BTW …
June 25, 2008 on 12:20 pm | In Main, National |… Two pieces in today’s NYT that reinforce my strong desire to send George Bush packing for Crawford. It’s been an open secret for years that the Bush admin has politicized the Justice Department. But today we learn that former Attorneys General Alberto Gonzalez and John Ashcroft applied ideological litmus tests to candidates for career civil service posts at Justice, including internships.
Then we learn that when the White House received an email from the EPA concluding greenhouse gasses are pollutants that need to be controlled, the Bush admin simply refused to open it. Could this be a variation on “No news is good news?”
Now, more than six months later and under pressure from The White House, a watered-down and redacted version of the EPA report will be published. Why not let the EPA release the original version and if Bush admin officials disagree with it, then they can challenge it in public?
I know the Dems are trying to paint a President McCain as a second term for GWB. In some ways it would be, but I can’t picture McCain engaging in this type of disgraceful behavior. As for a President Obama, well, who knows? He’s a blank slate. Even his supporters know little about him. I guess you know which way I’m leaning …
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I agree that it is hard to imagine McCain being quite as disreputable and sleazy as the Bush Administration — and I suspect that the recent revelations scarcely scratch the surface.
However, I do think that it’s important to realize that McCain cannot be elected without the enthusiastic and generous support of the same folks who brought us the Bushies. It’s hard to imagine that McCain — who, presumably, would honor any deals he had made — would take their money and support and then spit in their eyes.
Comment by Geoff Brown — June 25, 2008 #
Yes but Geoff, that’s like saying no Republican can get elected prez without reverting to GWB behaviors. And BTW, Dems also take money from sleazy people. Take it away, John Huang …
Comment by Terry — June 25, 2008 #
Terry, as a former Republican committeeman, it makes me genuinely sad to say it, but I am afraid that, at this point in time, no Republican get elected Prez without carrying a huge amount of GWB baggage.
Bush’s behavior has been reprehensible on many levels that are not related to his being beholden to some pretty terrible people — but I am afraid that on balance the GOP has really covered itself with mud this time, and that it will take something approaching reinvention of the party to redeem it.
All political parties attract bad people who do bad things — it’s the nature of the beast — but what we have seen these past eight years seems to me to be at least an order of magnitude more corrupt and cynical than I can recall in any previous administration regardless of party.
Comment by Geoff Brown — June 25, 2008 #
The New York Times uses a sadly elementary rhetorical slight of hand here. The “journalist” applies the “political litmus test” criticism (which has validity when discussing judicial appointments) to the inherently political appointments of prosecutors to the Justice Department. The individual who wrote that article shouldn’t assume that everyone is as ignorant of how the three branches of government work as he seems to be.
Comment by jake — June 25, 2008 #
Jake, since Federal law specifically prohibits favoring one candidate for a Civil Service position over another on the basis of political affiliation, I am sad to say that I don’t know what you are talking about.
The story in the NYT reflected politicized hiring of career civil servants in the Justice Department, not firing US Attorneys (which ought to be apolitical but probably never can be completely). What the Bush administration effectively did in this case was to attempt to reinstate the “spoils system” — hopefully something that our nation has been rid of for more than a century.
Comment by Geoff Brown — June 26, 2008 #