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Is the Forest of Corruption Hidden by the Trees?

December 13th, 2003

Speaking of being nibbled to death by ducks… Having returned to the U.S. and seeing more closely the reporting and discussion of events, I see that although there is a blizzard of political outrages committed by Bush, it seems that the American people have become inured to it all–or maybe just the Democrats aren’t nearly as skilled at making political hay out of them as the Republicans were at blowing their opponents’ peccadilloes way out of proportion. Remember when, six years ago, Republicans were furious over Al Gore’s phone calls? Gore was accused of making phone calls from his office phone as opposed to a private phone to raise “hard money” instead of “soft money,” as a few ten thousands of dollars were put into DNC accounts that were federally controlled as opposed to not–about as innocuous and hair-splitting a scandal as you can imagine, but there were Congressional hearings and an official investigation that got down to the bottom of it (Gore was in bounds on that, as he raised soft money only from that phone line). And whenever Janet Reno didn’t vociferously prosecute the case to the likings of the Republican attack dogs, they called for her resignation.

Compare that with today, when a senior White House official–most likely Karl Rove–used a similar White House phone to commit a serious federal felony by revealing the identity of a CIA operative as an act of political retribution. When Ashcroft was given the investigation, the GOP claimed no conflict of interest (though Rove got Ashcroft his job), and, as expected, has completely buried the investigation; a senior White House official has told the Financial Times of London that “We have let the earth-movers roll in over this one.” And they did–how often do you see that story on the news? We’re all hearing about Halliburton overcharging today, but how many Senate investigations are there looking into the fact that Cheney’s own company got the juiciest non-bid contracts?

As I suggested, maybe it’s because there is such a hailstorm of such kinds of things, and President “I’m-not-a-divider” Bush has so polarized the nation that his supporters are unwilling to even glance askance at Bush’s glaring failures and corruption. The Taliban is beginning to take Afghanistan back. (Remember when we thought we’d won that war?) Over the span of a few days, our forces killed 15 children in that country–which, even under the same unintentional circumstances, we would have called a war crime if Hussein had been responsible, not us. The endless lies about Iraq, and the inept mishandling of the war there. The hiding of the dead and wounded. The attacks on those same soldiers’ pay and benefits, even as Bush serves them fake turkey, and then claims that their lives are paying for the right to give the contracts to companies like Halliburton. Does anyone even remember Ken Lay and Enron? The burying of the 9/11 investigation? Cheney’s energy commission reports? Bush’s ties to the bin Laden family, and the administration’s rush to allow bin Laden’s family to flee the U.S. in the days after 9/11?

These are just a few of the scandals, and only the ones during his administration–let’s not even get into the AWOL, drug use, lying under oath as governor of Texas and all that. The point is, how come suddenly it is perfectly kosher for the president to commit all kinds of blatant misdeeds, and somehow it’s not really an issue? We hear about these things sometimes, but not nearly as often as before, and nothing ever comes of them.

One thing is for certain–if we do, for whatever reason, decide to ignore all of this, and re-elect Bush based on the fiction his administration is painting, we will get exactly what we deserve.

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  1. December 14th, 2003 at 11:56 | #1

    Wow – This is an excellent entry.

    Al Gore and Bill Clinton were definitely engaging in illegal activity, and there should have been more investigations into that.

    But what the Bush administration has been doing is awful.

    Our country needs new leadership… And fast.

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