It’s official: Bush has nominated Idaho Gov. Dirk Kempthorne to succeed Gale Norton as Secretary of the Interior. More on Kempthorne here and here.

That was remarkably fast. I wonder what the back story is.

Update [2006-3-16 15:0:19 by David Roberts]: Via Ezra Klein, this amusingly concise statement from LCV:

WASHINGTON, DC – League of Conservation Voters (LCV) Senior Vice President for Political Affairs and Public Education Tony Massaro today issued the following statement after President Bush nominated Idaho Governor Dirk Kempthorne to be his Secretary of Interior.

Grist thanks its sponsors. Become one.

To support our nonprofit environmental journalism, please consider disabling your ad-blocker to allow ads on Grist. Here's How

“During his career in Congress, Governor Kempthorne earned a paltry 1% lifetime LCV score. Enough said.”

Indeed.