Facebook Twitter Email
WEDNESDAY, MAY 15, 2002

Secretary of Interior Gale Norton's deputy chief of staff knew so little about the Department of Interior that she had to find out its duties by reading them online, Al Kamen of The Washington Post reports today.

Sue Ellen Wooldridge took the post anyway. Perhaps that's why she signed off on a statistical sampling plan without conducting any research into the matter.

But she sure can castrate a sheep with her teeth, Kamen writes in his In the Loop column. "You spit it out into a bucket and then someone will roll it in flour, and usually someone will cook them up to be eaten," she said of the apparently painful procedure.

Wooldridge used to work at the California Department of Justice on tobacco litigation issues. Norton, as attorney general for Colorado, was a leader on the multi-state tobacco settlement.

Incidentally, Assistant Secretary Neal McCaleb's top aide also worked for California's attorney general but on gaming issues. Wayne Smith's ties to tribes are now being questioned and investigated.

Get the Story:
In the Loop: Megabites of Ram (The Washington Post 5/15)

Related Stories:
BIA affirms leadership of tiny tribe (5/13)
Top officials facing court investigations (5/7)
Federal judge targets Norton aide for contempt (12/13)