Public Nuisance |
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Random commentary and senseless acts of blogging.
The first Republican president once said, "While the people retain their virtue and their vigilance, no administration by any extreme of wickedness or folly can seriously injure the government in the short space of four years." If Mr. Lincoln could see what's happened in these last three-and-a-half years, he might hedge a little on that statement. Blog critics Gryffindor House Slytherin House Ravenclaw House House Elves Beth Jacob Prisoners of Azkaban Muggles
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Thursday, October 24, 2002
Tapped notes that Bush is turning the federal government into a campaign tool. One detail in the story is the e-mail sent to all employees, not only political appointees, of the EPA, reminding them that they were welcome to "express support for the president and his program" when off duty. One major block against abuses of this sort is Civil Service rules. And those are exactly the rules Bush wants to abolish in the new Homeland Security Department, opening up 170,000 potential jobs for GOP patronage. It has nothing to do with politics, of course. He only wants to protect you.
The article also mentions that Secretary of Commerce Donald Evans yesterday went to Iowa to present an award at a food processing plant, where he was introduced by Greg Ganske, currently in a close race to unseat Senator Tom Harkin. That appearance is being promoted on the DoC home page. By a remarkable coincidence, Evans will appear today with Senator Tim Hutchinson, who is losing his race for re-election. On Tuesday, he was in Las Vegas with Republican Representative Jim Gibbons, who represents essentially all of Nevada except for Vegas. For some mysterious reason, the Congressman who actually represents Las Vegas and is a Democrat wasn't invited. But Las Vegas just happens to be the base of Nevada's new 3rd District, which is an open seat in this election.
By pure happenstance, Evans will be in 3 states in 3 days for public appearances with Republicans involved in 3 key races. Since all of these trips are being promoted on the DoC web site, it's reasonable to assume that taxpayers are paying the full cost of this purely non-political activity. |
