In a just remarkable move, the Bush administration has issued an executive order declaring that every federal agency must create a regulatory policy office run by a political appointee that supervises the creation of rules and documents guiding regulated industries, a job traditionally done by apolitical bureaucrats and scientific experts.
Unsurprisingly, business is just giddy over the idea; labor, environmental, and consumer groups somewhat less so. It's a fine reminder, though, that we still have two years of the Bush presidency to go, and even while curtailed by the Democratic Congress, they'll do much to entrench their corporatist vision and ensure the plants disgorging pollutants and and employers fostering potentially lethal work conditions need fear only their consciences, not the tangible aggregation of citizen power that's supposed to govern their actions.
