Guest Columnist

Obama Could Pass Over Progressive Latino for Interior Secretary

Obama Rumored to Be Leaning Toward Pro-Hunter, Pro-Logging Democrat to Lead Interior Department
By Roberto Lovato, Of América

A source close to the Obama transition team just told me that “(Congressman Raul) Grijalva fell out of favor and they are now looking at Mike Thompson” for the job of Interior Secretary. The source also told me that the likely decision will take place in the next 36 hours and has “the DC environmental groups in a frenzy over the latest leaks out of the transition team.”

While these are only just rumors, this information should at the very least make us look more closely at how Congressman Mike Thompson’s record fits President-elect Obama’s promise to bring hope and change to the over 500 million acres of surface land and over 1.7 billion acres of the Outer Continental Shelf that fall under the purview of the Secretary of the Interior job Grijalva and Thompson are being considered for.

The measure of change and hope in the work of the Department of the Interior begins with reducing the disproportionate influence of the big hunting, big logging, big oil and other big corporate interests whose big money defined and still define the deadly and devastating land management policies of the Bush Administration.

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Posted at 8:11 AM, Dec 08, 2008 in Politics | Permalink | View Comments