The utter insanity of what’s going on at the Environmental Protection Agency is hard to capture. Forget the fact that the agency that’s supposed to protect the environment is engaged in jetting around the world to actively campaign for fossil fuels. Forget that the whole thing is run by a climate change-denier whose first actions on taking office included burying access to some of the most vital information on climate. Forget that scientists have been banned from the agency’s science advisory boards in favor of industry lobbyists.

All that stuff is nuts, sure. But it’s not as nuts as the other things Scott Pruitt has been up to.

Which includes hiring a Republican opposition research firm, on a no-bid contract, at taxpayer expense, to track news about the EPA and dig up dirt on those who dare oppose Pruitt. A group run by these guys …

Matt Rhoades, who… established America Rising, an ostensibly independent political action committee that works closely with the Republican National Committee and Republican candidates to mine damning information on opponents. … former RNC research director Joe Pounder, who’s been described as “a master of opposition research ... Colin Reed, an oppo-research guru billed as “among the leaders of the war on [Sen. Elizabeth] Warren.”

That’s in addition to Pruitt’s other actions that include: