BURN: Kwik Kenny Salazar--The Funky Faux Paneling King

Interior Sec. and noted unindicted felon Ken Salazar was spanked by a fine Federal District Judge last week.  Kwik Kenny had waved his magic lie, shutting down all deep water oil exploration in the Gulf, and the Judge wasn't letting it go.

But Kwik Kenny isn't called that for nothing.  I mean, he earned it by throwing out his half-assed moratorium the first time, based on a flat-footed lie and an intentional reversal of the recommendation of a panel of ACTUAL experts in oil and gas exploration.  They signed off on a report, to which Salazar added stuff that was never REMOTELY discussed with the experts.

Uncommonly these days, the panel of experts had the gumption to call Salazar out for his lies and distortion of their work, AND for a moratorium that ACTUALLY INCREASED RISK OF ANOTHER OIL DISCHARGE IN THE GULF.  Salazar "apologized".  Trouble is...what he did is a felony under Federal law.

As we noted, Kwik Kenny earned his name...and he's earning it still.  Immediately after getting the ruling from Judge Feldman, the Kwikster announced an appeal to the 5th Circuit (good luck with that, Kenny!!!).  But that isn't all...!!!

NO, indeed!  Kwik Kenny, the king of faux panels, immediately announced he's going to throw off a NEW, IMPROVED moratorium.  This time it would be backed by a panel...a new, funky, faux panel...one no doubt composed of people like those Obama selected for his BIG, BIG panel to review the Deepwater Horizon event, exclusively composed of people with two attributes...

1. they know nothing...NOT ONE DAMN THING...about oil and gas production
2. they are devotees of environmental dogma

This is the composition, as proposed (h/t Swede)--

--Co-chairman: William K. Reilly, former Environmental Protection Agency administrator
--Co-chairman:  former Senator Bob Graham, a Democrat from Florida
--Executive Director: Richard J. Lazarus, a Georgetown University law professor and a former Justice Department environmental law specialist
--Frances Beinecke, president of the Natural Resources Defense Council.
--Donald Boesch, president of the University of Maryland's Center for Environmental Science.
--Terry Garcia, a National Geographic Society executive and former chief lawyer at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration under President Bill Clinton.
--Cherry Murray, dean of Harvard's engineering school and former president of the American Physical Society.
--Frances Ulmer, chancellor of the University of Alaska, Anchorage, and former Democratic lieutenant governor of Alaska.

Post-partisan, yes?

The REALLY BIG problem Salazar faces is that his FIRST panel is still out there, and they are on record.  If he tries a quickie reload of his (Obama's) moratorium, it WILL wind up before the same judge, in every likelihood.  The judge will not be impressed by a batch of shiney, ginned up BS that contradicts the government's ORIGINAL panelists.

Good trial attorneys know that not all experts are equal.  Some are just flat-out whores, and they will not be impressive to juries.  Some are the real deal.  I'm betting Judge Martin Feldman can tell the sheep from the goats, and won't be fooled by faux paneling.