So is Zinke going to be as condescending to Gowdy as he was to the Congresswoman from Hawaii?
Zinke told a House committee last week he has negotiated a significantly lower price for the project by “manipulating” contract terms. He did not elaborate.
He cut his kickback by half?
Zinke told a House committee last week he has negotiated a significantly lower price for the project by “manipulating” contract terms. He did not elaborate.
Hooo Boy. The lawyer in me says “manipulating” doesn’t read well.
Another complete asshole in charge of one this country’s federal departments. 
Damn, man! Is that the door Rose floated on after Titanic sank? You guys find its match or did you have to make a new one from scratch – and that’s why the cost seems a bit high?
The sad thing is that, from the staff description, this is one of the few expenditures that might be sorta kinda justified. (The story is that these are the exterior doors that go from the office to a building balcony, and that the current ones leak and soak the office floor. If that’s true, yeah, you got a government building with a historic facade, you got ongoing damage to the interior that will eventually cost piles more money to fix, so it will be expensive. And doing it cheaply would just be a complete waste of money.) Of course, the staff might well be reality-impaired.
It’s all above board. The department is spending a lot less on the doors and will be able to use the savings for work on the egress.
Thousands out the front door. Millions out the back door. 
I read a description somewhere that laid out the whole job and it seemed plausible to me too. It’s just that all these carpetbaggers have been running wild with every other expenditure so they’re not likely to get a pass on the one random expense that’s reasonable. Life just isn’t fair, is it?
Maybe they are bullet proof.
Or maybe he needs a Judas Gate for when the time comes.
I’m pretty sure they could have hired some craftsman to make them by hand for less - I’m acquainted with two full-time woodworkers/craftsmen who restore old buildings and unless they’d have to be steel lined or something, no way would it cost this much. Why they didn’t hire some honest laborer and then trumpet their americaness and support of the small businessman is beyond me.
I had exactly the same thought. You can negotiate, renegotiate, amend, update, even cancel. But manipulate?
Plus, you could build an entire freakin’ house for $139 grand. How does a pair of doors cost that much?
Brass-fronted or something. And the frames have rotted out too…
I’ve been in federal buildings of various vintages, and some of the big old ones are magnificent, but not designed for lowest possible life cycle cost.
Is it me or is there starting to be the stirrings of a Republican pushback to the nonsense; however, tepid at the moment?
Gowdy questioning the cost on the doors.
NY Republicans starting to rally around a young anti-Trumper for Governor (Dutchess County Exec Marcus Molinaro.)
Congress sending Trump the Omnibus with no real wall funding even after his weak threat to veto
The warnings (tepid would be a generous description) not to impede Mueller from McConnell, Ryan and Graham.
He always liked the open to “Get Smart” and wanted to re-create it, trying to out do Scott Pruett’s homage to the “cone of silence” he was installing at the EPA.
Thanks for a little background. If this is a needed and justified project, went through all the hoops necessary, etc., then I have no issues here.
“Hello, my name is Ryan. If usually fly in Air Force jet because I’m really too important to fly commercial. If I have to, I’ll go first class because I don’t want to talk with a seat mate. Unless, of course, the seat mate is an oil executive. In that case I’ll come out with a big contribution because I’m so charming. The executive will be happy to pay for my office doors.”
Zinke didn’t think to blame Mrs. Carson?
And unless a lot of things have changed since I was a Fed (and I worked across a little park from the Interior Dept building), the Dept of the Interior doesn’t even own the building. Most Federal buildings are owned by GSA, and are, in effect, rented by the agencies.
ETA: As I suspected. Listed among the GSA properties, and also on the National Register of Historic Places. You don’t wheel on over to Home Depot to get replacement doors.
https://www.gsa.gov/historic-buildings/department-interior-washington-dc
This shit with Gowdy looking like he gives a shit is going nowhere. Its just busy work at this point with no recommendations, no penalties, and no end in sight. The grift continues…