More Evidence of the Machine

A government contract is withheld because the applicant refused to profess political loyalty to the incumbent party, with the possibility that there was a request for campaign contributions. This is yet another example of what Greg Anrig was described as the "boo-goo" model of government: a resistance to the entire civil service system despite its superior quality to patronage systems. Lest we forget, that civil service system not only enhances government efficiency - it also prevent corruption. The Republican party has been indulging in an orgy of government favoritism to their favored constituencies. Not just policy patronage (i.e. favorable laws), which is somewhat inevitable, but contract and employment patronage.

This country fought long and hard in the 19th and early 20th centuries to destroy the patronage system - a system not only grossly incompetent but massively corrupt. Any political party that attempts to return us to the bad old days must not only be criticized, but utterly repudiated. BushCo. hasn't been guilty of the occasional lapse - what we see here is a systematic, patterned attempt to overturn the civil service laws that prevented big-money donors and party bosses from perverting the political process.

I don't care what your ideological predisposition is - no one should be in favor of destroying the civil service system. No one who cares anything for the republic, anyway.