BIA Farewell Not Fond for Everyone
The Washington Post
“Special Interests” Column, Federal Page
September 28, 2000
Rex Hackler has left the Interior Department, where he was spokesman for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and opened a Washington office for Jamieson Gutierrez, a Phoenix-based public affairs company. Earlier, he served as communications director for Sen. Jeff Bingaman’s reelection campaign in 1994.
His going-away party at the BIA unfortunately angered Eloise Cobell of the Blackfeet tribe, who has been heading a major lawsuit by Native Americans against the government for mismanaging Indian trust accounts. Bill McAllister at the Denver Post reports that some BIA staffers sang a parody of “Thanks for the Memories.” Referring to Hackler (“Roy Heckler”), U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth and BIA Director Kevin Gover, they sang: “Thanks for the memories of Contemptible Cobell/Gover almost fell/Roy Heckler spins/Department wins/We’re out of Royce’s Hell/Roy Heckler you’re great.” Hackler said later, “They didn’t mean to hurt anybody’s feelings…. The only person it meant to poke fun at was me.”
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