Don’t you just love it when the media reveal potential corruption in government at the highest levels?
Consider what happened to U.S. Rep. Tom Marino.
He was supposed to become Donald J. Trump’s “drug czar,” the director of drug policy. Then came “60 Minutes” and The Washington Post to reveal to the nation that Marino sought to enact legislation that crippled the nation’s fight against opioid abuse.
If you’ll allow me to once again borrow a phrase from former GOP presidential candidate Rick Perry: Oops!
The former Texas governor and current energy secretary made that statement famous when he couldn’t name the third federal agency he would dissolve.
Now comes this latest bit of embarrassment for the president, who nominated Rep. Marino to lead an effort after he sought to torpedo the nation’s effort to combat drug abuse.
My question for the president’s team is this: Is anyone in the White House personnel office vetting these candidates for important public policy positions?
It appears that no one in Trump’s White House team is capable of doing just a bit of homework on the people they seek to install in these posts. Marino’s public record as a Pennsylvania congressman is known to anyone who takes the time to look at it.
As Politico reports: Marino had faced growing resistance to his nomination since this past weekend, when a report by “60 Minutes” and The Washington Post detailed how he championed legislation that makes it essentially impossible for the Drug Enforcement Administration to freeze suspicious narcotics shipments from drug distribution companies, according to officials at the DEA and Justice Department.
The 2016 law, signed by former President Barack Obama and unanimously approved by Congress, overturned longstanding DEA policy and established a much higher bar before the agency could take some actions to halt suspicious shipments.
The task now for the president is clear: Find a drug czar nominee who operates far from the political circus in Washington; find someone with a demonstrated commitment to battling the nation’s drug crisis.
What is even more frightening is the possibility that Rep. Marino was vetted. Looking at Trump’s record on dismantling Obama’s accomplishments and at PTs nominees for other cabinet positions, I don’t think that’s unrealistic.