Thursday, April 12, 2007

Those Missing RNC Emails ...

... Boy, it sure would be easier to defend this White House's innocence if they would quit acting so guilty.

I completely understand the origin of the system of RNC email accounts for selected White House staffers. President Bush entered office wanting to avoid the ethical lapses that had clouded the Clinton years. In particular, his White House was organized to ensure the strict separation of governing and electioneering expenses. I wrote a number of fundraising speeches in 2001-2002, and for those I had a separate printer (ink and paper paid for by the Republican National Committee, not the taxpayer).

The Democratic theory that these RNC email accounts constitute a sinister scheme to escape public oversight does not bear much scrutiny. Congress can subpoena private emails too after all. And "losing" emails only invites suspicions of the worst.

On the other hand, it is true that a certain personality type sooner or later shows up in every administration: the clever-clever-stupid political manipulator so infatuated with his or her own petty schemes that they never stop to consider the full and deep meaning of the ancient rule, "honesty is the best policy."

When that maxim was coined, the word "policy" had the same negative connotations that the word "scheme" does today. The maxim recommends honesty not as an ethical imperative, but as the highest form of cunning -  because schemes are always found out, and often found out much sooner than expected.

At this point in the attorney affair, it is difficult to avoid concluding:

1) regardless of the legalities, the White House and DoJ were engaged in activities that they believed would appear discreditable if exposed to full public view;

2) that they have told untruths in their effort to conceal the full truth of the matter;

and 3) that the Gonzales Justice Department was overstocked with inadequate people from the Attorney General himself on down.

Now let me add a couple of less PC thoughts.

1) It is striking how much of the bad hiring can be traced to the administration's overzealous eagerness for "diversity." A lot of brickbats have been tossed at the imperious and extravagant US Attorney for Minnesota, Rachel Paulose. Yes, she was in over her head - agreed. So why would anybody think it a good idea to promote an underqualified 34-year-old woman of South Asian ancestry to a highly visible job? Gee - you tell me. And this exercise can be repeated throughout the DoJ and indeed the whole Bush administration.

2) Having caught the administration out on its story about the US Attorneys, Democrats and liberals are now gunning for bigger game: to discredit the very idea that the voter fraud these attorneys were pursuing even exists. The statistical evidence of fraud is strong and real. On the other hand, it is a very tough crime to catch and prove. The libs argue that because convictions are rare, therefore the crime dos not occur at all - therefore it is a waste of time and arguably an abuse of democracy even to look for it - therefore we should leave local officials in Democratic jurisdictions alone to count the votes in whatever way seems best to them. That would be quite a win, if they could get away with it - a much bigger win even than bagging an Attorney General ...

04/12 08:58 AM