According to the New York Times, former Texas Governor Rick "Oops" Perry had absolutely no idea what the Department of Energy is responsible for when he accepted the nomination to lead the department.
Perry apparently thought he was to become a lobbyist.
WASHINGTON — When President-elect Donald J. Trump offered Rick Perry the job of energy secretary five weeks ago, Mr. Perry gladly accepted, believing he was taking on a role as a global ambassador for the American oil and gas industry that he had long championed in his home state.
In the days after, Mr. Perry, the former Texas governor, discovered that he would be no such thing — that in fact, if confirmed by the Senate, he would become the steward of a vast national security complex he knew almost nothing about, caring for the most fearsome weapons on the planet, the United States’ nuclear arsenal.
The outgoing secretary of energy, Ernest Moniz, is an actual nuclear physicist.
Rick Perry isn't a scientist and he has no idea what the Department of Energy does, but he did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.
Perry once called for eliminating the Department of Energy (pictured above), but during his confirmation hearing this morning he apologized for calling for the elimination of the department he's been asked to lead.
Perry apologized in his opening statement for proposing that the department be eliminated when he was a presidential candidate in 2012. "My past statements made over five years ago about abolishing the Department of Energy do not reflect my current thinking," Perry said. "In fact, after being briefed on so many of the vital functions of the Department of Energy, I regret recommending its elimination."
This raises more questions for me.
If Perry actually thought the Department of Energy was some form of government lobbying operation for oil and gas, why did he call for eliminating it?