Heckuva Job, Strickie: Chief-of-Staff to Sec. of Interior, Tasked with Coordinating Response to Petroleum Katrina, Instead Spent Week Rafting In Grand Canyon With Wife

Vacation, you say? Pish-posh - Strickland claims it was a "work-focused" working trip.

Though his agency was charged with coordinating the federal response to the major oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, Department of the Interior chief of staff Tom Strickland was in the Grand Canyon with his wife last week participating in activities that included white-water rafting, ABC News has learned.

Other leaders of the Interior Department were focused on the Gulf, joined by other agencies and literally thousands of other employees. But Strickland’s participation in a trip that administration officials insisted was “work-focused” raised eyebrows among other Obama administration officials and even within even his own department, sources told ABC News.

Strickland, who also serves as Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks, was in the Grand Canyon with his wife Beth for a total of three days, including one day of rafting....

One government official, asking for anonymity because of the political sensitivities involved, told ABC News that some Interior Department employees thought it was “irresponsible” for Strickland to have gone on the trip, given the crisis in the Gulf, which was fully apparent at the time he departed for the Grand Canyon.

Thanks to Dr. Spank.

Corrected: Strickland is chief of staff to the Secretary of the Interior. SecInterior is Ken Salazar.

posted by Ace at 07:02 PM

| Access Comments