The Bush exploitation of late Friday afternoons was, at first, almost amusing. The White House was embracing a long-held practice in Washington: release bad news when reporters are less likely to be working, the night before the week’s least-read edition of the newspaper.
But what was comical then became annoying. Then outrageous. Then scandalous.
On this past Friday, for example, the Pentagon waited until shortly after the network news broadcasts had ended to announce the results of its investigation into the mishandling of the Quran at Guantanamo Bay.
The Pentagon on Friday released new details about mishandling of the Quran at the Guantanamo Bay prison for terror suspects, confirming that a soldier deliberately kicked the Muslim holy book and that an interrogator stepped on a Quran and was later fired for “a pattern of unacceptable behavior.”
In other confirmed incidents, a guard’s urine came through an air vent and splashed on a detainee and his Quran; water balloons thrown by prison guards caused an unspecified number of Qurans to get wet; and in a confirmed but ambiguous case, a two-word obscenity was written in English on the inside cover of a Quran.
The findings, released after normal business hours Friday evening, are among the results of an investigation last month by Brig. Gen. Jay Hood, the commander of the detention center in Cuba, that was triggered by a Newsweek magazine report–later retracted–that a U.S. soldier had flushed one Guantanamo Bay detainee’s Quran down a toilet…. Hood said in a written statement released Friday evening, along with the new details, that his investigation “revealed a consistent, documented policy of respectful handling of the Quran dating back almost 2 1/2 years.”
This news comes seven days after the Bush gang used a late-Friday evening to announce that the scandal-plagued head of the federal Head Start preschool program, Windy Hill, had been forced to leave office.
The Late-Friday-Media Trick is exploited, of course, because it works. But it’s worth noting from time to time just how often this tactic is abused.
* In 2004, Bush released documents relating to his National Guard service (or lack thereof) five times. In each instance, he waited until late on a Friday afternoon.
* When the Justice Department launched a criminal investigation into the Valerie Plame scandal, the announcement came late on a Friday night.
* When Bush circumvented the Senate to appoint Bill Pryor and Charles Pickering to the federal bench, he waited for late-Friday afternoons.
* Bush agreed to testify before the 9/11 Commission, so long as Dick Cheney would be there by his side. He announced his intentions on a late-Friday afternoon.
* When Bush’s Commerce Department announced that household incomes had declined for three years in a row and 1.7 million people had fallen into poverty, they released the data on a late-Friday afternoon. (It was the first time any administration had released the annual data on a Friday.)
* Many suspected that the Bush administration would eliminate requirements on the nation’s dirtiest coal-fired power plants and refineries to make anti-pollution improvements as they upgrade facilities, but when the announcement finally came, it was released on a late-Friday afternoon.
* When the administration said it wanted to remove Clean Water Act protections from up to one-fifth of the nation’s streams, ponds, lakes, mudflats, and wetlands, it said so late on a Friday afternoon.
* Bush fired Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill, economic adviser Lawrence Lindsey, and Army Secretary (and former Enron executive) Thomas White on late-Friday afternoons.
* When John Ashcroft’s Justice Department had to tell administration officials to preserve papers related to Enron, they waited to issue the directive until late on a Friday afternoon.
* The White House announced its opposition to an investigation into Karl Rove’s work with companies in which he held stock on a late-Friday afternoon.
And then, of course, there’s the Republican-led Congress.
At 2:54 a.m. on a Friday in March, the House cut veterans benefits by three votes.
At 2:39 a.m. on a Friday in April, the House slashed education and health care by five votes.
At 1:56 a.m. on a Friday in May, the House passed the Leave No Millionaire Behind tax-cut bill by a handful of votes.
At 2:33 a.m. on a Friday in June, the House passed the Medicare privatization and prescription drug bill by one vote.
At 12:57 a.m. on a Friday in July, the House eviscerated Head Start by one vote.
[A]fter returning from summer recess, at 12:12 a.m. on a Friday in October, the House voted $87 billion for Iraq.
The most sweeping changes to Medicare in its 38-year history were forced through the House at 5:55 on a Saturday morning.
Shameless. It’s not enough that Republicans have a radical agenda; they try to implement that agenda only when they hope no one’s looking.
The mind reels.
