CORRUPTION AND CRIMINALITY

In his May 23rd Journal, Bill Moyers pointed out that the government agencies in charge of finance did nothing in the face of the housing bubble and unwise mortgage practices; that the agencies in charge of mining did nothing to prevent the recent mining disasters; that the FAA considered its clients to be the airlines, not the public, and threatened a whistleblower on Southwest's lack of inspections with the loss not only of his job but that of his wife, who worked for a local public agency.

Now none of this should come as a surprise. It has been obvious that the Bush administration has purposely constructed a do-nothing government to keep it from interfering with his cronies and clients. And McCain needs to be called on this by Obama. Because I don't think the American people want to stand for any more of it.

But it goes further. After Congress passed whistleblower protection laws, the man charged by Bush with enforcing them in the Office of Independent Counsel, and enforcing the Hatch Act as well, is under investigation by the FBI for closing whistleblower complaints without investigating them, retaliating against whistleblowers on his staff and possibly erasing evidence from his hard drive.

60% of scientists working with the government on health and the environment state that they have been hindered by political interference.

Lurita Doan headed the General Services Administration, which is supposed to be non-partisan. But she directed her employees to work for Bush's re-election.

And there's more and more and more.

Whether you consider the Bush administration the most corrupt in the nation's history depends on where you stand politically. If you don't think appointing people to head federal agencies whose primary purpose is either 1) to promote the fortunes of the Republican party, 2) to pay off contributors with policy en masse (meaning particularly the disabling from within of the agency), or 3) both, is corrupt, then there's no corruption in Washington. If you don't think lobbyists directly controlling Congressmen is corruption, then it's clean as a whistle down there. The rest of us would do well to study the Grant administration, which has been until now considered America's most corrupt. I think you'll find the the types of corruption, and the climates which made them possible, are very similar between Grant and Bush - but Bush has added the substantial dimension of going beyond merely rewarding them he wants to reward, but permanently crippling the government so that it can never do anything to hinder the interests of the rich.

I bring this up because McCain is no doubt headed on the same track. Somebody no doubt has a complete list of all the corruptions, obstructions, etc. perpetrated by Bush and Rove. And McCain needs to be confronted - in ads, and with direct questioning by the media - not only on his general intentions but on his reaction to each one of these incidents of corruption. They will pile on top of each other from here to November, one a week or more, and McCain is going to look like a crook before he's through. And then add everything Rove did, everything Gonzalez did, Michael Brown, Chertoff and on and on and on and on ...

It seems to be forgotten now that probably the primary reason for the Democrats 2006 victories was not the war, but corruption and criminality. This was a huge issue then, and it needs to be huge now.

In other words, in this area - and in so many others (the entire history of the Bush administration, as reported in the newspapers and in all the books written about it) - it is not enough to accuse McCain of intending to serve Bush's third term. It is necessary to pin him down on every contemptible Bush move, including the conduct of the war and the appointments to the Supreme Court, the Justice Department fiasco, Jesus, the mind boggles.

The question to be asked is simple: "Do you approve of (X)?"

Specifics, not generalities. Starting right now. There's been such a pile of obscenities even I have forgotten most of them. We need to be reminded, and by the time we're through, McCain will be a nubbin and unelectable.

Anybody listening in the Obama campaign?

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