From the “not really news to those who’ve been paying attention” files comes this little ditty from UPI:

An investigation of the U.S. Interior Department found serious flaws related to 15 decisions on policies for species at risk of becoming extinct, said the report delivered to Congress by Inspector General Earl E. Devaney.

One of those decisions involved reducing the number of waterways considered critical habitat for the endangered bull trout, The New York Times (NYSE:NYT) reported Tuesday.

The report describes “something akin to a secret society residing within the Interior Department that was colluding to undermine the protection of endangered wildlife and covering for one another’s misdeeds,” said Rep. Nick J. Rahall II, D-W.V., who leads the House Natural Resources Committee.

Hm. Collusion within the Bush administration to undermine the integrity of a department’s stated mission. Shocking.

Boy, good thing that never happened anywhere else like, say, the Justice Department. Then we’d really have a mess.

Sarcasm aside, this is emblematic of what’s been happening all over the executive branch for the past eight years: replacement of people who know what they’re doing with vacuous ideologues whose only purpose is to push the ideology. It’s going to take years upon years to clean up this mess.

Have we figured out yet why it’s a bad idea to give governmental power to people who don’t like government?