Federal auditors said on Friday that the Bush administration violated the law by buying favorable news coverage of President Bush's education policies, by making payments to the conservative commentator Armstrong Williams and by hiring a public relations company to analyze media perceptions of the Republican Party.
In a blistering report, the investigators, from the Government Accountability Office, said the administration had disseminated "covert propaganda" in the United States, in violation of a statutory ban.
The well oiled machine has become the gang that couldn't shoot straight. My sense: that's usually what happens (eventually) to people so overwhelmingly arrogant.
4 comments:
Having unfettered power puts any person or group into the impossible position of trying to avoid overreaching. The temptation simply becomes too great for mere mortals to resist.
It seems to me that the best thing that any Administration could hope for is an organized and effective opposition party. Under those circumstances it's much more likely that an Administration won't get lazy and stupid, and will instead focus on the few key issues where it really wants to succeed. That Administration will also be willing to compromise elsewhere to bank political capital for its priorities.
Overall, it's just a bad strategy to crush your political opponents. If you succeed you'll either be facing people who have nothing to loose (which, of course, is dangerous) or, alternatively, the destructiveness of your own hubris. (Which will get you every time.)
Rob
Rob --
I think that is absolutely right. And well said.
And another thought: If you are right (and I think you are) then the system is self-correcting: By "crushing your opposition" you sew the seeds of their revival. That's actually a very comforting thought, not just for now but for the Republic.
Yes, that seems right. One must always take the long view, I guess.
Rob
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