We mentioned earlier the quote from Mike Parker, former Republican congressman from Mississippi who briefly served as head of the Army Corps of Engineers from late 2001 to early 2002 before being canned for criticizing administration budget cuts.
He’s quoted in today’s Chicago Tribune saying, “I’m not saying it wouldn’t still be flooded, but I do feel that if it had been totally funded, there would be less flooding than you have.”
Here’s a piece from March 7, 2002 from the Clarion-Ledger on the circumstances of Parker’s firing. Here are the first several grafs …
The assistant secretary of the Army, Mississippi’s former U.S. Rep. Mike Parker, was forced out Wednesday after he criticized the Bush administration’s proposed spending cuts on Army Corps of Engineers’ water projects, members of Congress said.
“Apparently he was asked to resign,” said U.S. Rep. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., a member of the House Appropriations Committee’s energy and water development subcommittee that oversees the corps’ budget.
Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, also said Parker was dismissed.
Parker’s nomination to head the corps drew heavy criticism last year from environmental groups pushing to downsize the agency, calling its flood control projects too costly and destructive.
Parker earned the ire of administration officials when he questioned Bush’s planned budget cuts for the corps, including two controversial Mississippi projects.
“I think he was fired for being too honest and not loyal enough to the president,” said lobbyist Colin Bell, who represents communities with corps-funded projects.
Bell said Parker resigned about noon after being given about 30 minutes to choose between resigning or being fired.
Pretty much the Bush administration in a nutshell.
