When Playing Politics Backfires

Politics. Don’t we all just love it?

But, you know, I’m not so crazy about what’s coming out of the Bush administration, Sara Taylor, Karl Rove and the gang.

I remember when James Carville was leaving the West Wing of the White House in early 1993, after Bill Clinton’s inauguration, and one of the reporters asked him what he would be doing in the administration. “I don’t DO government,” he yelled back at the reporter.

Well, I am not sure a lot these Bush White House aides “do government” very well either. They seem to be much more interested in political campaigns than policy. Congressional hit lists, political briefings, PowerPoint presentations to government employees covered by the Hatch Act.

How can they justify talking with foreign service officers, drug officials, the pencil and desk people — the GSA (General Services Administration) — about electioneering? Everything with these folks is about politics, about campaigns. They have misused and abused their power from the start, and the American people get it. Every day there is another story of how this White House has politicized a federal agency and pressured employees to become “loyal Bushies.”

What a legacy. And Karl Rove thought he would be remembered as the one who brought in a Republican majority for years to come. Sorry, Karl, but 2006 (and 2008, I’m convinced) will show how that plan backfired.