Jim Hightower

What is it about Bush & Company that makes both George and his corporate cronies so hamhanded about ethics?

Take Bush's recent attempt to shove Michael Baroody into the charimanship of the Consumer Products Safety Commission. This watchdog agency is supposed to protect the public from manufacturers who make shoddy products that harm or kill people. So – is Baroody a noted consumer advocate?

Hardly! He's the top lobbyist for the National Association of Manufacturers! Yes, he represents the very makers of the dangerous and deadly products the agency is supposed to guard against. With this appointment, Bush was not merely putting the fox in the henhouse – he was trying to deliver the hens directly to the fox's den!

To make this obvious conflict of interest even stinkier, the NAM came up with an under-the-table scheme to subsidize Baroody's salary at the consumer agency, promising to hand him a forget-me-not of $150,000. The Bushites knew about this payment – yet saw nothing even slightly unethical about it.

Luckily, senators did. When it became clear that Baroody would not be confirmed, he withdrew his name. Did Bush & Company finally see the light? Of course not! The White House responded with a snippy attack on the critics of this insulting appointment, saying that senators had "rushed to judgment." Well, thank goodness they did – someone needed to show some good judgment. Meanwhile, the head of the NAM had a little hissy fit, whining loudly that there and been an "unprincipled smear campaign waged against Mike."

The reason Bush and buddies are so clueless is that they are eaten up with corporate arrogance and avarice. They possess a stunning sense of entitlement, leading them to treat our government as their private plaything. What they need is to have a good kindergarten teacher assigned to refresh each of them on the basics of playground ethics.