Over the past few weeks, we’ve become aware of the administration’s pervasive use of "unofficial" communications channels to conduct business. The U.S. Attorney firings, for example, were plotted over email servers maintained by the Republican National Committee ... servers not subject to the same rules as the official White House system, which archives all communications to provide a measure of accountability in the executive branch.
Naturally, the Republicans are looking for an innocent explanation for this practice. Rather than admit the obvious – that they hid the emails because they had something to hide – the Bushistas offered up a tasty bit of spin, claiming they used two email systems to keep separate their government work from their work in the service of the Party. But does the record of this administration – or indeed, of the GOP in general – suggest that such concerns have any bearing whatsoever on how the Republicans conduct the business of government?
The examples set forth below show they do not.
Over the weekend, the Washington Post editorial page dutifully regurgitated this spin:
There was legitimate reason for the White House to seek to comply with Hatch Act strictures and separate political from official business.
No doubt obedience to the Hatch Act, which forbids the use of governmental power for partisan gain, would be "legitimate." But do modern-day Republicans even remotely acknowledge the "legitimacy" of separating Party from state? Or do they, like the authoritarians of Russia and Germany before them, regard the apparatus of the state as subservient to, and a means of promoting, their Party?
Let’s look at some recent history.
THE RISE OF THE MAYBERRY MACHIAVELLIS
In late 2002, author Ron Suskind interviewed John DiIulio, a former Bush administration official, about DiIulio’s colleagues in the administration. DiIulio highlighted the central feature of modern Republican rule, the one that has been at the heart of every policy failure in this century:
[T]here is no precedent in any modern White House for what is going on in this one: complete lack of a policy apparatus. Besides the tax cut, which was cut and dried during the campaign, and the education bill, which was really a Ted Kennedy bill, the administration has not done much, either in absolute terms or in comparison to previous administrations at this stage, on domestic policy. What you've got is everything, and I mean everything, being run by the political arm.
DiIulio said the administration was ruled by "the Mayberry Machiavellis."
What are the odds that such a crew would develop such a deep devotion to the separation of Party and state that they would burden themselves with a separate email system "to comply with [the] Hatch Act"? There are two answers: slim, and none.
ARRESTS AND AUDITS: THE NEW ENEMIES LIST
Much has been written about the use of governmental power by officials of this administration and the corrupt Republican leadership of the Congress to reward their friends. There’s an uglier side to this, as well: the deliberate use of government to attack those who oppose the GOP, an effort harkening back to the days of the Nixon administration’s "enemies list," created to
... maximize the fact of our incumbency in dealing with persons known to be active in their opposition to our Administration. Stated a bit more bluntly — how we can use the available federal machinery to screw our political enemies.
In 2003, Republican Majority Leader Tom Delay used the Federal Aviation Administration and Department of Homeland Security to track down Democrats blocking adoption of the GOP’s Texas redistricting so that they could be arrested. Delay’s abuse of executive power for political gain was echoed by his underlings, most notably when then-Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Thomas tried to have House Democrats arrested for caucusing in the House library and delaying adoption of a bill Thomas favored.
While abuse of the minority was a hallmark of GOP rule, these two episodes are among the most chilling in recent memory. Oppose us, the Republicans were saying, and we will not merely seek to defeat you at the polls. We will throw you in prison.
As under Nixon, the Republicans brought the Internal Revenue Service into their act, as well. Over a year ago, I wrote a diary about GOP use of the IRS as a political weapon. (The diary made the recommended list, and dKos reader Flint pointed out that such abuses were the basis for one of Nixon’s Articles of Impeachment).
While the Republicans still controlled Congress, the IRS, responding to pressure by Delay’s allies in the House, launched an audit of a prominent Texas non-profit organization critical of the former Majority Leader. More ominously, the agency began withholding routine data from the public on how it chooses who to audit, and started tracking the political affiliation of ordinary taxpayers.
There can be no legitimate use the IRS in this fashion: you owe taxes, or you don’t regardless of what party you belong to, or who you speak out against. In a government not ruled by Mayberry Machiavellis, that is.
PUTTING OUT CONTRACTS ON THE OPPOSITION
About a year ago, in a speech before a national minority real estate consortium, Bush cabinet member Alphonso Jackson warned contractors to support Bush, or lose their federal contracts.
"He had made every effort to get a contract with HUD for 10 years," Jackson said of the prospective contractor. "He made a heck of a proposal and was on the (General Services Administration) list, so we selected him. He came to see me and thank me for selecting him. Then he said something ... he said, 'I have a problem with your president.'
"I said, 'What do you mean?' He said, 'I don't like President Bush.' I thought to myself, 'Brother, you have a disconnect -- the president is elected, I was selected. You wouldn't be getting the contract unless I was sitting here. If you have a problem with the president, don't tell the secretary.'
"He didn't get the contract," Jackson continued. "Why should I reward someone who doesn't like the president, so they can use funds to try to campaign against the president? Logic says they don't get the contract. That's the way I believe."
Jackson subsequently sought to back away from his story, claiming there was no such contractor who lost work for failing to support the President – but the message got through, loud and clear. As one of the organizers of the event said later,
It's politics at its finest ... If you don't like Roger Staubach, you're not going to work at The Staubach Co. Leaders are the roots of their organizations. If you want to be a part of them and profit from them, you have to be on the same mission.
The public interest – in obtaining high quality goods and services at minimal cost – doesn’t enter into the GOP equation. Fealty to the leader is rewarded. Opposition is punished.
Fast forward to 2007, and nothing has changed. The head of the General Services Administration – the government’s largest purchasing arm – hosts political briefings on the outcome of the 2006 Congressional elections and GOP prospects for the next cycle. The briefing included slides listing the 20 must vulnerable Democrats in 2008, and according to her subordinates in attendance, GSA Director Lurita Doan asked subordinates how to use the GSA to help Republicans win those seats.
Doan, of course, has suffered a convenient lapse of memory about the briefing. Perhaps it’s something in the Washington water supply: Doan, Gonzales, Jackson, "Scooter" Libby, Karl Rove ... all seem to suffer impaired memories when it comes to how they’ve used "the available federal machinery to screw [their] political enemies." But are their failing memories – and lost emails – really a sign of devotion to the Hatch Act?
GOP Congressman Tom Davis, speaking at the Doan hearings put it in perspective: "[T]his is something that goes on every day," he opined. "News flash: The president appointed a Republican to head GSA." Congressman Davis hit the nail on the head, and perfectly captured the problem with this administration, and indeed, the entire modern GOP. It’s not compliance with the Hatch Act that motivates GOP officials: it’s that they’re Republicans first, last, and always.
And that's not a problem for Congressman Davis, nor for Secretary Jackson, nor for any other Republican currently in office. "News flash," as the Congressman might say. GOP uber alles is what's expected.