The level of corruption among our current crop of Republican leaders is amazing. Remember, this is the group that impeached Bill Clinton for lying about an affair. But now, if you are Bob Ney, a Republican Committee Chairman in the House and you plead guilty to selling your Congressional office to the highest bidder, well, you can go ahead and keep your job.
And while Ney is selling his services, the Department of Education is doing all that it can to violate contracting rules to make sure that only Bush loyalists are getting contracts.
According to the New York Times,
In a searing report that concludes the first in a series of investigations into complaints of political favoritism in the reading initiative, known as Reading First, the report said officials improperly selected the members of review panels that awarded large grants to states, often failing to detect conflicts of interest. The money was used to buy reading textbooks and curriculum for public schools nationwide.
They not only stacked the review panels but they specifically tried to drive away companies from pursuing contracts.
the director of Reading First, Chris Doherty, urged staff members to make clear to one company that it was not favored at the department.
“They are trying to crash our party and we need to beat the [expletive deleted] out of them in front of all the other would-be party crashers who are standing on the front lawn waiting to see how we welcome these dirtbags,” Mr. Doherty wrote.
We are getting to the point where it seems like we get a weekly scandal from these guys. George W. Bush did change the tone in Washington. He changed it for the worse.
Heard Tom Brokaw speak last night at SMU. He gave a very grave assessment of the war on terrorism and state of world affairs, but surprisingly defended the current administration for taking the problem very seriously and hitting it head-on.
ReplyDeleteWhile neither side of the aisle can claim the high ground on ethics and morals, we should give them all credit for being in the arena. It's becoming a much-maligned profession, and it's a wonder that anyone wants to take on this task.