We've seen evidence that the Bush Administration has used our nation's premier law-enforcement agency (Justice Department) to advance partisan agendas, which is a frightening prospect. Apparently, the Administration may have also tainted the State Department with partisan politics.
Today's Washington Post reports:
"White House aides have conducted at least half a dozen political briefings for the Bush administration's top diplomats, including a PowerPoint presentation for ambassadors with senior adviser Karl Rove that named Democratic incumbents targeted for defeat in 2008 and a "general political briefing" at the Peace Corps headquarters after the 2002 midterm elections.
"The briefings, mostly run by Rove's deputies at the White House political affairs office, began in early 2001 and included detailed analyses for senior officials of the political landscape surrounding critical congressional and gubernatorial races, according to documents obtained by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee."
Why on earth would our top foreign diplomats need briefing on the Administration's electoral strategies?
Ambassadors are political appointees and tend to be big supporters of the presidents who appoint them (i.e., they aren't above partisan politics before they get appointed). The seven ambassadors who attended Rove's briefings, for example, donated $1.6 million to Republican causes from 2000 - 2006 (WaPo, citing Center for Responsive Politics).
Still, one former diplomat found Rove's briefings shocking. Another found them unusual. I don't know whether they violated the Hatch Act, but I imagine someone is looking into it.
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