No one should be surprised at all by the latest revelations of cozy ties between federal regulators and the oil and gas drilling industry that they oversee.  It wasn't even two years ago that we had a similar story.

Back then, it wasn't offshore drilling, but rather regulators who dealt with royalty payments from oil and gas producers out of an Interior Department office in Denver.

Just like the current reports of gifts, sports tickets, dinners and more being given to regulators - who were overseeing the same companies - the last time it was much the same.

"We discovered that between 2002 and 2006, nearly 1/3 of the entire RIK (Royalty-In-Kind) staff socialized with, and received a wide array of gifts and gratuities from, oil and gas companies with whom RIK was conducting official business," said the report issued in the Fall of 2008.

More people were probably paying attention then to the Presidential race and the Wall Street Collapse that was just unfolding.

"We also discovered a culture of substance abuse and promiscuity in the RIK program," the report continued.

"For example, two RIK staff accepted lodging from industry after industry events because they were too intoxicated to drive home or to their hotel.  These same RIK marketers also engaged in brief sexual relationships with industry contacts.  Sexual relationships with prohibited sources cannot, by definition, be arms-length."

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar will get the chance today to detail some of the ethics rules changes that he has made since taking his job last year, though he's certain to get knocked around by Senators of both parties who are fed up with the news on the oil spill front.

Salazar's performance last week before the Senate Energy Committee seemed less than sure-footed.

The danger here for the Obama Administration is clear, as the barrage of bad oil spill news seems to be hurting the White House.  A poll conducted for the Pew Research Center found less than one-third of Americans think the White House is doing a good job on the spill.

Democrats tried to push back against the idea that the blame should go on the current White House.

"I can hear where this is going in terms of pressing that somehow this is all about the Obama Administration," said Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI).

But as I said at the start of this oil spill, this episode is much like how an administration gets support/criticism over the economy.  If it does well, it's because of good policies.  If things go bad, it's the fault of that White House.

The White House of course sees things differently, arguing that "it has mobilized one of the largest responses to a catastrophic event in history, with more than 1,200 vessels in the region and more than 22,000 people, including many of the brightest scientific minds from both the public and private sector, working around the clock to mitigate the oil's impact."

Whether that works in the polls, we'll see in coming weeks and months.