If we were making a list of the most offensive things the Bush administration has done to the federal government, the politicization of cabinet agencies would have to be in the top 10. Examples like this one just leave me shaking my head.
U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings was in Minnesota on Tuesday to announce a proposed pilot project for the federal No Child Left Behind law that would give 10 states more flexibility in addressing struggling schools’ specific needs. […]
However, Minnesota doesn’t yet have enough of those schools to participate in the pilot project, prompting some to question why Spellings made the announcement here and whether it was an effort to help Sen. Norm Coleman in his reelection campaign.
Spellings appeared at the state Department of Revenue and the State Capitol alongside Gov. Tim Pawlenty and Coleman.
“It certainly smells that no Democrats were invited to this event, when we already know that this administration has politicized Cabinet agencies,” said Matthew Miller, a spokesman for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. “It looks like a stunt to help Norm Coleman’s campaign.”
Ya think? As Paul Kiel noted, “Spellings announced a pilot program in Minnesota that won’t even be taking place in Minnesota.” But it just so happens, Minnesota is home to a very competitive Senate race, where a Republican incumbent wants to look education-friendly, and wouldn’t you know it, there was Sen. Norm Coleman (R) standing alongside the Secretary of Education at a press conference that had no business being held there in the first place.
Lest anyone think I’m being unnecessarily cynical here, consider the administration’s recent history.
In my favorite example, David Kuo, the former second-in-command at the White House Faith-Based Office, publicly acknowledged that the office was used as a tool to help elect Republicans.
…Kuo alleges that then-White House political affairs director Ken Mehlman knowingly participated in a scheme to use the office, and taxpayer funds, to mount ostensibly “nonpartisan” events that were, in reality, designed with the intent of mobilizing religious voters in 20 targeted races. According to Kuo, “Ken loved the idea and gave us our marching orders.”
Among those marching orders, Kuo says, was Mehlman’s mandate to conceal the true nature of the events. Kuo quotes Mehlman as saying, “…(I)t can’t come from the campaigns. That would make it look too political. It needs to come from the congressional offices. We’ll take care of that by having our guys call the office [of faith-based initiatives] to request the visit.”
Nineteen out of the 20 targeted races were won by Republicans, Kuo reports. The outreach was so extensive and so powerful in motivating not just conservative evangelicals, but also traditionally Democratic minorities, that Kuo attributes Bush’s 2004 Ohio victory “at least partially … to the conferences we had launched two years before.”
With the exception of one reporter from the Washington Post, Kuo says the media were oblivious to the political nature and impact of his office’s events, in part because so much of the debate centered on issues of separation of church and state.
(I have a unique interest in this because I personally exposed the trend of using the faith-based initiative in this fashion in a 2002 expose. The Washington Post picked up on the story after seeing my piece. Kuo confirmed what I reported at the time.)
Remember, this was happening throughout the Bush administration. Kiel summarized what we learned last summer: “Karl Rove’s machinations in the White House Office of Political Affairs was his use of cabinet members to create free publicity for endangered Republicans. Agency heads or officials who traveled only a handful of times on off years suddenly found themselves whipped into service in an election year. Republicans facing tough challenges could count on a constant stream of photo-ops with administration officials announcing good things for his or her constituents. Rove called the operation his ‘asset deployment’ team.”
But here’s the funny part: after having been caught abusing federal agencies for campaign purposes in 2002, 2004, and 2006, the Bush administration, as the Coleman example highlights, is still pulling the exact same stunts. They’re misusing cabinet agencies and federal resources to help Republican campaigns, and they just don’t care whether it’s obvious or not.
What a shameless bunch of hacks.