Fickle fighter

Oklahoma attorney general favors states’ rights, except when he doesn’t

By BARRY FRIEDMAN

Illustration by Georgia Brooks

Devon Energy happens to be involved in helping fund a group called the Republican Attorneys General Association, which recently paid for [Oklahoma Attorney General Scott] Pruitt and his peers to spend a weekend meeting at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach hotel, where a small room with a king bed can run you $489 a night.¹

If you were there at the Fontainebleau last year and could have put your ear close enough to the doors of Glimmer Ballroom for the Devon Energy Meet & Greet, you would have heard the dulcet tones of a quid pro quo.

But we’ll get back to that.

First, while we still can, let’s get high.

Recently, Pruitt joined Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning in fighting—wait for it—Colorado’s new drug law, which legalized marijuana.²

The lawsuit from Nebraska and Oklahoma, where marijuana is still outlawed, argues that Colorado has “created a dangerous gap” in the federal drug-control system.

For the love of Bob Marley, why is this Pruitt’s business? Kids in Colorado getting stoned (legally) at some house party puts as much stress on the federal or Oklahoma drug-control system as TU football put on OU last year.

More maddening than the waste of resources is the wafting hypocrisy. Pruitt, who sues the federal government before breakfast most mornings, is now enlisting it to help him fight Colorado’s legal prerogative?

We’re Gobsmacked.

If New York went to federal court to stop enactment of, say, Oklahoma legislation requiring doctors performing abortions to have hospital admitting priveleges (and we can only pray it will), Pruitt would don a powdered wig, pick up a musket, wrap himself in a Gadsden flag and call in the National Guard to protect the borders.

This lawsuit against Colorado is a fight he can’t win, financed by Oklahoma taxpayers.

It’s a pattern.

Pruitt recently joined with other states’ attorneys general, as well, in fighting Maryland’s³ gun ban, which restricted some types of assault weapons, because, in Pruitt’s mind, Oklahomans have a vested interest in whether Maryland allows its residents to carry an AR-15 into Annapolis shopping malls.

Pruitt is what is known in Yiddish as a Yakhne (busybody).

But it’s not just his Away record; he’s abysmal at Home, too.

Getting back to the $489 hotel suite …

But Mr. Pruitt left out one critical point. The three-page letter was written by lawyers for Devon Energy, one of Oklahoma’s biggest oil and gas companies, and was delivered to him by Devon’s chief of lobbying.

The above concerned new EPA regulations (Bureau of Land Management stuff) imposed on the energy industry and Devon Energy’s unhappiness with them. The company wrote a letter of protest. And guess who signed and sent the letter on its behalf?

“It should come as no surprise that I am working diligently with Oklahoma energy companies, the people of Oklahoma and the majority of attorneys general to fight the unlawful overreach of the EPA and other federal agencies.”⁴

(Author’s note: Notice the order—“Oklahoma energy companies” and then “the people of Oklahoma.”)

We continue.

But Pruitt told The Oklahoman he signs his name to a lot of letters he didn’t draft.

Lovely. Pruitt’s due diligence consisted of, “Hey, who’s got a pen?”

More problematic.

Records also show that Devon contributed $125,000 to an association led by Pruitt on March 31, two days before Pruitt wrote another letter to the EPA protesting a proposed fracking regulation.

But only a cynic would say there’s a connection.

Call me a cynic.

For the contribution to the Republican Attorneys General Association, Devon received special access to attorneys general during four annual conferences and other perks.

Devon is Geppetto to Pruitt’s Pinocchio.

“When you use a public office, pretty shamelessly, to vouch for a private party with substantial financial interest without the disclosure of the true authorship, that is a dangerous practice.”

That’s David B. Frohnmayer, a Republican, who served as Oregon’s attorney general for the past ten years.⁵

“The puppeteer behind the stage is pulling strings, and you can’t see. I don’t like that. And when it is exposed, it makes you feel used.”

And exhausted.

Pruitt has sued the president over immigration⁶, fought for an insane Sharia Law⁷ and, most famously, used the Affordable Care Act as his own personal chew toy. Described on his own website as “ingenious”⁸ in his fight against ACA, he simply will not rest until uninsured Oklahomans—all 637,000 of them—are back in the warm, loving and affordable embrace of private insurance carriers.⁹

“We as a state brought this to the Court’s attention from the very beginning, being the first in the nation to challenge the legality of the law. Congress empowered the states with the decision of whether to establish an exchange but the IRS has tried to circumvent that intent by allowing billions in illegal subsidies to be paid out.”

Forget for a constitutional moment that the U.S. Supreme Court deemed the law legal, Pruitt now counters that residents of states that didn’t agree to set-up state-run health exchanges, like Oklahoma, are not eligible to receive subsidies for buying insurance, even if there is a federally run exchange in the state.

If Oklahoma’s lawsuit is successful, millions of people in 34 states could be denied the government subsidies designed to help low- and middle-income people pay their health-insurance premiums starting next year. ¹⁰

Think about that. People in Oklahoma—poor people, those struggling in the middle class, people who can now for the first time afford to go to a doctor—will lose health benefits because the Oklahoma attorney general found an ‘ingenious” way to exploit a misplaced comma.

And if that weren’t enough—and it really is—those who have been receiving the subsidies might actually have to pay back the government.¹⁰

This is your attorney general at work.

As is this:

During last April’s botched execution of Clayton Lockett, Pruitt did everything but run down to the CVS for strychnine, arsenic and a rubber mallet.

Director Robert Patton confirmed in interviews with DPS that the lethal drugs were not chosen by (Warden) Trammell: “The previous general counsel (Oakley) and the Attorney General’s Office” chose the drugs, he told investigators. When supplies of Oklahoma’s usual execution drug ran short, the AG’s office and DOC’s general counsel cobbled together a new drug protocol, the filing shows. They used online research such as “Wiki leaks or whatever it is” and testimony from an expert who testified in Florida whom they did not meet with, Oakley told investigators.¹¹

“Calling Dr. Moe, Dr. Larry, Dr. Curly!”

Scott Pruitt is for states rights, unless the state wants to ban assault weapons or allow its citizens to get high; he’s a champion of individual liberties, unless the individual wants an abortion or to marry someone¹² of the same sex; he’s pro-life, unless the life at stake is a bad man who must be executed, proper protocols be damned; he’s pro-family, unless it’s a family of Latinos where the children are legal but the parents are not; he’s against the influence of religion in society, unless that religion is Christianity and espoused by a company that sells arts and crafts¹³; he’s for the safe exploration of energy, unless energy companies are burdened by independent safety criteria; he’s for homeowners, unless it costs the banks any money¹⁴, and he’s for health care, unless he has to help pay for anyone else to have it.

This, too:

Pruitt, who won a second term as Oklahoma’s Attorney General last November—he ran unopposed—is well-equipped to lead the state forward.

Just ask him.

“Perhaps there will be a day in the future when the need for my service and leadership shifts elsewhere.”

Can’t wait¹⁵.

Want more from Barry? Visit thetulsavoice.com/Barry/.

1) slate.com: Oklahoma’s Attorney General Had an Oil and Gas Company Write a Letter to the EPA For Him

2) nytimes.com: Nebraska and Oklahoma Sue Colorado Over Marijuana Law

3) baltimore.cbs.local.com: La. Attorney General Joins 20 Others In Opposing Maryland’s Gun Law

4) publicradiotulsa.org: Oklahoma AG Scott Pruitt Says ‘Alliance’ With Energy Industry Wasn’t Secret

5) news-jornal.com: Are state attorney generals, big energy companies too cozy?

6) mccarvillereport.com: Pruitt Sues Obama Over Unilateral Immigration Actions