[ OUR OPINION ]
Loyalty must serve
the nation, not only
the president
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However, if loyalty is to be useful to Bush, it must extend beyond the man himself to the American people and the nation his team serves. To do this, all the president's men and women will have to tell him things he might not want to hear. He would be poorly served by an "amen" chorus unwilling to challenge him.
Accountability has been the biggest casualty of Bush's first four years. Political considerations dictated that an administration arriving at the White House in controversy make no mistakes and if it did, not acknowledge them.
As such, even the administration's evicted misfits like John Ashcroft leave the building claiming, "The objective of securing the safety of Americans from crime and terror has been achieved."
Bush's last term abounds with the unruly offspring of his first. Chief among them is the worsening war in Iraq, spawned by miscalculations of Donald Rumsfeld, who remains entrenched with Vice President Cheney in the belief that killing collateral civilians along with insurgents will win the hearts and minds of Iraqis.
Colin Powell, who pressed Bush to examine keenly the end product of war, was politely but firmly shown the door. Condoleezza Rice, the national security adviser of questionable capability, was escorted in with a kiss on the cheek.
Some of Bush's new appointees have unfamiliar public faces, but are long-time associates suitable for raising his comfort level. They should. He will need their trust as he confronts the myriad matters left undone and still to come.
For Tom Delay, rules
of ethics do not apply
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Delirious with election success, Republicans huddled behind closed doors this week to dismantle their admirable rule that bars indicted members from holding leadership positions. The rule originated in 1993 when a less morally deficient GOP collective decided to set its members apart from Democratic leaders who, at the time, were embroiled in various scandals.
Twice last month DeLay was admonished by the House Ethics Committee for siccing federal officials on Texas legislators who had decamped to Oklahoma to avoid voting on a convoluted redistricting plan DeLay engineered to increase Republican House membership and for staging a questionable fund-raising event. He also was criticized for telling a Michigan congressman he would support the man's son to succeed him in office if he would change his vote on Medicare legislation.
DeLay's fear of indictment flows from charges filed against three of his political cohorts who are accused of illegally using corporate funds to help Republicans win Texas legislative seats. Meanwhile, a former DeLay aide and a member of his "kitchen cabinet" are under investigation in an $82 million scheme to defraud a Texas Indian tribe who sought access to influential politicians to reopen its casino.
Though DeLay may not face similar legal troubles, House Republicans, in one of their first orders of post-election business, altered their ethics rules so that a committee of loyalists will decide whether he should have to step down if he is charged with either a state or federal crime. It appears that the party's touted moral values do not apply inside the sanctuary of its House membership.
