Rice Bars US Embassies From Helping Candidates--AFTER McCain Got Help From US Embassy in Colombia

Someone on Capitol Hill needs to bring the Secretary of State before their committee and start asking some very pointed questions--as in, "are you going to use the State Department to influence the Presidential election?"

The night before presumptive Democratic nominee Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) left for Afghanistan, Iraq and Western Europe for a tour of US bases overseas, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice issued a cable to US missions forbidding them from holding events for presidential candidates or arrange meetings for them.

Rice issued no such cable prior to foreign excursions by presumptive Republican nominee Sen. John McCain (R-AZ).

In a cable sent late Thursday, according to a copy leaked to the Washington Times, Rice enjoined American diplomats to treat the candidates as "members of Congress visiting in personal or semi-personal capacities," but "with additional restrictions based on rules related to political activity."

That's right--she didn't instruct officials at the US Embassy in Colombia to treat John McCain like this. In fact, US Embassy officials went with him on his ridiculous boat ride junket:

McCain and his wife, Cindy, were briefed on interdiction efforts then toured the bay in a fast boat, named “Midnight Express 39,” with U.S. Embassy officials, Colombian military and government officials and the Secret Service. The boat is part of a 12-boat drug interdiction fleet that the Colombian navy bought from the United States with funds from Plan Colombia – the 10-year, $5-billion-dollar U.S. program.

McCain, dressed in khakis, a blue-and-white button-down shirt and a Navy baseball cap, arrived with Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.).

Coincidentally, Obama has Senators Chuck Hagel and Jack Reed with him--one Republican and one Democrat. McCain couldn't even be bothered to take a Democrat with him.

This is an outrageous abuse of power. The Hatch Act has never meant anything to these people, nor has restraint or common decency. Every time someone criticizes the left wing blogosphere for using obscenities or expressing outrage needs to understand something--the Republicans in this country abuse their power on a daily basis in ways no one ever thought possible without regret or remorse.

If the full weight of the Executive Branch is now going to align itself with the McCain campaign, then the US Congress better step in and stop it by any means necessary.

--WS