Obama Drops Chuck Hurley

Radley Balko | May 14, 2009

Here's some good news: Obama is dropping Chuck Hurley to head up the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Alas, it doesn't appear to be for the right reasons.

Although neither the White House nor Charles Hurley’s MADD men (and women) are saying Jack about the decision, it appears Hurley ran afoul of . . . environmentalists. “His potential nomination had been criticized by environmentalists such as Dan Becker, director of the Safe Climate Campaign. Becker cited Hurley’s work at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety in the 1990s, when he said Hurley backed car companies that were fighting attempts to reduce vehicle size to improve fuel economy.”

Here are the reasons Hurley should have been dropped.

Comments

The Angry Optimist|5.14.09 @ 11:18AM|#

Good, let the health nannies (who insist on large cars and animal testing) run afoul of the environmentalists. Never understood why they were in the same coalition anyway. See also: black folks and social liberals / environmentalists and union workers.

|5.14.09 @ 11:23AM|#

So, I guess now they're looking for an anti-alcohol zealot who is also an ecowacko. Sadly, I doubt they'll have much trouble finding an eco-nanny to take the job.

|5.14.09 @ 11:28AM|#

Well, at least now we see who's wearing the pants in the Obamacy.

And here I am hoping that the Retardlicans take the fight to Obama like they did to Clinton back in 95/96, just as a hedge against the coming apocalypse. In reality, that's like hoping that Gomer Pyle gets the bomb defused in time before it goes off.

Andrew|5.14.09 @ 11:32AM|#

" In reality, that's like hoping that Gomer Pyle gets the bomb defused in time before it goes off."

Why do you hate gay people?

phalkor|5.14.09 @ 11:34AM|#

IDEA!

We all know that we are fucked, however, there is a solution. If there is any way out of this mess it is to get different nanny-state causes to battle each other. If enough conflicts can be cleverly introduced/inserted into special interest groups they will waste their time. Hopefully this will render them impotent to destroy my life.

Can it be done?
Yes we can.

Jack Thread|5.14.09 @ 11:44AM|#

State Creates New Millionaires' Tax, Finds Fewer of Them a Year Later

One year after Maryland instituted a special tax on millionaires, the number of millionaires, according to tax records, has dropped from about 3,000 to about 2,000.

The Baltimore Sun: "Taxes collected from those returns as of last month have declined by roughly $100 million."

The local Chamber of Commerce argues that it's because the millionaires are moving away to Virginia and Pennsylvania (easier in Maryland than in some other states, since it's so small). State officials say it's too early to tell. Uh-huh.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/local/bal-md.millionaire14may14,0,6465292.story

|5.14.09 @ 11:46AM|#

So, Obama, who is pumping billions into propping up shaky U.S. auto manufacturers, is firing a guy because he has advocated freeing those manufacturers to build the large, profitable cars that have propped up Detroit's bottom line for years? Obama is appeasing enviro-wackos who want to force Detroit to build little econoboxes that they can't sell except at a loss?

Is that the gist of this article?

T|5.14.09 @ 11:49AM|#

Look, do we care why he's not getting the job? Can't we all agree Hurley getting hurled is a good thing, no matter the reason? Can't we all just get along?

bubba|5.14.09 @ 11:54AM|#

He got canned because when he worked at a safety organization, his priority was safety?

LMAO

|5.14.09 @ 12:21PM|#

Hurley, in his guise as a safety advocate, liked to deny that there were ever meaningful tradeoffs involved in more safety. The environmentalists like to deny that there are ever meaningful tradeoffs in environmentalism. Reality-based? Hardly. At least they can attack each other.

|5.14.09 @ 12:31PM|#

Safety First! You can't be too careful.

I recommend staying under your bed until I notify you it's safe to come out.

|5.14.09 @ 12:34PM|#

T is right--Hurley is a fuckwad extraordinaire and getting rid of him, for any reason, is fine.

nto the real JB|5.14.09 @ 12:50PM|#

What John Thacker said. +1

T|5.14.09 @ 12:54PM|#

At least they can attack each other.

We can only hope.

Paul|5.14.09 @ 1:13PM|#

So with the Obama administration, the trick to having a bad nominee disqualified won't be to convince the administration that he's bad for reasons related to his job, but to dig up some ancillary dirt that makes him (or her) look decidedly un-pc.

So, regardless of the 'Czar' or his or her department, we need to find one or more of these (but not limited to this list):

o Insensitivity to women's issues
o Drives an SUV
o Has made any racially insensitive remarks over his or her lifetime
o Doesn't recycle
o Wears leather/eats meat
o Doesn't have one of these on the rear bumper of his or her subaru or hybrid.
o Hasn't strongly spoken out against Global Warming Climate Change or woven the subject into any public speaking engagements in the last five years
o Doesn't use, or only sporadically uses the word "sustainable".*

* remember when "diversity" was the word that everyone tried to weave into every sentence?

JB|5.14.09 @ 1:26PM|#

Thank God!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Jose Rodrigues|5.14.09 @ 1:30PM|#

"Obama Drops Chuck Hurley"

"Obama Up Chucks Hurley" makes a better headline.

kinnath|5.14.09 @ 1:32PM|#

Obama Drops Chucks Hurley

Fixed that for you.

Jose Rodrigues|5.14.09 @ 1:34PM|#

"* remember when "diversity" was the word that everyone tried to weave into every sentence?"

I have long ago replaced the word "diversity" with "the right skin and genitalia" as in the headline: Obama administration seeking to add the right skin and genitalia to the Supreme Court.

engineer|5.14.09 @ 1:43PM|#

We need to find more ways to set the statists against each other. Once they kill each other off, we can take power, and all their stuff! But then again, it seems wrong somehow.

phalkor|5.14.09 @ 1:46PM|#

Jose,

Is that a universal? Can you replace any instance of the word 'diversity' with "the right skin and genitalia"? Would hilarity ensue?

Questions need answers, yo.

|5.14.09 @ 1:58PM|#

Product safety is almost always at the expense of the environment. That's true whether it's blade gaurds, thermisters, hazardous voltage covers internal to plastic enclosures, air bags, antilock brakes, two layers of insulation and wrapper tape on a transformer, flame retardants, part spacing, whatever. When you add more stuff into something you are adding pollution, not just cost. 1/2 my job is adding pollution to products. I feel pretty good about that.

T|5.14.09 @ 2:04PM|#

Is that a universal? Can you replace any instance of the word 'diversity' with "the right skin and genitalia"? Would hilarity ensue?

Here's a couple of line I swiped from a DOD presser:

The military's right skin and genitalia is something Fuller-Friel said is unique and should be celebrated.

"I think that's one of the reasons why the Armed Forces is considered to be one of the most prestigious institutions - because of the right skin and genitalia," she said. "We need the right skin and genitalia. I don't see that in the civilian life,"

Yeah, I think hilarity is guaranteed to ensue. Jose is expanding the frontiers of human knowledge.

Jose Rodrigues|5.14.09 @ 2:37PM|#

"Is that a universal?"

Yes. I learned this in the right skin and genitalia class they made us take at work. Great class. Afterwards, we all got tacos and Inka Cola. Good times.

Jose Rodrigues|5.14.09 @ 2:39PM|#

"Yeah, I think hilarity is guaranteed to ensue. Jose is expanding the frontiers of human knowledge."

I am at once humbled and honored by your praises.

hmm|5.14.09 @ 6:31PM|#

It's easy to promise the world. It's only slightly harder to deliver. Especially when you promised a shit ton of mutually exclusive organizations.

|5.15.09 @ 12:10AM|#

Good, let the health nannies (who insist on large cars and animal testing) run afoul of the environmentalists. Never understood why they were in the same coalition anyway. See also: black folks and social liberals / environmentalists and union workers.

What these groups have in common is that they all want more government. Mainly, they all have a plan to make the world a better place, and they need the government to force you to be a part of that plan.