Thomas Frank: Warning: Wrecking Crew at Work

The story seems designed to repel your attention, like the wrong end of a magnet; the story is, at the same time, exactly what this election ought to be about. It is a perfectly formed artifact of conservative misrule, a little gem of market-based merde.

It seems that, over the years, an obscure Federal agency called the Minerals Management Service--a public agency, remember, that supposedly serves you and me--grew quite chummy with the private businesses it dealt with. Specifically, these private businesses were oil companies; the MMS's job was to collect royalties from them when they drilled on public land; and the oil industry's natural inclination was to pay as little as they could.