The Bigot's Two-Fer

Anne McGill Gorsuch [1942 - 2004] was an outstanding example of the Bigot's Two-Fer.

Ms. Gorsuch [Burford] was the first Reagan-appointed administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, established under Nixon in 1970 and first headed by William D. Ruckelshaus. At a time when few women headed corporate or political organizations, she was a highly visible exception.

She was also a slash-and burn manager, using the powers of her office to do as much harm as possible to the organization she was appointed to head; while reducing her agency's budget by more than one fifth, undermining its enforcement powers, and openly expressing contempt for its basic mission, she populated the upper echelons of her management structure with political appointees drawn directly from the industries her Agency was charged with regulating. Her death of cancer at age 62, three years before the legal retirement age of 65, may be the most ironic result of her successful opposition to environmental protections.

A great admirer of the Reagan philosophy, Ms. Gorsuch [Burford] was undoubtedly surprised to find herself accorded the same treatment from Mr. Reagan, with regard to her own career, that she had so enthusiastically meted out to the organization in her charge. Appointed in May 1981, she was forced to resign in March of 1983 as a direct consequence of refusing to provide Superfund records for Congressional review -- under Reagan's orders. Not long thereafter, Reagan also withdrew all governmental legal support from her, in effect throwing her to the wolves he had encouraged her to enrage.

She subsequently commented: "When congressional criticism about the EPA began to touch the presidency, Mr. Reagan solved his problem by jettisoning me and my people, people whose only 'crime' was loyal service, following orders. I was not the first to receive his special brand of benevolent neglect, a form of conveniently looking the other way, while his staff continues to do some very dirty work."

This cluelessness is entirely characteristic of a Bigot's Two-Fer.

The Bigot's Two-Fer is a high-ranking organizational scapegoat with a twist, and he or she can be found in both the private and public sectors.

Ms. Gorsuch was appointed to her job precisely because she was a woman, a Washington outsider, insecure and sycophantic. This combination of factors made her perfectly willing to destroy her own organization in order to curry favor with political power. What she failed to foresee - what every Bigot's Two-Fer always fails to foresee - was that when the desired degree of destruction was attained, and she became a political liability, she would immediately be sacrificed - as in fact she was. And full advantage could also be taken of the fact that she was female. Look; we hired one of them; we even put it in charge of an entire agency. See what it did?

If you have doubts, consider this: Ms. Gorsuch demoralized her agency so traumatically that Ruckelshaus himself was ultimately called back from retirement to replace her [May 1983 - January 1985]. It would be ten years before another woman [Carol Browner] was appointed to head that organization.

Look; we hired one of them; we even put it in charge of an entire agency. See what it did?