January 14, 2013 — And who, pray tell, are they looking at for NOAA administrator? If I put myself in the enviros' shoes, there's a perfect fit with Medina, isn't there? Then she can continue Lubchenco's practice of singing the praises of ruinous catch shares and how they are revitalizing the fishing industry and the communities built around it.
So, you ask: What does President Obama's prospective chief of staff possibly have to do with New Bedford?
Answer: One of the two finalists is the spouse of the architect of the notorious catch shares in fisheries management at NOAA, Monica Medina.
And when I sought reaction, it was something between a laugh and a groan.
"What can I do other than laugh?" said seafood consultant Jim Kendall.
"Once they get in with that crowd there's no stopping or holding them back," he said.
Once again, we are watching the closed loop of top-level government appointees, and the further reaching of anti-fishing eco-mentalists into the inside of government agencies they seek to control.
OK, let's step back and see what's happening. Jack Lew, Obama's chief of staff, has been nominated as treasury secretary.
If he gets that job, two men are said to be the finalists for chief of staff: Denis McDonough, deputy White House national security adviser, and Ron Klain, former chief of staff for Vice President Joe Biden.
Georgetown University's website features Klain and Medina, who graduated in 1983 and were college sweethearts from Day One.
Both of them went to law school. Klain at one point found himself as Al Gore's recount committee general counsel in the 2000 election.
Medina, meanwhile, served a while in the Army to work off her ROTC obligation, then joined — you'd never guess — the Pew Charitable Trust Environmental Group, where she was director of whale conservation.
She later joined the Clinton administration, and was NOAA general counsel from 1997 to 1999. She held a series of top-level positions, and was on the search team that recommended "Calamity" Jane Lubchenco as the NOAA administrator.
Lubchenco in turn appointed Medina to head her catch shares committee in June of 2009, where she ground out the program in two months. Sixty days. A government miracle.
Read the full opinion piece at the New Bedford Standard Times