White-Water Rafting with Wife is Part of Fed. Business Trip

From Jake Tapper at ABCNews.com: (h/t Jacobson [once again] at Legal Insurrection)

"Though his agency was charged with coordinating the federal response to the major oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, Department of the Interior chief of staff Tom Strickland was in the Grand Canyon with his wife last week participating in activities that included white-water rafting, ABC News has learned.

"Other leaders of the Interior Department were focused on the Gulf, joined by other agencies and literally thousands of other employees. But Strickland’s participation in a trip that administration officials insisted was 'work-focused' raised eyebrows among other Obama administration officials and even within even his own department, sources told ABC News.

"Strickland, who also serves as Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks, was in the Grand Canyon with his wife Beth for a total of three days, including one day of rafting. Beth Strickland paid her own way, Obama administration officials said."

Kinda bad timing there, wasn't it?

The problem is that this sort of junk is business as usual for the feds. People should be upset about this (oil spill or not), but it's likely that all people will do is shake their heads and chalk it up to more government waste.