Wyden vs. Interior.

Byline: The Register-Guard

Well, that was easy.

On Monday Sen. Ron Wyden blocked President Bush's nomination of Lyle Laverty to be the Department of Interior's assistant secretary for fish and wildlife and parks until the Oregon Democrat said he could be certain a lingering ethics scandal in the department had been resolved.

Just one day later, Wyden got his resolution.

Julie MacDonald, a high-ranking Interior official who the department's own inspector general found had violated federal ethics rules by passing confidential documents to outside groups, submitted her resignation to Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne.

By blocking Laverty's appointment, Wyden no doubt succeeded in getting the White House's - and Kempthorne's - attention. Bush has an intense aversion to seeing his appointments delayed, and Wyden used the maneuver with some success last year to blunt administration opposition to a proposed one-year extension of the Secure Rural Schools Act.

However, a bigger factor in forcing MacDonald's resignation may have been the prospect of next week's House congressional oversight committee hearings on accusations that MacDonald violated the Endangered Species Act, censored scientific experts and mistreated the staff of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

MacDonald's performance at those hearings might have embarrassed even an administration that has little regard for the Endangered Species Act or even-handed science. A civil engineer with no formal training in natural sciences, she served as deputy assistant secretary of the interior for fish and wildlife and parks since 2004.

In that capacity, MacDonald brazenly and repeatedly refused to go along with federal scientists' recommendations to protect imperiled animals ranging from the white-tailed prairie dog to the Gunnison sage grouse. In fairness, she didn't make the final decisions on whether to protect species - that's formally the job of the head of the Fish and Wildlife Service. But MacDonald nonetheless found ways to suppress scientists' conclusions on matters such as critical habitat, often mocking their recommendations in the process.

The inspector general's report to Congress took particular note of MacDonald's efforts to remove protections for a rare jumping mouse in the Rocky Mountains and to reduce by 80 percent the number of streams to be protected to help bull trout recover on the Klamath River in the Northwest.

The report also said MacDonald broke federal rules by repeatedly leaking internal Fish and Wildlife Service documents about endangered species to business groups that were engaged in legal disputes with the agency over its environmental protections.

MacDonald is a prime example of the president's practice of filling pivotal environmental posts with ideological activists and industry lobbyists who despise the very rules and regulations they were appointed to uphold. As a body, they have done deep and drastic damage to the reputations and missions of their respective agencies.

Wyden deserves credit for insisting that their ranks be reduced by one.