November 15, 2004 - It is getting downright dangerous in Washington to engage in independent thought; to do your job according to the rules; or speak your mind about anything. It used to be that Senators who occasionally strayed from the party line and did and said what was best for the country – the job they were elected to do – earned a grudging respect from the leaders of their party and the respect of the people. Not any more. Statesmanship is out and rubber stamp loyalty to the party base is in. The Republican controlled Senate is preparing to sidestep its own rules to frustrate Arlen Specter’s ascendance to the term limited chairmanship of the Senate Judiciary Committee. His crime? Saying in public what everyone with an ounce of sense knew; that if the President sent up judicial nominees who had signed on to the Christian Radicals’ anti-gay agenda and promised to repeal Roe v. Wade it would bring down any semblance of bi-partisanship and plunge the Senate into bitter confirmation fights. Speaking of political truths is not a path to popularity with the Bush Administration.

Over at CIA Director Goss is purging the agency. That is not surprising in light of the 9-11/WMD intelligence fiascos. When Director Goss moved over from the House Intelligence Committee there was widespread bipartisan support for correcting the Agency’s shortcomings that manifested itself in his swift confirmation. What comes as a disturbing surprise is that it is the people who got the answers to those problems right that are shown the door. It seems their loyalty is in question – not their loyalty to the United States but their loyalty to George W. Bush and his foreign policy agenda. It seems in the second Bush Administration it is the role of the agency to find “facts” to support the President’s RadiCon agenda not to give the President the facts upon which he may formulate an intelligent and effective foreign policy and certainly not to reveal the truth to the American people.

Over at Don Rumsfeld’s Pentagon Bunnatine Hayes Greenhouse is under fire and facing an effort to either demote her or force her into early retirement. She has been the Corps of Engineers Chief Procurement Officer. It’s the second try at demoting her. Her offense? She wants the Defense Department to play by its own rules when it awards contracts and specifically she has raised questions about the favoritism shown to the Vice-President’s old company in the award of no-bid contracts. It seems that their loyalty is in question – not her loyalty to the United States but her loyalty to the old-boy network that operates the Pentagon-Defense Contractor revolving door. It seems that Ms. Greenhouse did not understand that despite what it said in the job description it was her job to look the other way and certainly not to let the Congress in on the secret.

Loyalty counts for much in a liberty-loving free and democratic society, but it is the kind of loyalty that crosses party lines and is devoted to keeping the country free and operating by the rule of law. The President is not the embodiment of the nation nor is the essence of patriotism blind loyalty to his person or his political agenda. We leave that definition of loyalty and patriotism to banana republics and totalitarian regimes. In America we have no bananas.