As I posted a couple of days ago, there are a lot of people who have EPA administrator Scott Pruitt in their sights. The progressives want to get rid of him because he has been singularly effective in shutting down the EPA pastime of concocting new regulations to hamper and damage the US economy. Trump haters of all stripes want to get rid of him because they see attacking Trump’s appointees as a way of attacking Trump. Sadly, this last group includes conservatives who have a record of complaining about EPA overreach.

Since then, a several things have happened which indicate that Pruitt may be a little safer than he was. Here are the main elements

The story broke that fired White House aide, Rob Porter, was behind the stories slamming Pruitt. Why? Because Porter was apparently boinking just about everyone in sight and had been having an affair with long-time Pruitt aide and EPA senior counsel and associate administrator in the Office of Policy, Samantha Dravis. Dravis ratted out Porter to the White House in regards to his alleged domestic violence. Presumably, Porter retaliated against Dravis by smearing Pruitt.

Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, and Jim Inhofe all made public statements of support for Pruitt.

Rush Limbaugh has thrown in on behalf of Pruitt and last evening Mark Levin did the same:

https://youtu.be/CewFAVYHm8I

“We have lawmakers who don’t make laws. The vast majority of laws in this country are not made by lawmakers. They are made by a fourth branch of government that doesn’t even exist in the United States Constitution, the administrative state. You got a guy over there at the EPA who is trying to control what is going on and they are picking him to pieces over there. He’s hanging out there and they’re picking him to pieces.”

 Levin then went on to say partisan ideology is the primary driving force behind attacks on Pruitt. Levin referenced popular democrats such as former Vice President Al Gore, who has made millions of dollars pushing restrictive policies to combat climate change, and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, whose socialist policies of “free education” and “free healthcare” Levin railed against earlier in the show as completely divorced from reality.

“I don’t care what [Pruitt] ate. I don’t care about his lease. I don’t care what damn airplane he took. What do you think of that? Nobody cared about prior EPA administrators because they were left-wing radical kooks. Nobody cares about the hypocrisy of Al Gore. Nobody cares about the hypocrisy of Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren and all their lies and fabrications. So I’m supposed to get worked up about the EPA administrator because the guy is trying to do a good job? Hell no.”

“Everybody who tries to stand up to this leviathan, whether it’s Trump, whether it’s the Freedom Caucus, whether it’s the guy at the EPA, whether it’s me, come under these withering assaults — personal character attacks. Whereas the left and the people who built this monstrosity — defend it, fund it, and expand it — never [do].”

For the record, I think Pruitt’s actions have been overblown and distorted. I do want government officials to act ethically, however, acting ethically does not mean that an EPA administrator who has received a couple of hundred death threats can’t fly business class.

And today there was this:

Do you believe that the Fake News Media is pushing hard on a story that I am going to replace A.G. Jeff Sessions with EPA Chief Scott Pruitt, who is doing a great job but is TOTALLY under siege? Do people really believe this stuff? So much of the media is dishonest and corrupt!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 6, 2018

All of this seems to say that unless something huge hits Pruitt that the trickle of chicken-puckey allegations has now been baked into Pruitt being at EPA.