Why is it that only campaign advisers quit? Shaheen, Power–not to mention the casting off of Rob Malley. These people were merely advising campaigns; it’s fine for them to get cut loose. What about the idiot braintrust that got us into Iraq? Why isn’t the spotlight on them to do harikiri? No one quit during Monicagate either, when you’d think disgust/disillusion would have worked on some of them. Presidential campaigns will get rid of anyone when they’re trying to acquire power. Once they’ve gotten it, forget about it.
I feel that Americans place too great a value on loyalty in corporate/hierarchical settings. While meantime the American myth supports claims of individuality, independence, freedom of conscience. The campaigns invoke the freeranging American myth. After that it’s just another lockdown.
Superb observation, Phil. Thank you for it.
I have also wondered why American taxpayers have to foot for the bill for a president's POLITICAL advisers . . .
"Friday, April 6, 2007
Karl Rove's $261,000 Federal Job Program
Karl Rove is a subject so repellent that this entry will be short. At least twenty students at Washington, DC's American University also find him objectionable, so much so that after Rove addressed a group of College Republicans on campus Tuesday night, the protestors pelted his exiting car with debris and lay down in the roadway to impede its movement. The Secret Service dealt with the protest quickly, however, and within a few minutes life for the offical White House "senior political advisor" was back to normal.
It is easy to understand why the students took to the streets. Under Rove's tutelage, President George W. Bush has lied the nation into war in Iraq; spied illegally on American citizens; and promoted acts of torture. Apparently at Rove's behest, the identity of an undercover CIA agent specializing in nuclear non-proliferation was revealed for political reasons and her career ended. On the economic front, the administration has implemented policies that ensure that the American worker receives ever-less of the national GDP in wages, in spite of the president's 2000 promise to "make the pie higher" for everyone. The latest affront to the nation, of course, is the revelation that the White House hired and fired US Attorneys on the basis of their political usefulness, not their ability to administer justice.
So, with Rove playing a central role in the most damaging presidential regime in living memory, what is the worst aspect of this infamous partisan hatchet man? That he is on the public payroll! That Rove is a cynical sadist is one thing; that American taxpayers are forced to pay his salary is outrageous. Why does an essentially private Republican operative have an office in a public building, the White House? Why does he have taxpayer-financed Secret Service protection? Why does his salary — $261,000 in 2005 — come from the public treasury?
It's no wonder the Democrats don't cry foul: they want to put their own partisan hacks on the nation's payroll should they ever re-take the White House. But why has the press said nothing? While we try to ascertain the answer to that question, any of America's youth mapping out their own career path to power should note that "Bush's Brain" is a college dropout. On second thought, perhaps Rove's current job was the only one he could get."
Michael Blaine
http://www.rudelystamped.blogspot.com
"What about the idiot braintrust that got us into Iraq? Why isn't the spotlight on them to do harikiri?"
And what about the U.S. military, which failed to defend the nation's largest city and its own headquarters from attack on 9/11? No apologies, no resignations, no shame. Remind me, who is the "commander in chief"?
The idiot brain trust that grew us into Iraq, their new American policy of preemption, lining up their new axis powers, free of the old policy of containment or balance, is largely unknown to the American population by name or role, being mostly appointees or think tank types. Only the 4th branch of government can put them and their trail of outright lies to the public in the spotlight and hold that spotlight on them hard and long enough to make a difference. Sadly, the mainstream media is now part of the military industrial complex. With no draft, not enough care to make the media take extended notice. Congress itself is useless.
'And what about the U.S. military, which failed to defend the nation's largest city and its own headquarters from attack on 9/11? No apologies, no resignations, no shame. Remind me, who is the "commander in chief"?'
Excellent, excellent point.
What do we taxpayers pay these people for? And they absolutely blew it.
Michael Blaine
http://www.rudelystamped.blogspot.com