The larger implications of Kathleen Sgamma's saga

How the demise of her nomination speaks to what is wrong on the Trump-right and the resistance-left

I know Kathleen Sgamma. Not well, but well enough.

For those whose quota for tracking administration outrages is limited to the fingers on one hand, Sgamma was Donald Trump’s choice to run the Bureau of Land Management. That is until her nomination was abruptly withdrawn a few weeks back exactly a half-hour before her Senate confirmation hearing.

For nearly 20 years, Sgamma had been the head of the Denver-based Western Energy Alliance, an oil industry trade and advocacy group. That industry knew few more passionate and vocal champions. In that role, she was highly regarded for her analytical skills, work ethic and intense commitment to oil and gas exploration and production in the American West.

That advocacy often took place in an increasingly hostile political environment, especially at home in ever-more-blue Colorado. Though Sgamma operated on a national scale frequently testifying before congressional committees and serving as an industry spokesperson in an assortment of leading publications.

Full disclosure: At Sgamma’s invitation, I spoke on a couple of occasions to conferences hosted by her organization. Even as I am considerably more centrist in my political orientation, including on issues of energy policy. On top of that, we share an appreciation for the Colorado Symphony where both of us are patrons and donors.

Rightly or wrongly, Sgamma’s views on the multiple use of public lands and her affinity for the oil and gas industry are entirely in sync with the Trump administration. Word is that Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, a presidential confidant, wanted Sgamma to head this vast agency and serve as something of a tag-team partner.

All was proceeding apace with the confirmation process, especially in light of the deference GOP senators were giving to a host of nominees with lightning-rod histories and far fewer qualifications.

But then a toxic combination of the self-righteous, self-defeating left and the brook-no-dissent MAGA right got involved.

Completely missing the memo as to the outcome of the last election, a predictable collection of environmental organizations came out in opposition to Sgamma’s confirmation. Perhaps they were deluded that Rachel Carson was coming back from the dead or that this White House was going to hand the keys to Greta Thunberg.

Some enterprising researcher in their ranks unearthed an internal memo of revulsion Sgamma had written to colleagues early on January 7, 2021, the day after. Once discovered, that memo was fed to the anti-corporate, investigative website Documented.

Sgamma had written, “I’m disgusted by the violence witnessed yesterday and President Trump’s role in spreading misinformation that incited it. I’m disgusted he discredited all the good work he did reorienting the judiciary back toward respect for the rule of law and constitution by dishonoring the vote of the People and the ruling of those very same judges on his number of challenges.”

In those two sentences, is there a single unfair word or inference?

Once released by the left, the MAGA crowd pounced on Sgamma’s words as surely as night follows day. For such sorts, fueled by their own dear leader’s endless conceits and grievances, any deviance from their innocent, fictional retelling of the events of January 6^th cannot be tolerated.

In this White House of ultra-loyalists and true believers, such dissension from the approved line is a red-letter firing offense.

With Sgamma’s words from that fateful day four years ago out in the open, she was a politically dead person walking. The silence coming from her Republican allies, including plenty who once harbored their own outrage at the ransacking of the Capitol and Trump’s inescapably central role in all of it, was deafening.

So here we are. A talented woman with experience specific to the agency she was picked to direct and with strong ideological alignment with this administration has been cast out.

For their efforts, the green coalition, which was never going to see a BLM appointee to their liking, will be greeted by a new selection with an identical agenda, but without an iota of independent thought or deviation from the Trump-sanctioned party line. Where is the advantage in that?

While one more person, in this case Kathleen Sgamma, pays the penalty for the simple act of telling the truth. And while honesty is once again a casualty in our daily, slow-motion, drip-drip descent toward becoming a nation few of us still recognize.