Trump Shuns Sarah Palin, Picks Cathy McMorris Rodgers For Interior Secretary

Zero Hedge ^ | 12/09/2016

[SeekAndFind]

In what is being touted as further diversification of the president-elect administration, Donald Trump is expected to name Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) to lead the Interior Department, according to reports. McMorris Rodgers gets the nod ahead of Sarah Palin and Harold Hamm.

The candidates mentioned for the Interior Secretary were... 

• * Sarah Palin, former Alaska governor, 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee
• * Jan Brewer, former Republican Arizona governor
• * Forrest Lucas, founder of oil products company Lucas Oil
• * Harold Hamm, Oklahoma oil and gas mogul, chief executive of Continental Resources Inc
• * Robert Grady, venture capitalist, partner in private equity firm Gryphon Investors
• * Mary Fallin, Republican Oklahoma governor
• * Ray Washburne, chief executive of investment company Charter Holdings
• * Cathy McMorris Rodgers, U.S. representative from Washington state and Republican Conference chair

But as The Hill reports, Trump will tap McMorris-Rodgers, a five-term Republican who represents eastern Washington and is the chair of the House GOP Conference, to lead the department, the New York Times and Wall Street Journal reported Friday.

McMorris Rodgers is a vice chair of Trump’s transition team and the highest-ranking woman in GOP leadership. She formally met with Trump on Nov. 20. Her office declined to comment Friday. 

 

If confirmed by the Senate, McMorris Rodgers would lead the 70,000-employee, $12 billion Interior Department, which manages federal lands for both preservation and energy and mineral development, controls offshore drilling and oversees national parks.

 

She would be Trump’s point person on public lands energy development, something Trump said he wants to expand as president. 

 

Trump opposes the Obama administration’s moratorium on coal leasing on federal lands and, in a September speech, proposed a “top-down review of all anti-coal regulations issued by the Obama administration,” an effort that would include the Interior Department.   

 

Trump’s transition website said he “will encourage the production of [fossil fuels] by opening onshore and offshore leasing on federal lands and waters.”

 

Trump, though, has professed a view of federal land ownership that is relatively moderate compared to some conservatives. 

 

In a speech this week, he said he would follow the legacy of Theodore Roosevelt and “conserve and protect our beautiful natural resources for the next generation including protecting lands.” 

 

During his presidential campaign, he said he “[doesn’t] like the idea” of transferring federal lands to states because “I want to keep the lands great, and you don’t know what the state is going to do. I mean, are they going to sell if they get into a little bit of trouble? And I don’t think it’s something that should be sold." 

McMorris Rodgers is a booster of hydropower and has pushed legislation to tackle forest fires in the West. 

She has voted in favor of expanding fossil fuel development on public lands and in federal areas off-shore. She opposes efforts to change the royalty rates on federal coal mining, something pushed hard by Obama’s Interior Department, and voted for a GOP budget that would allow the sale of public lands to mining companies. 

In the past, she has introduced legislation to require congressional approval before the president can designate a national monument, and a bill directing the Bureau of Land Management to release public lands it holds that it has deemed not suitable for wilderness status.

[Paladin2]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Narrator_(Fight_Club)

[Paladin2]

Uh, I can see Mars from my compound. Fairly close to the moon a few daze ago...

[dadfly]

sad. Palin would have been far better. i guess the President decided to go establishment insider this time.

[Fai Mao]

I don’t think that the Library of Congress director is a position that the president appoints someone too.

I also fail to see that Sara Palin has any experience running a library or any real understanding of what the LOC does.

[Avid Coug]

I live in McMorris-Rogers’ district. She will be someone Trump can count on to follow his administration position on relevant issues. No drama, no embarrassments. Just a good dependable soldier.

[Disestablishmentarian]

Palin is fantastic. A rock star. I’m pretty sure most Trump supporters, like my wife and me, love her.

She is authentic—neither a wonker nor a wanker.

[dadfly]

i hope you’re right. it could also be that Palin would have had a very hard go in confirmation, with this current senate.

lots of factors preventing the very best from being chosen at play in some these appointments. at other times we’re getting great people like mattis and sessions. so far, not horrible though.

[Nextrush]

A member of Paul Ryan’s GOP leadership team does not rate as really conservative in my book.

Cleaning up the land issues out West means action RINO’s are unwilling or unable to take because it would upset big money campaign contributors......

There may be more building in tourist areas like Vegas to benefit business interests over government land regulation.

But the farmers and ranchers like the Bundys and lets never forget the people they came to support, the Hammonds in Oregon as well, THEY MUST BE ADDRESSED......

[socal_parrot]

Just a guess, but I think the Trump campaign may have floated names like Palin and other well known faces to build excitement. You don’t build buzz by leaking the news Elaine Chao is up for Sec Transportation.

[RitaOK]

Who didn’t know something was at least “curious” about Sarah Palin, when she fell off the turnip truck, and agreed nearly instantly to cheerfully board the McCain train and serve as a girl stooge for a Lefty? She was a fool to even consider it.

Palin was a star at the Republican Convention and gave a beautiful speech and stole that show. That was her first and last real moment in the soon setting sun.

In the following venues where her actual knowledge and not her personal opinions would most assuredly be challenged and tested, it was ghastly viewing. Increasingly, collapse was soon to follow and she was doomed. It was pitiful.

She never should have never taken that bait. The nasty hook embedded in it was so visible. IMHO.

[RevelationDavid]

We Win!! WE WIN!!

We Win!! WE WIN!!

We Win!! WE WIN!!

*****Are you TIRED of winning YET??

.....:)

[Jane Austen]

I agree.

[catnipman]

“Excellent pick by Trump, who so far has the most conservative cabin”

Even including Reagan, according to Newt; which of course is really strange since so many never-trumpers still maintain that President Trump isn’t a “True Conservative™”.

[SaraJohnson]

That shrill, shrieking sounding voice at his early rallies must have really turned him and his homeys off. It was off the scales bad.

[catnipman]

“At most I’d hoped Trump would be a placeholder”

you’ve GOT to be kidding! a “placeholder” for who or what?

[Persevero]

“you’ve GOT to be kidding! a “placeholder” for who or what?”

well, as a pragmatic, good for the economy, patriotic sort of guy, getting America out of its hole for like, a more visionary, principled conservative.

But he seems like he sort of is a visionary, principled conservative, at least on most things, and I am surprised and happy.

[Syncro]

...social commentator (they used to be called “journalists")

Great turn of a phrase to brand those that call themselves journalists.

I'm a gonna use that...

[catnipman]

“So says Tyler Durden whoever he is, of Zero Hedge.”

Tyler Durden is a pseudonym for a gaggle of writers at ZH. The name derives from the principle dissociative alter-ego of the multiple-personality main character in the movie “Fight Club”. Ed Norton played the “main” personality and Brad Pitt played Tyler Durden.

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

Trump picks somebody over Sarah Palin for a post and all of a sudden he is “shunning”. Bogus headline click-bait for conservatives. Zero Hedge is half right.

[Syncro]

I certainly hope this pick works out and her eGOP “former” creds don’t influence her.

She should stay in close contact with Sarah Palin and use her as a consultant.

Palin would have been a good choice, but for reasons already expressed on this thread, it makes sense that she is too busy to take on a role such as this in the Trump administration.