12th-November-2007
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Politics: So much for female ethics | |
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The supposition that women politicians are more trustworthy, ethical or honest than men are old fashioned at best and sexist at worst. I understand that. Still, those who are, like it or not, still primarily responsible for teaching children right from wrong and honesty from dishonesty are given credit by society, on a subliminal level at least, for holding themselves to higher ethical standards.
Nord is certainly not the only woman to be tone deaf to unethical behavior. She's not even one of the four women picked by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (citizensforethics.org) to land on its "Criminals and Scoundrels" list, a compilation of "The 25 Most Corrupt Officials of the Bush Administration."
And to be bipartisan about this, we all know Democratic Sen. Hillary Clinton was tinged by scandal during her time as first lady in the White House, via associations with the Whitewater and "travelgate" scandals.
But the level of tone-deafness among female Bush appointees seems to rise to a decibel level that would blow out even the eardrums of a corpse. Another woman on CREW's list, General Services Administration Administrator Lurita Doan, has worked tirelessly to trim government oversight of the more than $60 billion in government contracts her agency lets each year. Government oversight was set up to prevent people from robbing the federal treasury.
Doan was investigated by her own agency's Office of Special Counsel for Hatch Act violations. That act bars political appointees from engaging in partisan politics while on duty. But Doan convened a national teleconference in January, 2007 of top GSA political appointees to listen to a spiel by one of Karl Rove's deputies. She later asked the group how they could help "our candidates" (meaning Republicans) in the '08 elections. That's a big no-no.
Certainly other government officials of both sexes and both major parties have done worse. But to stand firm and try to defend such behavior rather than resign in disgrace adds arrogance to ignorance. Call me old fashioned, but I expect higher standards of these women.
| Whole article here.
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