Sex, Drugs, and Oil at the Bush Interior Department

Facing South reveals how the Republican mantra, "Drill, baby, drill," takes on a whole new meaning in the Republican White House:

The Interior Department’s Inspector General has just come out with allegations that more than a dozen current and former staffers at Interior’s Minerals Management Service received improper gifts from industry representatives, who also put on wild parties for MMS employees. Gregory Smith, former director of the royalty-in-kind program at MMS, was also accused of having an illicit sexual relationship with an subordinate and paying her to buy cocaine.

Seems like so long ago when candidate George W. Bush promised to bring integrity back to the White House.

The reports that Facing South cites have some ugly details about Interior officials morphing their operations into private sector-like productions, opting out of ethics requirements, and conducting inappropriate relationships with oil industry executives.