Obama Chooses Terrible Nominee to Head the DEA
After stalling for a whole year, the White House has finally announced Obama's choice to head the DEA. And there isn’t anything good to be said about it:
For those hoping that Barack Obama would wage the war on drugs less aggressively than his predecessor, this is not a good sign: Yesterday he announced that the new head of the Drug Enforcement Administration will be Michele Leonhart, a career DEA agent who has been the agency's deputy administrator since March 2004 and its acting administrator since November 2007. [Reason]
For all the recent rhetoric about changing the focus of our drug policy and moving beyond the war mentality that's gripped this issue for decades, the White House now plans to promote a Bush Administration holdover who couldn’t more perfectly embody the ugly history we're all working so hard to put behind us.
It was Leonhart who gave marching orders in the federal war on medical marijuana, right up to and even after the Obama Administration pledged to respect state laws. She celebrated the inauguration with a cleverly-timed, though transparently dishonest move to continue blocking medical marijuana research despite the ruling of a DEA administrative law judge. She's been closely tied to the sketchiest career informant in DEA history, even making light of his reputation for perjury. And she even managed to get her name in the press by wasting $123,000 in taxpayer money on a private flight to Colombia, even though the DEA owns 106 airplanes.
Leonhart's nomination is an affront to the Obama Administration's promises of a more enlightened drug policy approach. It's also a clear statement that they don't think we're paying attention to the faces behind the drug war's rich and recent history of arrogance, ignorance and injustice. Let's prove them wrong by opposing this embarrassing nomination as loudly as we can.
Please contact the White House today to tell them that Michele Leonhart's DEA career has already gone on far too long.
Looking for the easiest way to join the anti-drug war movement? You've found it!
I'm stunned
Unbelievably vile choice. Wonder if he's gearing up to try to intimidate California into not voting to legalize weed or penalize them if they do. The only good thing about that would be that it might backfire, with hatred of DC politicians so strong these days.
I'm no longer a supporter of Obama, this is a betrayal of everything he supposedly stood for.
That woman
should be getting charged with fraudulent theft over that $123,000 flight, rather than being appointed to such a position of power. Obama must be very stupid or he feels so well protected in office that it doesn't matter to him how he is perceived. With this appointment, he has just proven to all of America that he doesn't give a damn about the rule of law or the Constitution, nor what the American people think or want, nor honoring his Oath of Office.
I'm pro-choice on EVERYTHING!
Top DEA Job: Career Builder? Or Career Buster?
Michele Leonhart’s credibility is already in tatters because she’s a dedicated drug warrior, so her integrity doesn’t matter. She was promoted to the DEA’s number one job because she is there, and because she’s breathing. End of qualifications.
Seriously, what sane person would take the Titanic’s captain-seat just before the ship sinks? The Drug Enforcement Administration’s titanic drug war, a war that invokes a despotic dominance over people’s minds and bodies, is headed straight for the bottom, and it promises to take Ms. Leonhart and its alien DEA pod people down with it.
Giordano
Waste of Money
The Prime minister of England flies business class because of the economy and this @#@% spends $123,000 of our money.
war on drugs is unconstitutional
can the owner of this site send me an email, I have some ideas on this war. First, can we urge our politicians to stress to the DEA that they should be stopping the drugs at the borders and not arresting American Citizens!
Post new comment