Bush Administration Overpays For Mineral Rights
by TChris
Scandalous stories about the Bush administration appear with regularity. If a presidential lie about a private moment deserves impeachment, what does this story merit?
The Bush administration's offer in 2002 to overpay a prominent Florida family for oil and gas rights on Everglades land by as much as $80 million was "at best, foolish and, at worst, complicit," the Interior Department's inspector general said today.
Foolish or complicit; incompetent or crooked. Here's the evidence of the latter:
Members of the Collier family contributed more than $121,000 to Republican candidates in the last election cycle, including at least $5,000 to Jeb Bush, according to the Washington-based Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks campaign donations.
The administration touted the deal as proof that it wanted to protect the Everglades. Two weeks later, the president's brother announced his bid for reelection, "leading critics to suggest he was seeking to burnish his environmental credentials through the Collier land transaction."
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