If you *really* want to read about the substance of the environmental law debate I saw here on Thursday, I have an article that'll probably make it into the Harvard Law Record later this week which I'll link to, and some previews of the actual content (quotes from the participants regarding Bush's policies) over here. But I figured it was worth a post on the oddest / funniest moment:

Assistant Secretary of the Interior Lynn Scarlett was talking about the Bush administration and how it's trying to cooperate with industry in order to develop environmental policies, and find ways to get stuff accomplished without necessarily penalizing businesses. She drew an analogy to raising children:

You want to get them to behave through encouragement and role modeling, she said, although “of course sometimes you have to get out the sticks and punish." Silence. Awkward chuckle. She got a confused look on her face and then realized what she'd said. "Not with children, I don’t mean…. my daughter will vouch that I never used sticks.”

Ha.