Smithsonian Head Resigns - A Very Republican Scandal

The AP today only ran this tiny report:

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Smithsonian's top official, Lawrence Small, has resigned amid criticism about his expenses.

on their news ticker. It's gone already, replaced by another news story. But it's well worth hauling this one out for a good look.

Small's career at the Smithsonian, which began in 2000 when he was appointed by Smithsonian Board of Regents chair Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, was dogged with controversy. In 2000 and 2002, he was investigated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which suspected that his private collection of South American masks, headdresses, and costumes included feathers from protected bird species and teeth from endangered cats. Even by 2002, there were other questions about his stewardship of the world-famous museum.

While the Board of Regents justified Small's appointment by arguing that he brought with him the kind of management competence and business savvy the institution needed to improve its bottom line, he and his policies have been attacked in editorials in major newspapers, and by academics and conservators both inside and outside the Smithsonian. During his tenure, directors of seven museums have submitted their resignations. Congress has intervened after Small's cutbacks included the proposed closure of the institution's animal biodiversity research facility. Small seemed to raise hackles wherever he went, even on his home turf.
Commercial sponsorship of museum exhibitions has been another bone of contention. Donations from Fujifilm, Kmart, General Motors, and Catherine B. Reynolds for a "Hall of Achievers," sparked a flurry of letters, including an open letter from a group of 170 scholars, authors, and academics to Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, the chancellor of the Smithsonian's Board of Regents. "If Mr. Small is permitted to continue his agenda," it read, "the Smithsonian will become much like a shopping mall, with virtually every inch devoted to the promotion of a corporation or its product."

His departure follows the Washington Post's revalations a week ago:

Internal Smithsonian documents offer a glimpse into what one senator called the "Dom Perignon" lifestyle of the taxpayer-supported institution's chief official, who turned in a $15,000 receipt for the replacement of French doors at his home and spent $48,000 for two chairs, a conference table and upholstery for his office suite.
Smithsonian Secretary Lawrence M. Small's spending has been the subject of intense public scrutiny after The Washington Post published details last month from a confidential inspector general's report delving into his $2 million in housing and office expenses over the past six years.

...Small spent nearly $160,000 on the redecoration of his offices in the institution's main building on the Mall shortly after he took the helm of the world's largest museum system in 2000. The expenses include $4,000 for two chairs from the English furniture-maker George Smith, $13,000 for a custom-built conference table and $31,000 for Berkeley stripe upholstery.

Small has also received $1.15 million in housing allowances over a six-year period in return for agreeing to use his 6,500-square-foot home in Woodley Park for Smithsonian functions. To justify those expenses, Small has submitted receipts for $152,000 in utility bills, $273,000 in housekeeping services and $203,000 in maintenance charges, including $2,535 to clean a chandelier. The home-repair invoices show $12,000 for upkeep and service on his backyard swimming pool, including $4,000 to replace the lap pool's natural gas heater and pump. The office expenses were permitted under Smithsonian policies and procedures, and the housing allowance was part of Small's employment agreement. The $160,000 in office renovations are part of $846,000 in total office expenses Small filed between 2000 and 2005.

About $90,000 was found by the institution's inspector general to be unauthorized, including charter jet travel and transactions that "might be considered lavish or extravagant," The Post reported last month. In addition to the $90,000, about $28,000 in expenses had insufficient or no supporting documents. These were variously labeled as "reimbursement," "one-time vendor" and "Smithsonian petty cash," documents show.

A Senate committee had been investigating Snow's expenditure, but obviously he decided to quit now, before that invesigation concluded. USA Today reports:

On Thursday, the Senate approved freezing a proposed $17 million funding increase for the Smithsonian, citing Small's excessive compensation and spending. He was to earn $915,698 this year in compensation. He won't be given a severance package, said Patty Stonesifer, board co-chairwoman.
"Having spent countless days … promoting the interests of the institution and having contributed over half a million dollars of my own money as well, it has truly been a labor of love," Small wrote in his resignation letter. He joined the Smithsonian in 2000 after serving as president of Fannie Mae.

And the WaPo adds:

In recent weeks questions about Small's leadership and his personal expenditures had created a crisis at the Smithsonian. Small, 65, had been sharply criticized by members of Congress and his pay and expense accounts have been subjected to scrutiny by the Smithsonian inspector general. Last week, two separate committees were appointed by the regents to look into management operations at the Smithsonian, which includes 18 museums and research facilities as well as the National Zoo.

Roger W. Sant, a member of the institution's Board of Regents and chairman of its executive committee, said Small submitted his resignation Saturday to John G. Roberts Jr., chief justice of the United States and chancellor of the regents. The regents held a meeting Sunday evening at the offices of a Pennsylvania Avenue law firm and voted to accept it.

Small is a staunch Republican. He owes his appointment to Chief Justice William Renquist, who as chair of the Board of regents at the Smithsonian appointed him as secretary even though he had no obvious qualifications for the job. Over the years he has donated to George Bush, Bob Ney, Tom DeLay, Trent Lott, Rick Santorum and Americans for a Republican Majority, among others. None are exactly strong supporters of evolutionary theory, preferring the pseudo-science of "Intelligent Design". So it isn't surprising that Small presided over the decision to show the ID propoganda movie "The Privileged Planet: The Search for Purpose in the Universe" at America's premier scientific museum. The good news is that Small has been replaced by an actual scientist - Christian Samper, a biologist who heads the National Museum of Natural History.

So let's recap shall we? An official who gets his position through cronyism, with private illegalities which make a mockery of his public responsibilities, who presides over a sellout to corporate interests and finally resigns just ahead of an investigation into whether his fingers were in the till. What a very perfect Republican scandal.