Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Higher standards

The US Office of Special Counsel will begin an investigation into Karl Rove's efforts to direct the federal bureaucracy to help support Republicans in the political process. They will search for any coercion on Rove's part, which would be in violation of the Hatch Act signed into law to protect federal employees from political persuasion.

If Rove is the genius that Republicans believe that he is, the investigation will find that he committed no crime, and the administration will be legally off the hook.

In another branch of the government, Bush lent his support to US Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez, saying:

...As the hearings went forward, it was clear the attorney general broke no law, there's no wrongdoing...
In the best-case scenario for the administration, both Rove and Gonzalez will be found not guilty, for no crime existed.

Republicans will be happy. The decent American people who honestly thought they voted for a good and honest man, on the other hand, should not.

Bush came into office on the promise to "clean up Washington," whatever that means. His Supreme Court-sanctioned victory came off the heels of a half-decade long assault on the Democratic Party for perceived immoralities that went all the way to the top. The phrase "higher standard" was part of the Christian conservative vernacular.

It is becoming readily apparent that the higher standards Republicans demanded and believed they got by electing Bush only applies to Democrats. Either that, or immorality doesn't apply to defrauding the American public or promoting widespread inequities in the last enduring democracy in the world.

At least they hope they broke no laws.

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