The Interior Secretary’s $222,000 Bathroom

[cali]

Maybe the Pentagon’s legendary $600 toilet seat was a bargain.

The personal bathroom used by the secretary of the Interior is so swanky that its renovation cost $222,000. No detail was overlooked: It has a $3,500 sub-zero refrigerator (hey, if you’re going to have a fridge in the bathroom, it might as well be a good one) and a $689 faucet. At least the “vintage tissue holder” was cheap: just $65 bucks.

The renovation was done in 2007 under President George W. Bush’s Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, but is only now coming to light, thanks to the dogged reporting by ABC News Atlanta affiliate WSB-TV, which first filed a Freedom of Information Act request on the renovation four years ago.

The renovations were the subject of an internal audit by the General Services Administration, which has responsibility for most federal government properties.

<snip>

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2013/01/the-interior-secretarys-220000-bathroom-2/

[jberryhill]

1. Meh....

Anything less than a quarter mil, and I just hold it until I can find a decent one.

[Mass]

2. ABC's ethics is still the best. If you do not read the article, you'll think this is Salazar.

[denverbill]

4. As I did, naturally.

[Enrique]

3. ok but next time i'm in DC

i'm going to demand to take a crap in it, and grab something from the fridge while I'm there.

[ROBROX]

5. THE COST OF A HOUSE TO TAKE A DUMP!!

The GOP think they are so royal that no expense is held back for a bathroom.

I worked in the public for 34 years. Any work being done required a budget and review. The GOP really blew it with this private dump station.

I say FRY THE BASTARDS who approved this crapper.

[shraby]

6. Whatcha mean, the cost of a house?? I've never lived in or BEEN in a house

worth that much.
Someone need to pay back the gov't. for that expenditure.

[Angry Dragon]

7. The buck stops at the bush desk

it is time to bring bush in front ot the Senate so he can explain why he let his people spend that much

[Initech]

8. You could have a solid gold toilet, doesn't change the primary function!

[Angry Dragon]

9. it is a new republican meme

instead of a chicken in every pot
it is a Sub-Zero in every bathroom

[Hekate]

10. "The renovation was done in 2007 under President George W. Bush’s Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorn"

Probably should have said that up front, because otherwise it sounds like it happened more recently.

Bush, again. p'tui

[jmowreader]

11. I wish people would quit talking about the $600 toilet seat

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toilet_seat#U.S._Navy.27s_.22.24600_Toilet_Seat.22

Turns out it was the whole fiberglass toilet shroud that cost $600, and it only cost that much because Lockheed had to make a new mold - the old one had been destroyed after the production line for that airplane was shut down.

[XemaSab]

12. I am floored that this is even possible.

[DogPawsBiscuitsNGrav]

13. Done in 2007, just when they were crashing the economy for the rest of us.