jeff Mazur tried to limit its release, even though the Lake of the Ozarks is a major state tourist donation.
Not only did Nixon refuse to discipline any of the involved parties (barring one two-week suspension), his administration engineered a probably unnecessary reorganization of the DNR that (1) protected everyone involved in E.Coli-Gate (2) fired lots of non-political, career employees who did their jobs properly.
In all this mass of information, Nixon can't find one thing that maybe he regrets a little bit? We can think of one or two things.
The source of the original problem, an unfortunate mix of incompetence and dishonesty in the DNR and Nixon Administration, is still there. Nixon's in a hurry to avoid a politically toxic issue, but we shouldn't be ready to move on until we know that real and responsive action has been taken.
That hasn't happened yet.
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