(Via @davidhauptmann) Ah, marvel at our squeaky-clean, Marvelous New Day, ever-so-ethical executive branch:
Treasury Department officials have been cited for soliciting prostitutes, breaking conflict-of-interest rules and accepting gifts from corporate executives, according to the findings of official government investigations.
The revelations of unethical behavior at Treasury are detailed in little-noticed documents posted this month on governmentattic.org, which publishes agency responses to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests.
Now, let me scupper one objection, right off the bat (mixing metaphors? How… outre): I am certainly confident that if somebody looked then they could find incidents during the Bush administration* that are comparable to the ones found in the Hill report. Soliciting prostitutes via Craigslist? Letting bankers wine, dine, and pay golf greens fees for on-the-clock government employees? Using one’s badge and status to get out of a drunk-and-disorderly? Sure, all that stuff didn’t magically start happening on January 20th, 2009.
But what did happen on January 20, 2009 was that a new administration came in – one that explicitly ran and won on a promise that business as usual would no longer happen as usual. Hope and Change, remember? …So consider this to be a helpful reminder that if your ego writes checks that your inherent political abilities can’t cash, don’t write the check. If you can’t live by a set of rules, don’t make your campaign’s centerpiece a call for everybody else to live by those rules. And do not act if the central animating principle of your operational philosophy is It’s different when I do it.
Put another way: this culture hates hypocrisy – and maybe we shouldn’t, quite so much. But until we stop doing that then at least let’s embrace the concept completely. Even if it does mean raking a Democrat over the coals.
Moe Lane (crosspost)
*And every administration before that, but Obama barely recognizes that history didn’t actually start with Bush v. Gore.
That’s why Democrats hate Bush so much, they think Bush v. Gore was wrong and thus he was an illegitimate president.
is there any way to de-unionize or Scott-Walker the Federal workforce? the degree of difficulty involved in firing gross negligence is stunning. And if we are real lucky, they will decide to strike. I consider that a win-win situation.
First, isn’t the Secret Service part of Treasury? Second, I think it’s more obvious now, and increasing, because the permanent government is feeling bulletproof, having assassinated Senator Ted Stevens without any consequence. For all the frothing about NHC, I think the formation of a modern Praetorian Guard in the “Justice Department” will turn out to be much worse.
Umm, Ted Stevens died in a crash involving a light aircraft after he was (rather messily) forced out of office. Light airplane crashes are not uncommon, and let’s save some time: this is not a website that is going to tolerate this level of conspiracy thinking.
The previous sentence is not, by the way, an invitation to discuss the matter further.
Sorry I was not clear. I was talking about the “(rather messily) forced out of office”, ie, political assassination. Not even vaguely a conspiracy, all of it is public record. The Justice department took out a sitting U.S. senator (either deliberately or by gross incompetence) and nothing. No purge, no firings, no budget cuts, nothing.
Robert: Oh, OK, that I would have a lot harder time arguing. 🙂
Yes. The part that makes me itchy is the Senate did nothing! Can’t comprehend. Maybe the Democrats figure it’s not their problem because Barry, Bill, Ted, etc show that democrat voters are so mind-numbed that they don’t care about actual corruption, never mind fake corruption? But the Democrat leadership is very jealous of their power. How can they let the “Justice Department” become a rival?
How can they let the “Justice Department” become a rival?
Because the Justice Department is an arm of the Democratic Party, not a rival. You don’t think that if and when the Republicans take over the Senate, they’ll succeed in purging the Party hacks from DoJ, do you?
Ah, right. I forgot how nicely Obama and Hillary ran for President against each other….
There are many ways at looking at the power structure. Yes, everyone involved is a Democrat. On an other level, this was an attack by the Permanent government against the Elected government. Every Senator, Republican or Democrat, knows in his heart he is better suited to be President then anyone else. Now, we are in a position where the “Justice Department” gets to decide who gets to be a Senator. It might not have been deliberate, but it only gets easier, once you’ve done it. I can’t imagine that any man who wants to be President would be ok with having to go, hat in hand, to beg the “Justice Department” for permission. That’s why I find the lack of pushback so odd.