This freaking guy, honest to blog. From the WaPo:

A call was arranged, then canceled, and Pruitt eventually spoke with someone from the company’s legal department. Only then did he reveal the “opportunity” on his mind was a job for his wife, Marlyn. “The subject of that phone call was an expression of interest in his wife becoming a Chick-fil-A franchisee,” company representative Carrie Kurlander told The Washington Post via email.

It’s only a matter of time before Pruitt tries to get the EPA’s enforcement division, or what’s left of it, to fix his parking tickets.

Marlyn Pruitt never opened a restaurant. “Administrator Pruitt’s wife started, but did not complete, the Chick-fil-A franchisee application,” Kurlander said. But the revelation that Pruitt used his official position and EPA staff to try to line up work for his wife appears to open a new chapter in the ongoing saga of his questionable spending and management decisions, which so far have spawned a dozen federal probes.

High crimes in high places at least have a patina of importance to them. Cheap grifting in high places reminds us of nothing more than Mr. Blaine’s dismissal of Signor Ugarte: “I don’t mind a parasite, I object to a cut-rate one.” Scott Pruitt is a parasite you can get for free with a full tank of gas.

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Charles P. Pierce Charles P Pierce is the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976.

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