Oil-and-gas scandal ignored in battle over porcines and lipsticks

While Sen. John McCain, the Republican nominee for president, and Sen. Barack Obama, the Democratic nominee, spent the day on the campaign trail pumping up or slamming down the so-called Palin is a pig scandal — the U.S. Congress received a stunning series of three reports from the Department of the Interior’s Inspector General.

Those reports allege that government employees responsible for managing the nation’s mineral rights — and collecting the lease rates of those rights — engaged in unethical conduct, sexual activity and drug use.

Earl E. Devaney, the inspector general of the Interior Department, wrote in a cover letter to the reports that a “a culture of ethical failure” pervaded the department’s Mineral’s Management Services. The three reports can be read here, here and here.

The MMS is responsible for managing the nation’s mineral rights and collecting approximately $10 billion in royalties a year from leasing those rights to private companies. The department is the nation’s largest source of income outside of taxes.

Despite the report’s recommendations for criminal action, the U.S. Department of Justice has declined to criminally prosecute the employees listed in the report, and, since two of the major targets of the investigation have since retired, they can’t face reprimands.

Since both candidates have promised an issues-focused campaign, perhaps they could both get off the pig in lipstick comments and focus on something that is seriously wrong in Washington. What will McCain, the self-styled reforming maverick do about the scandal? What will Obama, the man for change, do about it?