From PA: The Bush administration has bumped four delegates from the American delegation to the Inter-American Telecommunication Commission (which decides standards for telecommunications in the Western Hemisphere).

Is it because the delegates acted improperly, like John Bolton? Is it because they broke laws, like Tom DeLay? Is it because of anything improper they did?

According to the Bush White House, yes–they gave money to John Kerry during the 2004 campaign. One of the nixed delegates gave as little as $250.

And the Bush White House is not being coy about it, either; they come straight out and admit the reason. They say that because there were contributions to Kerry, these people can’t represent this administration. Funny, I though they were representing the United States and its business interests. But that’s a common perception in the White House nowadays: they are the country. You do something against the Bush administration, you’re against America, and have become an enemy of the state.

But this sends out and even more frightening tone of Bush-league politics: you drop even so much as a penny into our opponents’ cups, you are on our shit list and you will get nothing, ever. Two of the barred delegates are Nokia and Qualcomm, two telecom giants which represent a major chunk of the U.S. telecom industry–effectively handing their competitors huge advantages for either contributing to Bush or not contributing to Kerry.

Is it just me, or does this cross a line, even for an administration as corrupt and vindictive as this one?