The culture of corruption rag

By Lee Russ

Saturday, September 23, 2006 at 10:12 AM

Now this is what I meant when I talked about the real meaning of "culture of corruption."

What do the Interior Department's former honchos, Gail Norton and J. Stephen Griles have in common with Jack Abramoff, Duke Cunningham, Bob Ney, and Co.?  Just about everything if you read the numerous current reports shedding light on the great morass we call the Department of the Interior.

First, there's the fact that the Interior Department's own inspector general, Earl Devaney, told a House subcommittee that under the Bush administration "short of crime, anything goes" at the top levels of the department.  And between you and I, we know this administration has a way of defining terms the way that want them defined.  I suspect that the insistence that corruption be "short of crime," is a lot like their insistence that interrogations be "short of torture."

Then there's the big one, as reported in the NY Times: several auditors who monitor Interior's interests in oil and gas leases on federal property have sued the Interior Department, saying that the Department actively suppressed their efforts to recover millions of dollars from companies they claim to have been cheating the government.

Read this, from the NY Times piece, and weep:

The lawsuits have surfaced as Democrats and Republicans alike are questioning the Bush administration's willingness to challenge the oil and gas industry.

The new accusations surfaced just one week after the Interior Department's inspector general, Earl E. Devaney, told a House subcommittee that "short of crime, anything goes" at the top levels of the Interior Department.

In two of the lawsuits, two senior auditors with the Minerals Management Service in Oklahoma City said they were ordered to drop their claim that Shell Oil had fraudulently shortchanged taxpayers out of $18 million.

A third auditor, also in Oklahoma City, charged that senior officials in Denver ordered him to drop his demand that two dozen companies pay $1 million in back interest.

And in a suit that was filed in 2004, Mr. Maxwell charged that senior officials in Washington ordered him not to press claims that the Kerr-McGee Corporation had cheated the government out of $12 million in royalties.

On Wednesday, Interior officials denied that the agency had suppressed any valid claims and implied that the auditors simply wanted a share of any money recovered through their lawsuits.

"If these auditors believed there were fraud and or false claims on the part of the companies they were auditing, they should have followed the proper procedures," the Interior Department said in a written statement. "Instead, they opted to pursue private lawsuits under which, if they prevail, they could receive up to 30 percent of the monies recovered from the companies."

In defying their own agency, the Interior Department's auditors sued the oil companies under a federal law, called the False Claims Act, that was created to allow individuals to expose fraud against the government. People who successfully recover money for the government in such cases are entitled to a portion. A losing company is required to pay triple the amount of recovered money as well as back interest -- potentially more than $120 million in the cases brought by the auditors.

Yes, indeed, "they should have followed the proper procedures," so that Norton and Griles could have a head start on smearing them and squelching any further actions at all.  Just like the people who leaked the warrantless surveillance program at NSA "should have gone through channels."

Folks, when the channels are polluted, toxic, and infested with more vicious political sharks than you can find at a big $$ fundraiser, you do not go through channels.  You go where you think your butt is best protected while you try to do the right thing in opposition to very powerful people who are determined to do the wrong thing.

Want people to go through channels?  Fix the channels to make them navigable without risking your life.

Let's all sing together:

Oh the culture of corruption was a funny place to be,
where they smiled and smiled and smiled and smiled,
while breaking every knee.

And you couldn't tell the good guys,
cause there weren't none around,
you could only shudder once or twice
and look for higher ground.

Oh the culture of corruption was a funny place to be,
where they smiled and smiled and smiled and smiled,
while stealing every key.

And you sure could tell the bad guys
'cause they lined up everywhere,
and you sure could tell the worse guys,
by the size of the smiles they wear.

Oh the culture of corruption was a funny place to be,
where they smiled and smiled and smiled and smiled,
'cause all the crooks were free.

They used to just get millions
then the values guys got in,
now they won't take less than billions,
'cause that would just be a sin.

Oh the culture of corruption was a funny place to be,
where they smiled and smiled and smiled and smiled,
while waiting to cop a plea.