Okay, one more...

The Bush administration continues their Party Before Principle attacks on liberty. Having recently worked hard to stack the court not with conservative justices but partisan ones, the Bush administration is going ahead with some pretty audacious legal moves.

Reuters and Associated Press are reporting that the Supreme Court will re-hear arguments in a whistleblower case. According to the AP article

The Bush administration wants the court to use the case to make it harder for government whistleblowers to win lawsuits claiming retaliation. Justices had seemed conflicted last October when they took up the appeal involving Los Angeles County prosecutor Richard Ceballos, who asserted he was demoted for trying to expose a lie by a sheriff's deputy.

Dogged by whistleblowers outing administration failures, incompetence, corruption, and illegal activities, the Bush administration is looking for an easier way to retaliate against honest people who take a stand on principle. The re-hearing of arguments will allow an opportunity for recently sworn-in Justice Alito to vote in favor of the GOP's Party Before Principle stance.

The Associated Press is also reporting that the White House will join Republican controlled Texas in defending Tom DeLay's redistricting map. The Bush administration will have the Department of Justice argue in favor of Tom DeLay's redistricting plan even though the Department of Justice found it to be illegal (and racist).

The memo, unanimously endorsed by six lawyers and two analysts in the department's voting section, said the redistricting plan illegally diluted black and Hispanic voting power in two congressional districts. It also said the plan eliminated several other districts in which minorities had a substantial, though not necessarily decisive, influence in elections.

"The State of Texas has not met its burden in showing that the proposed congressional redistricting plan does not have a discriminatory effect," the memo concluded.

The memo also found that Republican lawmakers and state officials who helped craft the proposal were aware it posed a high risk of being ruled discriminatory compared with other options.

The Bush administration, backed by today's Republican Party, is interested not in democracy or liberty or, even, the best interests of the American people. Though the Justice Department attorneys charged with evaluating DeLay's redistricting plan unanimously found it to be illegal and racist, the Bush White House has decided to defend the plan in front of the Supreme Court. They have their sights set on one goal - consolidation of power at any cost.

No matter how you look at it, for today's Republican leadership, it's Party Before Principle, and nothing else.