Bush Politics Everywhere

Politics as the art of accomplishing the possible is interesting and valuable, as is the politics of opposition. But then there is the politics of never-ending campaigning, the politics of blatantly using governmental agencies to advance a political party. There is a vast difference between instituting policies that redound to the credit of your political agenda by succeeding in advancing the interests of the nation and creating political ploys and Party talking points for governmental agencies.

BushCo cannot seem to differentiate between the interests of the nation and Republican talking points. The WaPo reports that Bush top diplomats have received over a half-dozen Republican political briefings from White House aides. These included Karl Rove's PowerPoint presentation of Democrats targeted for defeat in '08 and a "general political briefing" at Peace Corps headquarters after the '02 mid-terms. Previous diplomats seem to find such goings-on unusual and the Hatch Act is pretty clear about using Federal Facilities for campaigning.

I guess a permanent Republican majority takes some special work.