Apparently the Bush Administration toyed with using the CIA to buy off favorable candidates in the upcoming election.
Ok, where to start with this…well, first, we should note that using the CIA to influence elctions is nothing new for our country. And that’s what’s so shocking about it. President Bush has, on many occasions, justified this war by saying it was a break with past American strategies of covertly supporting dictators, of favoring temporary stability over messy long-term democracy. He’s decried the realpolitik of Cold-War-era politicians from Kissinger to, well, George H.W. Bush, all of whom thought it was more important to stabilize the third world under strongmen like Saddam rather than try to democratize it.
And now we find out that the President was full of shit all along.
I can’t think of any other way to put it, honestly. I mean, I understand that the U.S. has a self interest in seeing the right candidates win in January. But to go in front of the U.N. like Bush did and chastise them for failing to act in the name of human rights and the march of Democracy, only to spend time and money corrupting that very process behind their back, smacks of the highest hypocrisy.
Can anyone actually believe a word this guy says? Fortunately they ended up backing down from the plan.
