In the Rovian model, governing is ALL about maintaining political power

As the pet food recall continues and expands (the latest recall is Drs. Foster and Smith Dry Lite dog and cat foods), melamine-tainted grains have found their way into the human food supply, and American chocolate manufacturers, obviously feeling strapped by the expense of increasing the cacao content of dark chocolate, want to pass off artificial sweeteners, milk substitutes and trans fats for actual sugar, milk, and cocoa butter; we now find out that federal agencies have been run as extensions of the RNC during the Bush years:

White House officials conducted 20 private briefings on Republican electoral prospects in the last midterm election for senior officials in at least 15 government agencies covered by federal restrictions on partisan political activity, a White House spokesman and other administration officials said yesterday.

The previously undisclosed briefings were part of what now appears to be a regular effort in which the White House sent senior political officials to brief top appointees in government agencies on which seats Republican candidates might win or lose, and how the election outcomes could affect the success of administration policies, the officials said.

The existence of one such briefing, at the headquarters of the General Services Administration in January, came to light last month, and the Office of Special Counsel began an investigation into whether the officials at the briefing felt coerced into steering federal activities to favor those Republican candidates cited as vulnerable.

Such coercion is prohibited under a federal law, known as the Hatch Act, meant to insulate virtually all federal workers from partisan politics. In addition to forbidding workplace pressures meant to influence an election outcome, the law bars the use of federal resources -- including office buildings, phones and computers -- for partisan purposes.

The administration maintains that the previously undisclosed meetings were appropriate. Those discussing the briefings on the record yesterday uniformly described them as merely "informational briefings about the political landscape." But House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.), who has been investigating the GSA briefing, said, "Politicization of departments and agencies is a serious issue. We need to know more about these and other briefings."

In the GSA briefing -- conducted like all the others by a deputy to chief White House political adviser Karl Rove -- two slides were presented showing 20 House Democrats targeted for defeat and several dozen vulnerable Republicans.

At its completion, GSA Administrator Lurita Alexis Doan asked how GSA projects could be used to help "our candidates," according to half a dozen witnesses. The briefer, J. Scott Jennings, said that topic should be discussed "off-line," the witnesses said. Doan then replied, "Oh, good, at least as long as we are going to follow up," according to an account given by former GSA chief acquisition officer Emily Murphy to House investigators, according to a copy of the transcript.

Federal agencies used to help Republican candidates. A Justice Department built around disenfranchising potential Democratic voters. A Congress rubberstamping the Bush Administration's most flagrant attempts to circumvent the United States Constitution. This has been our government for the last six years until George W. Bush overplayed his Iraq hand, George Allen had his macaca moment and Congress was finally turned over to people who will hold this bunch of criminals to account.

The question is this: Will voters in 2008 remember the last eight years when they vote? Or will they succumb to the "vote Republican or die" rhetoric of Rudy Giuliani?