Wherein at the 22-minute mark on this podcast, Stepp launched a partisan attack on Senate Democrats, told radio host Charlie Sykes the mining bill would "absolutely not" have weakened water quality standards in Wisconsin, and continued politicizing the agency's mission.
(I'd said in a posting about the interview last week that I'd post the podcast when it became available.)
Yes, I know the position is a cabinet job now, but the agency still has policy oversight from the the Natural Resources Board, and I wonder what it thinks about Stepp's partisan media blitz last week?
Later in the day, she tried to explain herself to staffers to whom she'd made remarks similar to what she'd told Sykes during the interview.
Louis Molespke, Jr., (D-Stevens Point), criticizes Stepp's statements and administrative oversight of mining - - in pdf format:
Walker had appeared on Sykes program Thursday, as a coordinated political campaign in favor of the mine and against its opponents ran full blast, as I'd thought it would.
his is exactly why DNR Barbie is so very embarrassingly the wrong choice to head a major, multi-million dollar state agency.
ReplyDelete1) She has no post-high school education, much less in one of the sciences that would give her some basic knowledge of the natural resources, processes, and actual scientists under her care and leadership. (It would also give her SOME credibility with other agencies, particularly her own.)
2) Lack of gravitas. It's apparent from both internal and external communications that she thinks her job is to be the chief cheerleader of the agency, a huge mis-read of her job description. (For examples, where to begin? The "let's-dress-up-in-costumes-and-parade-between-floors Halloween party" at DNR HQ, fall 2011"? or her latest "You guys are like the best, like 4-evah!!!" gushings to divert any blame for the mining bill failure away from DNR? Taking the DNR and re-making it in the likeness of the corner real estate office.
3) And then there’s the ever-present partisanship. Our shared resources, the health of Wisconsin’s lakes, streams, rivers and wetlands, the air we breathe, our groundwaters and soils, and human public health are not partisan issues. She either doesn’t get it or is purposely ignoring it.
What a sorry state we’re in when the likes of Cathy Stepp follow in the footsteps of Aldo Leopold, John Muir and Gaylord Nelson.