Saturday, December 02, 2006

Pundits Wrong, Again

A number of the pundits have warned Democrats not to govern by subpoena in the new Congress, lest they lose the support of the swing voters responsible for their new majority. The trouble with that advice is that it assumes a certain level of rectitude, or at least basic honesty, on the part of the Republican administration.

What are Democrats to do when GOP hacks show, for the umpteenth time, that they are absolutely shameless about ignoring any responsibility to the public?

Case in point: The Washington Post reports that Lurita Alexis Doan, a Bush political appointee who is Administrator of GSA--the huge maintenance arm of the federal government--wants to cripple the agency's inspector-general and transfer some audit responsibilities to private contractors (will they ALL have to be Republican contributors?).

Doan, who is clearly a tireless protector of the public interest, compared the IG to a terrorist, according to notes from an August 18 staff meeting. The notes include this piquant phrase: "There are two kinds of terrorism in the US: the external kind; and, internally, the IGs have terrorized the Regional Administrators."

Hmm. Could Osama bin Forgotten by hiding out by masquerading as a federal auditor?

Seriously, if Democrats don't investigate this kind of behavior, aren't they betraying the public trust?

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