Category Archives: Politics: The Party of Sleaze

Fresh from accusations that the Social Security administration is being used as propaganda farm, the Bush administration today launched a trial balloon to destroy civil service unions, and indeed the entire idea of a tenured (and, one must presume, nonpolitical) civil service.

Civil Service System on Way Out at DHS: The Bush administration unveiled a new personnel system for the Department of Homeland Security yesterday that will dramatically change the way workers are paid, promoted, deployed and disciplined — and soon the White House will ask Congress to grant all federal agencies similar authority to rewrite civil service rules governing their employees.

… . Bush officials said that the old rules were outdated and too restrictive and that the government needed a more “flexible” workforce [at DHS] to fight terrorism.

Most likely translation: We hate unions. We are the victors. We demand the spoils.

UPDATE: Washingtonpost.com hosts Undersecretary for Management at the Department of Homeland Security Janet Hale for online questions:

Arlington, Va.: Ms. Hale – I've worked in a few govenrment agencies in my 20 years. Unfortunately, I've seen some awful managers who liked power or used their position to create a click of favorite employees. How does the new rating system address the abuse of favoritism ? If fact, doesn't taking away the step structure only increase the potential for supervisor favoritism ?

Janet Hale: I heard this expressed alot as I traveled across the country and have talked to dedicated DHS employees. Our goal is to have a fair, transparent system that all will understand and trust. We are commited [sic] to implmenting [sic]the peformance [sic]management provisions wiht [sic]direct employee and their reprsentatives [sic]involvement in order to achieve our objective.

Most likely translation: Workers are so **f*** [sic].

When they want to, the White House can act decisively.

AP reports:

President Bush on Wednesday ordered his Cabinet secretaries not to hire columnists to promote their agendas after disclosure that a second writer was paid to tout an administration initiative.

Contrast this rapid response to the White House Payola scandal with the utter non-response to the at least as serious scandal regarding the outing of CIA agent Valerie Plame. Where was the order to the White House staff to release any reporters from pledges of confidentiality and/or to come forward if they had information relevant to the Plame matter?

Relevant blasts from the past: earlier example of fast action while ignoring the Plame matter and Gonzales link to obstruction of justice in the Plame scandal.

More news leaks out regarding reporter payola by the Bush admin: Writer Backing Bush Plan Had Gotten Federal Contract, although this second case isn't as bad as the Armstrong affair.

If the Democrats can't paint the GOP as drunk on power and out of control, then something's wrong. Not only is it a very salable story but, as Henry Kissinger once said in a different context, it has 'the added advantage of being true.'

They're running scared on the sleaze issue! GOP caves on two ethics changes: no watering down of the House ethics rule, and a reversal of the “DeLay Rule” that would have allowed indicted House leaders to keep their jobs. (via Talkleft, TPM and the rest of the world…)

Why? “it was becoming a distraction.” In other words – the mud was starting to stick.

This is only the warm up act, people. Today's GOP is a target-rich environment on the sleaze issue.

Well, that didn't take real long, did it? Fresh from having hands slapped for ethics violations, but flush with the power of a larger majority, the House leadership, read “DeLay”, have decided to make ethics inquiries harder to begin and install a more pliant chairman to the House Ethics Committee. A few people have even noticed that this doesn't look good, but no doubt the votes are there.

Meanwhile, several weeks after being promised I'd get a letter telling me how she voted on the DeLay Rule, my Congresswoman has singularly failed to contact me. When I get back to the office next week, I'll be writing the Miami Herald about this sterling constituent service.

The good news is that ordinarily such arrogance brings parties down quickly. The bad news is that gerrymandering makes it harder for the democratic system to function. Florida, after all, is a 50/50 state but the Republicans have large majorities in the state legislature and the congressional delegation. And as the Soviets used to say “This is no accident.”