Michael Hiltzik: A farewell to James G. Watt, environmental vandal and proto-Trumpian
Last week was so chock full o' news, what with the Trump indictment and the deaths of religious right-winger Pat Robertson and the Unabomber Ted Kaczynski, that I'm concerned that another significant passing has received far less attention than it deserved.
That's the death of James G. Watt at 85, which occurred on May 27 but was announced by his family last Thursday. Most leading newspapers granted Watt an obituary, proper for someone who was Ronald Reagan's Interior secretary for just under three years.
The New York Times called him "polarizing," the Washington Post "combative," this newspaper "sharp-tongued and pro-development." Did those adjectives do justice to Watt, however?
I think not. They focused on his actions while in office from 1981 to 1983. What they missed, however, is his legacy as a Republican ideologue on environmental policy.
That's important, because much of what he attempted to do under Reagan became orthodoxy under subsequent Republican presidents. His approach to congressional oversight,
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