Energy industry finger-puppet Scott Pruitt has had enough of your beefing, people, and he's going on with the folks at Bloomberg to explain why.

Pruitt, the former Oklahoma attorney general, is leading the efforts to roll back Obama-era environmental regulations, including the first limits on carbon dioxide emissions from power plants and an overhaul of clean-water rules. Despite moving to rescind those measures, those that remain in place will be fully enforced, he said.

That murder statute was choking off the entrepreneurial spirit of America's paid hitmen, but we're going to get tougher than ever on jaywalkers and parking scofflaws.

In Oklahoma, Pruitt pursued fraud cases against some insurers and claims of unfair and deceptive practices by mortgage servicers, yielding a multimillion dollar payout for victims in the state. But he also dismantled a unit in Oklahoma dedicated to enforcing environmental violations and built his political career challenging what he termed the "EPA’s activist agenda" under Obama.

This is the guy who cut-and-pasted some energy company documents, signed his own name to them, and shipped them along as a complaint to Washington. I also believe he is the only man ever to be confirmed to run a federal agency that he was actively suing. I remember Senator Ed Markey being particularly amused by this historical oddity.

"I am here because I really feel called to it," Pruitt said. "My desire each day is to bless the president and the decisions he’s making."

Dear god, they're all one step away from worshipping a graven image and cutting up a goat on the 18th green at Bedminster while chanting passages from The Art of the Deal.

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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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