Just a new bunch of alligators

So here’s how you “drain the swamp.”

▪  To head major agencies, select successful and, excepting Rick Perry, smart business people whose ideological mission is to reduce the size and reach of those departments without, in many cases, understanding much about what they do, or why and how they do it.

▪  Set the example, from the top, of a self-aggrandizingly loose approach to ethical principles.

▪  Rush through confirmation of the swamp-cleaning crew even before its members have fully disclosed their financial involvements, as the law requires.

▪  Threaten any ethics officials and agencies that even raise an eyebrow.

▪  Dismiss any objections to all of this as political whining and snarl “get over it.”

Thus, the Donald Trump administration’s first steps to “drain the swamp of Washington, D.C.,” are into a dark jungle of conflicts of interest – some obvious, some as-yet unseen – with no moral compass or ethical map in hand.

As the U.S. Supreme Court said in 1961, conflicts of interest are “an evil which endangers the very fabric of a democratic society.”

What conflicts?

▪  Trump himself continues to hide details of his financial affairs, including his tax returns and how much he owes to foreign governments and banks, and refuses to divest his private ventures despite the practice followed by every president since 1978.

▪  Michael Cohen, Trump’s personal and company attorney, will continue as Trump’s personal attorney. As if it makes everything perfectly straightforward, Cohen declared, “I’m not a government official. I’m not taking a government salary. I’m just going to continue technically in the role that I play for Mr. Trump as president of the Trump Organization.”

That’s the Trump Organization that Trump says he has turned over to his sons. But, of course, his conversations with Cohen will be covered by attorney-client privilege, so we’ll never know who has talked with whom about what.

▪  Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga., nominated to head Health and Human Services, traded more than $300,000 in stocks of medical companies in the last four years while guiding legislation that would benefit those companies. In the most blatant case, Price bought shares of Zimmer Biomet last April at $103, then introduced a bill to delay a regulation opposed by the company, which then made a campaign contribution to Price. By September, Z-B was at $132.

▪  Environmental Protection Agency nominee Scott Pruitt, who has repeatedly sued that agency while Oklahoma’s attorney general, refused to recuse himself from eight ongoing cases against the agency he would head.

▪  Rep. Mick Mulvaney, R-S.C., failed to pay more than $15,000 in payroll taxes for household help over four years, a well-worn tax dodge that has tripped up nominees in the past. He’s up for budget director.

▪  Treasury secretary nominee Steven Mnuchin somehow overlooked $100 million in real estate assets and his role as director of an offshore tax haven when originally “disclosing” his financial affairs to the Senate Finance Committee. When committee staffers caught the omission, he filed a revision. Oh, and his children own $1 million in artworks he forgot about.

▪  The minute President Trump took the oath of office, he was in violation of his lease agreement with his own government on his new Pennsylvania Avenue hotel. The lease prohibits elected federal officials from renting the Old Post Office property.

So nothing new in the swamp; just a new breed of alligators, and stormy weather ahead.

This story was originally published January 24, 2017 at 5:01 AM with the headline "Just a new bunch of alligators."