On the eve of the midterms, more ethical woes for the GOP. From the
LA Times:
For five years, Allen Stayman wondered who ordered his removal from a State Department job negotiating agreements with tiny Pacific island nations -- even when his own bosses wanted him to stay.
Now he knows.
Newly disclosed e-mails suggest that the ax fell after intervention by one of the highest officials at the White House: Ken Mehlman, on behalf of one of the most influential lobbyists in town, Jack Abramoff.
The e-mails show that Abramoff, whose client list included the Northern Mariana Islands, had long opposed Stayman's work advocating labor changes in that U.S. commonwealth, and considered what his lobbying team called the "Stayman project" a high priority.
"Mehlman said he would get him fired," an Abramoff associate wrote after meeting with Mehlman, who was then White House political director.
A currently recommended diary by
smintheus gives plenty of detail. Ken Mehlman was WH political director at the time, and the reason this scandal is a little different than that of the disgraced (but
still serving) Bob Ney and other corrupt congressmen. While Connecticut R voters, for example, can cluck their tongues at the rogue Republicans in Ohio, Mehlman and
David Safavian mean that this is a national pay-for-play scandal and an order of magnitude more important.
Prosecutors are recommending that former Bush administration procurement official David Safavian serve between 2½ and three years in jail for obstructing justice and making false statements about his relationship with convicted lobbyist and friend Jack Abramoff.
Mehlman, a much more important player, is also involved in some election tasks these days, I hear, perhaps even
legal ones.
On Election Day in 2002, a telemarketing company was hired by New Hampshire Republican operatives to jam the phone lines of five Democratic get-out-the-vote centers and one fire fighters union center in New Hampshire. As the plan was developed, implemented and began to unravel, people involved made dozens of telephone calls to a White House phone number in the political department, which was run by current RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman. (AP, 4/11/06)
I am not a fan of complaints about Diebold and Ohio, 2004. But that doesn't mean that the national Republicans are above cheating. Their track record does not suggest ethical behavior, and it's the reason so many American voters distrust them, and that spills right over into policy distrust. People think they might have manipulated gas prices before the election, or might have gone into Iraq for oil (clearly spelled out in opinion polls). And without opening the board for conspiracy theory (that would be very unwelcome), let's just say that you can't begin to unite and govern the country when no one trusts you to be honest and do the right thing with half the voters from the get-go.
Bush's low job ratings have their source in their own actions. Dishonesty is so built into the current GOP governing structure that they will never be trusted again. That's why no revelation about fraud, corruption or lying about Iraq is a surprise. And for those who think this is partisan ranting, read the papers and read the conservative web sites. The apologistas are getting fewer and far between.
It's hard to win elections on the issue of corruption because Americans think that "all politicians do it". But if anyone on either side of the political aisle is actually interested in governance, this is a major concern. There's plenty of mess to clean up after the election in Iraq, Afghanistan and other hot spots. The job will be made that much harder if you can't trust the remaining Republicans to do the right thing - ever. And that's an attitude they've brought on themselves.
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