From: tp@mccall.com (Terry Poot)
Newsgroups: alt.politics.clinton,alt.politics.perot,rec.humor,talk.bizarre,talk.politics.misc
Subject: Re: Bush Campaign TV Ad
Date: 4 Sep 92 21:15:54 GMT
Article-I.D.: mccall.1992Sep4.151554
 <1992Aug30.151633.8704@raider.raidernet.com> <3jze0a8@Unify.Com> <1992Sep1.160714.24667@anasazi.com>
Reply-To: tp@mccall.com (Terry Poot)
Organization: The McCall Pattern Co., Manhattan, KS, USA
Nntp-Posting-User: tp


In article <1992Sep1.160714.24667@anasazi.com>, john@anasazi.com (John R. Moore)
writes:
>In article <3jze0a8@Unify.Com> ceb@dbrus.Unify.Com (Caroline E. Bryan) writes:
>]One I like particularly is a law that is all-but-unnoticed outside the DC
>]beltway.  It prohibits Federal employees from engaging in partisan political
>]activities.  Bush vetoed a bill a year or two ago that would have eliminated
>]this law.  So it gives rise to the questions:
>]	Is the loophole big enough to allow the White House Chief of
>]	Staff to take charge of the Bush/Quayle re-election campaign?

>You're dreaming. The law applies to civil service employees. Otherwise
>every congressman and all of his staff members would be equally
>violating the law.

Define civil service employee. Does it include cabinet members? How about Marlin
Fitzwater? How about the staffs of said people? The entire White House staff is
geared towards re-electing Bush (they must be grateful to have something to do
for a change). I suspect a large number of them are officially civil service,
whatever that means precisely.

They're also, by doing this, stealing money from the US treasury to finance
Bush's re-election campaign, and I for one would like to see someone charged
with embezzlement (I haven't heard anything about the RNC picking up the White
House payroll between now and November). None of this, of course, is new with
Bush, and it's always been wrong, but that never seems to be much of a
criterion.

>]It's not that Bush demonstrates (or doesn't) that he's above the law:  it's
>]that he demonstrates that he *believes* that he's above the law.

Or maybe just unfamiliar with it? I hear working at CIA can cause that.

>You've got it turned around. The executive is NOT above the law, because
>when they are even suspected of violating even the slightest wrinkle of 
>the law they are prosecuted and hounded (ask Casper Weinberger about that).

Only if it gets in the press in a major way. Someone at the White House is doing
a pretty creditable job of quieting down the Iraqgate stuff before it gets to
that point. 

>It is Congress that not only believes it is above the law, but ensures
>it. Congress is immune from labor laws, civil rights laws, environmental
>laws, etc. Congress abuses its employees in a way that would put any
>private employer in jail.

It may be nit-picking, but none of this is "above the law" since those things
are written into the law itself. I agree this is a heinous abuse of their
legislative power, but it is perfectly legal, unlike, say, doctoring export
license records before disclosing them to congress. Nobody should have the power
to excuse themselves from legal responsibility (or set their own pay), but it'd
take a pretty carefully crafted constitutional amendment to do anything about
it. Don't expect to see one come out of congress any time soon.

>Furthermore, because Congress is afraid that violations of laws that they
>failed to protect themselves from (such as bribery) will hurt them, they
>will fail to renew the special prosecutor law this year. They have
>finally realized that they cannot harrass the executive using special
>prosecutors without having those same prosecutors coming after them!

Why do you need a special prosecutor to go after congress? The Justice
department can do that. You only need a special prosecutor to go after the
administration, since it is unrealistic to expect the Justice department to go
after their bosses effectively. The law should be renewed.
--
Terry Poot <tp@mccall.com>                   The McCall Pattern Company
(uucp: ...!rutgers!depot!mccall!tp)          615 McCall Road
(800)255-2762, in KS (913)776-4041           Manhattan, KS 66502, USA
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