Incompetence or conspiracy? Here's Paul Krugman's 3/28 op-ed piece describing the screw-ups (and bald-faced lies!?) of the administration in its response to the California energy "crisis." Perhaps the same
modus operandi -- the use of political muscle -- applies to the rest of their policies and behaviors.
...We may never know what really went on in the energy task force since the Bush administration has gone to extraordinary lengths to keep us from finding out. At first the nonpartisan General Accounting Office, which is supposed to act as an internal watchdog, seemed determined to pursue the matter. But after the midterm election, according to the newsletter The Hill, Congressional Republicans approached the agency's head and threatened to slash his budget unless he backed off.
And therein lies the broader moral. In the last two years Mr. Cheney and other top officials have gotten it wrong again and again ?- on energy, on the economy, on the budget. But political muscle has insulated them from any adverse consequences. So they, and the country, don't learn from their mistakes ?- and the mistakes keep getting bigger.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/28/opinion/28KRUG.html
