Rick Perry hugged a coal baron. This photographer got the picture. Then he was placed on leave.Energy Department photographer Simon Edelman is seeking whistleblower protection after the department placed him on administrative leave and seized personal belongings he kept at the office.
In a Jan 4. complaint, Edelman, the department’s chief creative officer, said that he had given official photos to The Washington Post and In These Times magazine of a March 29 meeting between coal mining executive Robert Murray and Energy Secretary Rick Perry. The photos show the two men hugging and discussing an “action plan” for overhauling federal energy regulations.
Edelman said in the complaint filed with the department’s inspector general that he felt there was something improper about the close similarity between Perry’s proposed changes to electricity regulations to prop up coal and nuclear plants in September and the plan Murray presented months earlier, and decided to make the photos available to both publications.
i'm sure rick just wanted to hug the guy because they're so close because they think so similarly, about energy regulation. they've always been on the same page, he's definitely not overwhelmed with gratitude for bribes or corruption offered in exchange for giving this coal magnate exactly what he wants
then again, if i spent my entire political career bootlicking billionaires hoping to get some scraps thrown my way in the form of an offshore retirement fund, and i finally do, i'd probably be happy enough to hug a man