Vote Them Out.

If government were run like the NCAA, today would be the day that a full-blown investigation into Major Infractions would begin, and it would probably end with a sanction for what is known in the world of athletics as "lack of institutional control."

To continue the allegory, let's say that the President and his administration are the College football team. We'll say Congress represents the Athletic Department, and we, the People, along with our Inspector Generals in each governmental administration, are the NCAA.

Normally, a school can get away with a recruiting violation here and there, and just have to pay a fine, maybe lose a scholarship or two. Sometimes, though, the violations are so big and flagrant that the NCAA has to really bring down the hammer. This most often happens in the case of severe and, more importantly, repeated violations.

And that's what the Administration has gotten itself into.

In 2004, viewers of many legitimate news stations saw "news stories" reported by a young man named Mike Morris, describing the new White House efforts against drug abuse. Problem is, Mike Morris wasn't a newscaster - he was a paid actor in a propaganda spot produced by the office of National Drug Control Policy.

Congress's investigative arm, the non-partisan General Accounting Office, said that this was illegal propagandizing, because among other things, the fake news release made itself out to be a legitimate news story.

That wasn't the GAO's first ruling on this sort of case - they said the same thing about a DHHR release that ended in "In Washington, I'm Karen Ryan reporting," which is the sort of thing that the public expects to hear from, say, a reporter. It also includes the words "Reporter Karen Ryan helps sort through the details." The GAO said that this sort of fake news story broke two laws, partly because Karen Ryan isn't a reporter - she's a PR consultant who was retained by DHHR at the time.

Anyone with half a nerve cell should also remember the Armstrong Williams fiasco, in which Williams, who was up until then a legitimate media type, got paid $240,000 to tell his readers just how great the No Child Left Behind Act was. Williams's career is now, thankfully, over.

Two days ago the Washington Post, and yesterday the New York Times reported that the Pentagon had hired a consultant, Lincoln Group, to do things like pay Iraqi reporters a few bucks to publish stories written by the Lincoln Group under their own names. These stories are unfailingly positive, because that's what the Pentagon's Information Office likes to have said about the US. It's their job.

But, of course, interfering in another country's media is not going to go over well with our citizenry here, either. Any more than the ONDCP and DHHR fake news did. And interfering in the proper training of foreign media isn't really a great PR move. Ironically enough, the Lincoln Group is a PR firm, so maybe they should have known the benefits of ethical behavior before going into this.

The Times story linked to above (if you don't have a login, go to BugMeNot) also mentions that the White House and General Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, had no idea that this was going on.

As President Bush once said, "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on...well, you're not gonna fool me again!" I agree with him. There's no reason for us to get fooled again by this chicanery. The President, or at least the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, or both, knew full well that this nonsense and meddling was going on, and once again didn't bother to make sure it was ethical, moral, or even legal. The White House says it's concerned, which we should all know by now is only a half-truth. They aren't concerned that the Pentagon and the Lincoln Group engaged in this behavior.

They're concerned that they got caught.

Maybe it's time for the NCAA to step in and end the football program at this school. Get us a new coach. And probably a new AD too. You can't have "lack of institutional control" without the institution being the problem too.