CABINET/ENERGY/RICK PERRY/TRUMP PEOPLE: “Energy Secretary Rick Perry once called for abolishing the agency he now runs — though he forgot its name. His biggest policy initiative of the past year went down in resounding defeat. And he was photographed in a bear hug with a coal magnate seeking a special break from the White House. But that still makes the former Texas governor a success by the standards of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet, where several of his peers have been swimming against a flood of ethical and spending scandals. Perry has avoided the lavish private jet spending that took down former Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, steered clear of the first-class travel, housing and transparency controversies dragging Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt, abstained from the $31,000 dining set purchase hampering Housing and Urban Development leader Ben Carson and sidestepped the questionable helicopter rides and political activities on official business that have dogged Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke.”
-Anthony Adragna, “How Rick Perry survives in Trump’s troubled Cabinet,” Politico, April 3, 2018 54/3/2018 5:01am