To U.S. Sen John Kerry, the wide gap in testimony between NOAA Chief Jane Lubchenco and those she's hurting on the front lines of the fishing industry is "very frustrating."
Thankfully, others on Monday's U.S. Senate Commerce subcommittee panel who heard Lubchenco's insulting comments and actions were not as prone to mincing words.
Congressmen Barney Frank reiterated his and Sen. Scott Brown's earlier assessment that Lubchenco's actions and policies toward the fishing industry are downright "hostile." Congressman John Tierney noted that the only practical way to carry out the urgent change in culture needed within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is "a change in leadership." And Brown pegged Lubchenco's comment that there a "light at the end of the tunnel" for NOAA's relationship with the industry for exactly what it was — "the political 'hoojie woojie,'" even if no one knows quite what that means.
By all counts, much of Monday's hearing showed Lubchenco for what she is — a tunnel-visioned pseudo-scientist who has eyes and ears only for her own catch share agenda, ignorant or uncaring about the documented fact that it is destroying small, independent fishing businesses and killing waterfront jobs.
And there is no other way to view her all-too-predictable exit prior to hearing important testimony from acclaimed UMass-Dartmouth marine scientist Brian Rothschild — bolting for a meeting that NOAA officials still refuse to identify.
Lubchenco's actions Monday prove once and for all she has no respect for the industry she and her rogue colleagues regulate, no respect for legitimate science that doesn't fit her and her corporate-backed nonprofit allies' agenda, and no respect for the senators and congressmen who heard all sides of the issue Monday.
Read the complete editorial from The Gloucester Times