Gulf oil spill: One set of hands on wrong deck

"Nero fiddled while Rome burned," is the expression that comes to mind as I read Jake Tapper's ABC News report that Interior Department Chief of Staff Tom Strickland and his wife departed for Grand Canyon trip, which included white-water rafting, three days after leaks were discovered in the destroyed Gulf of Mexico oil rig.

This fact contradicts White House spin that "all hands were on deck" as soon as the rig collapsed. A National Park Service retrieved Strickland from the Canyon.

While Strickland's hands were on the deck of that raft, the oil spill spread.

Does this story sound familiar? If it does, that's because Michael Leiter, director of the National Counterterrorism Center remain on a skiing vacation several days after the Christmas Day bombing attempt in Detroit. A New York Daily News source told the paper, "People have been grumbling that he didn't let a little terrorism interrupt his vacation."

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