Not Up to Code? Embellishing the Flag, Then the Web Site
By Dana Milbank
Tuesday, August 26, 2003; Page A11
Let us hope they don't put Potus in the pokey for being too patriotic.
The president of the United States -- Potus, by his official acronym -- went on a brief foray into the criminal underworld last month in Livonia, Mich., where he ran afoul of U.S. Code Title 4, Chapter 1, Section 8 (g): "The flag should never have placed upon it, nor on any part of it, nor attached to it any mark, insignia, letter, word, figure, design, picture, or drawing of any nature." The transgression occurred when President Bush, on a July 24 visit to Beaver Aerospace & Defense Inc., accepted a request to sign a well-wisher's U.S. flag.
Charges have not been filed against Bush, who after this brush with the law may be relieved that the flag desecration amendment has not been adopted.
Few would begrudge Bush this patriotic lapse, of course. But some Democrats and government watchdog groups are charging that Bush has been playing fast-and-loose with some more important statutes: those that govern the separation between the president's official duties and his political duties.
The main eyebrow-raiser is the posting on the official White House Web site of speeches by Bush and Vice President Cheney at fundraisers for their reelection campaign. The government Web site, www.whitehouse.gov, displays, for example, Bush's speech to a Bush-Cheney luncheon last week in Oregon, in which Bush pronounced the event "a record fundraiser," and the previous week's fundraiser in California, in which he said, "We're laying the foundation for next year's campaign."
Foul, judges Larry Noble, the executive director of the watchdog group Center for Responsive Politics. "It's inappropriate. It's a government Web site. It's the use of government property for political work, which is illegal. They have to be careful."
The Democrats' all-purpose gumshoe, Rep. Henry A. Waxman (Calif.), ranking member of the House Government Reform Committee, protested that "a government Web site paid for by taxpayer funds is being used to disseminate partisan, political information." Particularly irksome to Waxman was a Cheney speech on the White House site joking that those present "probably paid a little more to get in than I did," and noting that "every dollar we raised was important."
An analysis by Waxman's lawyers argued that Bush and Cheney, when they appear at fundraisers, are giving "not official speeches, bur rather political speeches." According to the U.S. Code (31 U.S.C 1301(a)), "appropriations shall be applied only to the objects for which the appropriations were made," which means only for official -- not political -- purposes. By posting campaign speeches on the Web site, White House staffers could be violating the Hatch Act, which restricts political actions by government employees. If the White House considers the fundraising speeches "official," the lawyers argue, they could be violating anti-bribery statutes.
White House spokeswoman Ashley Snee said the administration believes no laws have been violated.
Bush has been working overtime to recover from his indelicate description of first lady Laura Bush on June 27 as "the lump in the bed next to me." On the West Coast last week, he told one crowd: "My main regret for coming here is the fact that I'm not traveling with the first lady. She is a great first lady. I love her dearly. I'm proud to call her 'wife,' and I already miss her."
The president apparently has been forgiven. In an interview for the October Ladies' Home Journal, the two described their marriage as stronger than before their ascent to the White House. "All the things that might've irritated me, like not hanging up his towels, I don't have to worry about anymore," Laura Bush said. "Someone in the White House hangs up the towels."
Even Karl Rove, the president's political brain, has been boasting about the president's marriage. Describing a "revealing" private conversation with Bush, Rove told a GOP fundraiser in Louisiana this month that Bush told him: "My marriage is the best it's ever been."
Nobody ever said compassionate conservatives are colorblind. On the Bush '04 campaign's new Web site, there is a "photo gallery" feature for each of the president's policy priorities. In the "compassion" photo gallery, 16 of the 20 shots feature Bush with non-white faces (the other four are studies of Bush). By contrast, all 16 of the photos in the "environment" gallery display what appear to be white complexions.
Major revision:
"President Bush Announces Combat Operations in Iraq Have Ended."
-- Headline on the White House Web site over May 1 speech by Bush.
"President Bush Announces Major Combat Operations in Iraq Have Ended."
-- Headline on the White House Web site over the same May 1 speech after Bush said in an Aug. 14 interview that "we still have combat operations going on."
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