Old Story, New Actor
by TChris
Old story, new actor. A Bush administration appointee mismanages his agency, refuses to take responsibility, and resigns without being held accountable. The star of today's story: Carl J. Truscott, former director of the mostly useless Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
[Truscott] violated ethics rules by requiring 20 employees to help his teenage nephew prepare a high school video project, part of a wide-ranging pattern of questionable expenditures on a new ATF headquarters, personal security and other items, according to a report issued yesterday. Carl J. Truscott, who previously served as head of President Bush's security detail at the Secret Service, also took several trips with excessive numbers of ATF agents, including a $37,000 journey to London in September 2005 with eight other employees, according to the report.
Truscott demeaned female employees and wasted money on the construction of ATF's new headquarters (he requested a nifty hidden television in the director's office and another TV in the director's private bathroom). Truscott paid for his excesses by cutting back on vehicle maintenance and bullet proof vests.
In true Republican form, on display so regularly these days, Truscott professed to feel wounded by the report, refused to acknowledge fault, and blamed everyone but himself. (To be fair, he hasn't blamed Clinton ... yet.)
The report also said that Justice investigators were "troubled by Truscott's lack of acceptance of responsibility" for his actions and their repercussions.
"From relatively minor issues, such as decisions on how to furnish the Director's Suite in the new Headquarters building, to major policy directives, such as how many new employees to hire, Truscott attempted to deflect responsibility to his subordinates, misrepresented the amount of involvement he had in the actions, or otherwise sought to distance himself from his own decisions," the report said. "We found several instances where Truscott's statements to us about his conduct were contradicted by numerous other witnesses, and in some instances, by documents as well."
How long until he enters a rehab center and blames his malfeasance on alcohol abuse?
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