Well Bush can say he isn’t worried about the mid-term elections but behind the scenes it looks different. When memos like this come out you got to wonder what they are thinking:
Career appointees at the Department of Agriculture were stunned last week to receive e-mailed instructions that include Bush administration “talking points” — saying things such as “President Bush has a clear strategy for victory in Iraq” — in every speech they give for the department.
“The President has requested that all members of his cabinet and sub-cabinet incorporate message points on the Global War on Terror into speeches, including specific examples of what each agency is doing to aid the reconstruction of Iraq,” the May 2 e-mail from USDA speechwriter Heather Vaughn began.
The e-mail, sent to about 60 undersecretaries, assistant secretaries and other political appointees, was also sent to “a few people to whom it should not have gone,” said the department’s communications director, Terri Teuber . The career people, we are assured, are not being asked to spread the great news on Iraq in their talks to food stamp recipients, disadvantaged farmers, enviros or other folks.
Ahh yes. Don’t worry about madcow disease. Just make sure you talk up Bush when it comes to his piss-poor decision to go to war in Iraq and his disastrous decisions on how to execute that war.
Now I understand they are trying to write this off as “an accident” that should not have gone to all these people but you know there is a hidden motive behind it. Kind of like an attorney saying something in the courtroom that he knows the judge will throw out, the damage is already done. The information has already been heard by the jury and they won’t “just wipe it from their minds”. The same thing goes with this memo.
Employees who have been stuck in mid or upper management jobs for years now know what is needed to advance; they can go out and spend their time as a cheerleader for Bush instead of focusing on their jobs. We know Bush loves a suck up and so do most Republicans.
Now while the Republicans are out talking about “government waste” why don’t they look at what the White House is doing. They are trying to turn the entire federal government into their own propaganda machine.
“Sorry Mrs. Smith. I know that you can not get the drugs you need to sustain life with the new Medicare-D but you will be glad to know the war on terror is going great and we will make America safer after you are dead”