Fresno Famous

The administration of George W. Bush routinely broke the law against government employees engaging in political campaign activities.  A new report by the federal Office of Special Counsel details how Mr. Bush's Office of Political Affairs, run by Karl Rove, put scores of executive branch employees to work helping the campaigns of Republican aspirants to Congressional office.The only place you will hear about this report is in an editorial by the New York Times.   Why it isn't front page news in every newspaper in the country is beyond me.  I guess they just don't see the newsworthiness of smoking guns that prove George Bush was (and probably still is) a crook.  His buddy Karl Rove, one of his sycophantic toadies, was the guy George trusted to put the screws on federal employees to force them to work for Republican candidates while they were getting paid by the taxpayers to do something productive for the people.This is so obscene I think I can't take it anymore.  Does anyone care that George W. Bush is and was the most corrupt president in recent memory?The editorial follows, in case you missed it.
EDITORIALAn End to Bush-Era PoliticsPublished: January 31, 2011Every White House since the days of President Jimmy Carter has had a political affairs office to assess the effects of policy on voters and make sure that presidents are aware of the nation’s political temperature. The office has grown in power alarmingly with each presidency, but the most recent Bush administration became so consumed with Republican politics that it crossed a legal red line, according to a new federal investigative report.
The report, by the federal Office of Special Counsel, found that the Bush White House routinely violated the Hatch Act, which prohibits most federal employees from engaging in partisan political activity. It depicts the Bush Office of Political Affairs, run by Karl Rove, as virtually indistinguishable from the Republican Party. And it makes a strong case that the office — shut down by the Obama administration last week just before the report came out — can no longer co-exist with the law.
Under Mr. Rove, scores of executive branch employees, including cabinet secretaries, were put to work helping Republican Congressional candidates. The report cites several memos to high-ranking cabinet department officials ordering them to attend meetings about the 2006 midterm elections. At the meetings, government officials were told to think of ways to shape federal policies to help Republican candidates and were strongly urged to volunteer on individual races. Officials at the Department of Health and Human Services were ordered to show up at a political meeting with “your pompoms on.”
There were scores of these briefings, most during the workday and attended by employees on taxpayer-financed salaries. “In light of the content of the PowerPoint slides and the testimony of many witnesses, these briefings created an environment aimed at assisting Republican candidates, constituting political activity within the meaning of the Hatch Act,” the report says.
The White House even tracked the personal time of high-ranking appointees to see who was volunteering for campaign work and how much. Overt political travel was often classified by the White House as government business and paid for by the Treasury.
The Office of Special Counsel does not have the power to discipline former government employees, and it is not clear that any law enforcement agency will look into prosecution. But the message of the report is clear to this administration and those in the future.
The Office of Political Affairs should be abolished, as a House committee recommended in 2008. There is nothing wrong with having White House officials assess the political atmosphere and enact policies with an eye on re-election, but the Hatch Act should be revised to explicitly prohibit officials from working on their party’s political campaigns while drawing government salaries.
The report did not examine policy under President Obama, though it noted that only one federal agency has rules to prevent spending taxpayer money on political travel.
A version of this editorial appeared in print on February 1, 2011, on page A26 of the New York edition.

Here's the kicker: I want to start a revolution.  Anyone who's with me, email me at conradseitz@wildblue.net  and I'll take all offers.