"The new sheriff, as he's calling himself these days, came to town Thursday to lay down the law on ethics and accountability in his new department.

And boy, does recently confirmed Interior Secretary Ken Salazar have a mess to clean up.

Salazar's first priority, and rightly so, is to establish a clear code of conduct for a department that saw a deputy secretary convicted of obstruction of justice, and was most recently rocked by salacious sex and drugs allegations at a satellite office in Lakewood.

Having followed Salazar's career from its beginning here in his home state of Colorado, we're confident he will apply the necessary combination of discipline and common sense to get the job done.

But it's only the beginning of the considerable to-do list for the affable former U.S. senator."

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Editorial: Tough tasks for Salazar at Interior (The Denver Post 1/30)

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