It will be impossible to argue with a private agreement if both parties to the agreement ‘agree’. But McCain has benefited via ballot access. This fact cannot be denied.

new suggestion: have a current action box.

Do you want to put this item up in the action box at the top right corner of the page?

Bushies are the latest generation of a decades old movement. In its current mutation, it shuns centuries old political compromise because that would acknowledge that its competitors have legitimate interests worth protecting. It attempts, instead, to co-opt government in order to promote its exclusive interests.

What it can’t co-opt, it renders incompetent: allocate inadequate budgets, hire incompetent staff (an ex-horse trader running an emergency response agency?), or appoint regulatory agencies’ lifelong enemies to run them. Staffing “impasses” work too.

The purpose of nominating von Spakovsky is to shut down the FEC. He’s either appointed, which co-opts or slows its work, or he’s rejected, which the administration uses as its excuse to shut it down. Not coincidentally, this occurs during an election in which its rivals are likely to obliterate its troops at the polls.

Co-opt government or render it incompetent. Either will breed citizens’ contempt. No need to starve the beast if people lose faith in it. Contempt leads to fatigue, hopelessness leads to acceptance. Now just give me your fingerprints and iris scan and you can move to the check out line to pay for your groceries.

On second thought, that seems pretty much how the Bush junta administers most regulations it doesn’t like. It doesn’t.

And love the new hair-do, Jane — you look great!