G
Gandalf Grey
Guest
The Republicans' grand experiment
By Sidney Blumenthal
Created Apr 20 2007 - 9:22am
On 26 January 2007, J Scott Jennings, the White House deputy political
director working for Karl Rove, delivered a PowerPoint presentation to least
forty political appointees, many participating through teleconferencing, at
the General Services Administration (GSA), which oversees a $60 billion
budget to manage federal properties and procure office equipment. Jennings's
lecture featured maps of Republican "targets" for the House of
Representatives and the Senate in the 2008 election. His talk was one of
perhaps dozens given since 2001 to political appointees in departments and
agencies throughout the federal government by him, Rove and Ken Mehlman, the
former White House political director and Republican National Committee
chairman.
Rove and Co drilled polling data into the government employees and lashed
them on the necessity of using federal resources for Republican victory.
"Such intense regular communication from the political office had never
occurred before", Los Angeles Times reporters Tom Hamburger and Peter
Wallsten wrote in their book, One Party Country: The Republican Plan for
Dominance in the 21st Century [1].
At the GSA presentation, the agency's chief, Lurita Alexis Doan [2],
according to a witness, demanded of her employees: "How can we use GSA to
help our candidates in the next election?" But when the House Oversight and
Government Reform Committee held a hearing [3] on 28 March, Doan's
short-term memory loss grew progressively worse as she spoke.
"There were cookies on the table", she said. "I remember coming in late -
honestly, I don't even remember that." At a break, she ordered an assistant
to remove her water glass, unaware that the microphone in front of her was
still on. "I don't want them to have my fingerprints", she said. "They've
got me totally paranoid!"
The Oversight Committee is investigating multiple charges against Doan - her
attempt to grant a no-bid contract to a personal friend; her effort to
thwart contract audits and cut funds of the GSA Office of the Inspector
General [4], which she called "terrorists", after it began a probe into her
conduct; and her potential violation of the Hatch Act that forbids the use
of government offices for partisan activity. A major Republican contributor
who made a fortune as a military and homeland-security contractor, Doan had
held no previous government posts before being appointed in 2006 to head the
GSA. Like the fabled Michael Brown [5], "heck of a job Brownie", former head
of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), she is another stellar
example of the culture of cronyism that has permeated the federal government
under George W Bush.
But Doan's instant incompetence and wackiness under pressure disclose more
than the price of patronage. To the victor belong the spoils has been the
rule since Andrew Jackson. And every administration has displayed cases of
abuse. But the Bush administration's practices are more than common and
predictable problems with patronage. Bush has not simply filled jobs with
favourites, oblivious to their underhanded dealings, as though he were a
blithering latter-day version of Warren Harding [6]. Bush has been
determined to turn the entire federal government, every department and
agency, into an instrument of a one-party state. From the GSA scandal to the
purging of US attorneys, Bush has engaged in a conscious, planned and
systematic assault on the professional standards of career staff, either
subordinating them or replacing them with ideologues.
A pattern of abuse
Doan and Brown are on a continuum of officialdom that runs to Monica
Goodling - until recently the number-three official in the department of
justice, evangelical graduate of Messiah College and Pat Robertson's Regent
Law School [7], and true believer in Bush as political messiah. Doan and
Brown are cronies, but Goodling is a cadre. Within the Bush administration,
there are hundreds of Monica Goodlings, and she was their ideal. A zealot
for the cause, she apparently divides the world into good and evil, sacred
and profane. She interprets criticism and debate as a mortal threat to all
that is good and holy. She sees any institution of American life that is not
devoted to the flag and cross to which she pledges and worships as twisted,
biased and infernal. (To Goodling, CNN is "a force of the left.") She cannot
distinguish between her absolute beliefs and their political
instrumentality. She considers objective and professional analysis a ruse,
an ideology in itself, a false faith. She sees those who adhere to standards
of professionalism as cadres of deception, hiding their real agendas. She
was enthusiastic in weeding out justice-department [8] employees and
replacing them with true believers like herself.
Goodling's refusal [9] to testify before the Senate investigation into the
firing of US attorneys and her assertion of the fifth amendment because the
Senate operates in "bad faith" casts her [10] as martyr and saint, warrior
and crusader.
While vice-president Dick Cheney and former secretary of defence Donald
Rumsfeld installed neo-conservative ideologues throughout the
national-security apparatus, sidelining the senior military, diplomatic
corps and intelligence community, and creating parallel operations to avoid
assessment by professionals, Rove was handed the rest of the executive
branch to arrogate for political purposes.
Consider the reports surfacing only within the past month:
a.. that scientists at the Fish and Wildlife Agency and the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency have again been forbidden to discuss climate
change
a.. that nine newly appointed US attorneys are political cadres
a.. that the new US attorney for Minnesota, Rachel Paulose [11], cites
Bible verses in the office, harshly orders underlings around and, according
to one of four assistant US attorneys in her office who voluntarily demoted
themselves, treats disagreement as "disloyalty"
a.. that the Election Assistance Commission [12] in 2006, giving credence
to Republican talking-points of widespread voter fraud, ignored experts'
testimony to the contrary
a.. that between 2001 and 2006, the Civil Rights Division of the justice
department has purged 60% of its professional staff and not filed a single
voting discrimination case on behalf of African-American or Native American
voters
a.. that the US attorney in Wisconsin, Steven Biskupic, kept his job,
after the state Republican Party complained to Rove that he was not
attacking voter fraud [13], by filing corruption charges against an aide to
the incumbent Democratic governor on the eve of the 2006 elections. (The 7th
circuit court of appeals ruled on 5 April that the aide was "wrongly
convicted" on evidence that was "beyond thin").
The Mayberry Machiavellis
On the one hand, Rove has sought to forge a permanent Republican majority.
On the other hand, that project might not be completed in just two Bush
terms. In either case, Rove's strategy has depended upon subjecting the
federal government to political objectives. He is not trying to achieve any
abstract goal, such as reaching the conservative nirvana of limited
government. The endless scandals revealed are not a random [14] compendium
of corruption and incompetence, though they are that, too. They are evidence
of Rove's - and Bush's - larger strategy of hollowing out the federal
government in the interest of building a political state.
In 2002, a University of Pennsylvania professor and earnest conservative
named John Dilulio [15], who had been appointed a White House domestic
policy advisor to Bush's faith-based initiative, the essence of his claim to
being a "compassionate conservative" resigned, becoming the first person to
quit the administration in disgust. As Dilulio told reporter Ron Suskind
[16], writing in Esquire magazine, the tone was set from the top. He
overheard Rove shouting about some poor object of his anger, "We will ****
him. Do you hear me? We will **** him. We will ruin him. Like no one has
ever ****ed him." Dilulio was shocked to discover not only that Rove was
placed in charge of domestic policy but also that Bush had no interest in it
except as a political tool. "On social policy and related issues, the lack
of even basic policy knowledge, and the only casual interest in knowing
more, was somewhat breathtaking", Dilulio said.
Possessed with a sense of history, the disillusioned professor's remarks of
five years ago have proved prophetic: "There is no precedent in any modern
White House for what is going on in this one: a complete lack of a policy
apparatus. What you've got is everything - and I mean everything - being run
by the political arm. It's the reign of the Mayberry Machiavellis [17]."
In all his machinations Rove did not calculate that he would ever create an
opposing force that might stop him. The Republican Congress had long
shielded the administration from oversight and investigation, protecting
Rove's handiwork. Now the Democratic Congress has begun to uncover seemingly
endless series of abuses. In this respect, the clash of the legislative and
executive branches is not over a difference in policy, as in the conflict
over the Iraq war. Rather, Congress's effort is even more fundamental: to
salvage the executive branch - its capability of functioning in the public
interest in the future - from Rove's radical experiment to transform it
forever.
_______
--
NOTICE: This post contains copyrighted material the use of which has not
always been authorized by the copyright owner. I am making such material
available to advance understanding of
political, human rights, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues. I
believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of such copyrighted material as
provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright
Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107
"A little patience and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their
spells dissolve, and the people recovering their true sight, restore their
government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are
suffering deeply in spirit,
and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public
debt. But if the game runs sometimes against us at home we must have
patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning
back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at
stake."
-Thomas Jefferson
By Sidney Blumenthal
Created Apr 20 2007 - 9:22am
On 26 January 2007, J Scott Jennings, the White House deputy political
director working for Karl Rove, delivered a PowerPoint presentation to least
forty political appointees, many participating through teleconferencing, at
the General Services Administration (GSA), which oversees a $60 billion
budget to manage federal properties and procure office equipment. Jennings's
lecture featured maps of Republican "targets" for the House of
Representatives and the Senate in the 2008 election. His talk was one of
perhaps dozens given since 2001 to political appointees in departments and
agencies throughout the federal government by him, Rove and Ken Mehlman, the
former White House political director and Republican National Committee
chairman.
Rove and Co drilled polling data into the government employees and lashed
them on the necessity of using federal resources for Republican victory.
"Such intense regular communication from the political office had never
occurred before", Los Angeles Times reporters Tom Hamburger and Peter
Wallsten wrote in their book, One Party Country: The Republican Plan for
Dominance in the 21st Century [1].
At the GSA presentation, the agency's chief, Lurita Alexis Doan [2],
according to a witness, demanded of her employees: "How can we use GSA to
help our candidates in the next election?" But when the House Oversight and
Government Reform Committee held a hearing [3] on 28 March, Doan's
short-term memory loss grew progressively worse as she spoke.
"There were cookies on the table", she said. "I remember coming in late -
honestly, I don't even remember that." At a break, she ordered an assistant
to remove her water glass, unaware that the microphone in front of her was
still on. "I don't want them to have my fingerprints", she said. "They've
got me totally paranoid!"
The Oversight Committee is investigating multiple charges against Doan - her
attempt to grant a no-bid contract to a personal friend; her effort to
thwart contract audits and cut funds of the GSA Office of the Inspector
General [4], which she called "terrorists", after it began a probe into her
conduct; and her potential violation of the Hatch Act that forbids the use
of government offices for partisan activity. A major Republican contributor
who made a fortune as a military and homeland-security contractor, Doan had
held no previous government posts before being appointed in 2006 to head the
GSA. Like the fabled Michael Brown [5], "heck of a job Brownie", former head
of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), she is another stellar
example of the culture of cronyism that has permeated the federal government
under George W Bush.
But Doan's instant incompetence and wackiness under pressure disclose more
than the price of patronage. To the victor belong the spoils has been the
rule since Andrew Jackson. And every administration has displayed cases of
abuse. But the Bush administration's practices are more than common and
predictable problems with patronage. Bush has not simply filled jobs with
favourites, oblivious to their underhanded dealings, as though he were a
blithering latter-day version of Warren Harding [6]. Bush has been
determined to turn the entire federal government, every department and
agency, into an instrument of a one-party state. From the GSA scandal to the
purging of US attorneys, Bush has engaged in a conscious, planned and
systematic assault on the professional standards of career staff, either
subordinating them or replacing them with ideologues.
A pattern of abuse
Doan and Brown are on a continuum of officialdom that runs to Monica
Goodling - until recently the number-three official in the department of
justice, evangelical graduate of Messiah College and Pat Robertson's Regent
Law School [7], and true believer in Bush as political messiah. Doan and
Brown are cronies, but Goodling is a cadre. Within the Bush administration,
there are hundreds of Monica Goodlings, and she was their ideal. A zealot
for the cause, she apparently divides the world into good and evil, sacred
and profane. She interprets criticism and debate as a mortal threat to all
that is good and holy. She sees any institution of American life that is not
devoted to the flag and cross to which she pledges and worships as twisted,
biased and infernal. (To Goodling, CNN is "a force of the left.") She cannot
distinguish between her absolute beliefs and their political
instrumentality. She considers objective and professional analysis a ruse,
an ideology in itself, a false faith. She sees those who adhere to standards
of professionalism as cadres of deception, hiding their real agendas. She
was enthusiastic in weeding out justice-department [8] employees and
replacing them with true believers like herself.
Goodling's refusal [9] to testify before the Senate investigation into the
firing of US attorneys and her assertion of the fifth amendment because the
Senate operates in "bad faith" casts her [10] as martyr and saint, warrior
and crusader.
While vice-president Dick Cheney and former secretary of defence Donald
Rumsfeld installed neo-conservative ideologues throughout the
national-security apparatus, sidelining the senior military, diplomatic
corps and intelligence community, and creating parallel operations to avoid
assessment by professionals, Rove was handed the rest of the executive
branch to arrogate for political purposes.
Consider the reports surfacing only within the past month:
a.. that scientists at the Fish and Wildlife Agency and the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency have again been forbidden to discuss climate
change
a.. that nine newly appointed US attorneys are political cadres
a.. that the new US attorney for Minnesota, Rachel Paulose [11], cites
Bible verses in the office, harshly orders underlings around and, according
to one of four assistant US attorneys in her office who voluntarily demoted
themselves, treats disagreement as "disloyalty"
a.. that the Election Assistance Commission [12] in 2006, giving credence
to Republican talking-points of widespread voter fraud, ignored experts'
testimony to the contrary
a.. that between 2001 and 2006, the Civil Rights Division of the justice
department has purged 60% of its professional staff and not filed a single
voting discrimination case on behalf of African-American or Native American
voters
a.. that the US attorney in Wisconsin, Steven Biskupic, kept his job,
after the state Republican Party complained to Rove that he was not
attacking voter fraud [13], by filing corruption charges against an aide to
the incumbent Democratic governor on the eve of the 2006 elections. (The 7th
circuit court of appeals ruled on 5 April that the aide was "wrongly
convicted" on evidence that was "beyond thin").
The Mayberry Machiavellis
On the one hand, Rove has sought to forge a permanent Republican majority.
On the other hand, that project might not be completed in just two Bush
terms. In either case, Rove's strategy has depended upon subjecting the
federal government to political objectives. He is not trying to achieve any
abstract goal, such as reaching the conservative nirvana of limited
government. The endless scandals revealed are not a random [14] compendium
of corruption and incompetence, though they are that, too. They are evidence
of Rove's - and Bush's - larger strategy of hollowing out the federal
government in the interest of building a political state.
In 2002, a University of Pennsylvania professor and earnest conservative
named John Dilulio [15], who had been appointed a White House domestic
policy advisor to Bush's faith-based initiative, the essence of his claim to
being a "compassionate conservative" resigned, becoming the first person to
quit the administration in disgust. As Dilulio told reporter Ron Suskind
[16], writing in Esquire magazine, the tone was set from the top. He
overheard Rove shouting about some poor object of his anger, "We will ****
him. Do you hear me? We will **** him. We will ruin him. Like no one has
ever ****ed him." Dilulio was shocked to discover not only that Rove was
placed in charge of domestic policy but also that Bush had no interest in it
except as a political tool. "On social policy and related issues, the lack
of even basic policy knowledge, and the only casual interest in knowing
more, was somewhat breathtaking", Dilulio said.
Possessed with a sense of history, the disillusioned professor's remarks of
five years ago have proved prophetic: "There is no precedent in any modern
White House for what is going on in this one: a complete lack of a policy
apparatus. What you've got is everything - and I mean everything - being run
by the political arm. It's the reign of the Mayberry Machiavellis [17]."
In all his machinations Rove did not calculate that he would ever create an
opposing force that might stop him. The Republican Congress had long
shielded the administration from oversight and investigation, protecting
Rove's handiwork. Now the Democratic Congress has begun to uncover seemingly
endless series of abuses. In this respect, the clash of the legislative and
executive branches is not over a difference in policy, as in the conflict
over the Iraq war. Rather, Congress's effort is even more fundamental: to
salvage the executive branch - its capability of functioning in the public
interest in the future - from Rove's radical experiment to transform it
forever.
_______
--
NOTICE: This post contains copyrighted material the use of which has not
always been authorized by the copyright owner. I am making such material
available to advance understanding of
political, human rights, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues. I
believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of such copyrighted material as
provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright
Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107
"A little patience and we shall see the reign of witches pass over, their
spells dissolve, and the people recovering their true sight, restore their
government to its true principles. It is true that in the meantime we are
suffering deeply in spirit,
and incurring the horrors of a war and long oppressions of enormous public
debt. But if the game runs sometimes against us at home we must have
patience till luck turns, and then we shall have an opportunity of winning
back the principles we have lost, for this is a game where principles are at
stake."
-Thomas Jefferson