Can We Have a Nation When Only Partisans Are Served?

Posted on February 8, 2007
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George W. Bush How frightening is this?

mcjoan of the Daily Kos writes:
…there’s news of a “bloggers roundtable” that occurred yesterday with Major General Kenneth Hunzeker, the Army officer in charge of the Iraqi police training program. Who attended this roundtable? Googling reveals no reports other than one by RedState’s AcademicElephant.

The contributing editors at Daily Kos weren’t invited to this conference call. There’s no mention of it in any of the blogs on the left side of the blogosphere that I could find, so presumably no other left bloggers were invited, either. It would appear that the Pentagon has gotten into the game of partisan politics….

I find, so far, no corroboration that this roundtable actually happened, just the one source. If it is true, there is something dangerous about a report that the Pentagon, itself, or even a lone general, is taking partisan politics to the people. This is my gut—I have no guesses about what’s going on here.

It is truly f’d up that the administration has thoroughly politicized the output of EPA, OSHA, and a few dozen other acronyms. If the administration now encourages the military to talk only to writers and media who pass a political litmus test, where do such actions lead? If the military and the executive branch serve only Republican partisans and not the nation as a whole, can we have a nation or do we have a fascist state?

mcjoan is not the only blogger who interpreted the report this way. In a comment to AcademicElephant’s story, a blogger from the right calling himself Marcus Traianus from “The Minority Report” says:

Surely, a simple blogger does not have unfettered access to this type of first hand information. In point of fact it seems like this was a special “appeal” to a wider audience. Why is that? Anyone care to take that question?

I want to know the answer to that question as well.