The Tie That Binds

Washington Post:

White House officials conducted 20 private briefings on Republican electoral prospects in the last midterm election for senior officials in at least 15 government agencies covered by federal restrictions on partisan political activity, a White House spokesman and other administration officials said yesterday.

The previously undisclosed briefings were part of what now appears to be a regular effort in which the White House sent senior political officials to brief top appointees in government agencies on which seats Republican candidates might win or lose, and how the election outcomes could affect the success of administration policies, the officials said.

The existence of one such briefing, at the headquarters of the General Services Administration in January, came to light last month, and the Office of Special Counsel began an investigation into whether the officials at the briefing felt coerced into steering federal activities to favor those Republican candidates cited as vulnerable.

Such coercion is prohibited under a federal law, known as the Hatch Act, meant to insulate virtually all federal workers from partisan politics. In addition to forbidding workplace pressures meant to influence an election outcome, the law bars the use of federal resources -- including office buildings, phones and computers -- for partisan purposes.

The Bush Administration has politicized everything, from the war to the Department of Justice. This is the key to the U.S. Attorneys Firings scandal, the Abramoff bribes, the Katrina disaster, the replacement of scientists with religious ideologoues, and the complete infiltration of industry lobbyists and political hacks into every aspect of our political and bureaucratic structure. This is why our government is collapsing. Investigations of this particular manifestation have the potential to blow this Administration right out of office. Let's hope.