Not Up to Code? Embellishing the Flag, Then the Web Site

Washington Post ^ | 8/26/03 | Dana Milbank

[TastyManatees]

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."

[TastyManatees]

Dana Milbank is always good for a laugh. Reading his articles is sort of like reading the DNC action fax for that day, except without the subtlety and artistic flair.

Tasty Manatees

[Izzy Dunne]

I love the smell of desperation in the morning...

[an amused spectator]

Dana Milbank, LPOS by his official acronym... ;-)

[an amused spectator]

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."

I tried to Google up "Dana Milbank" and "White House coffees", but found no articles by Dana Mountebank on the subject. He must have been too busy between 1996 and 2000 to write any columns on that tawdry little episode. ;-)