Avenging Angel? Or Gabriel?

Wonkette, the brilliant and prolific new entry that fills the political space in Nick Denton's Mall of Blogs, in between testing her pornographic vocabulary against the Bush campaign's "sloganator" (which I cannot make work with the Mozilla browser), mocks some of the photographs on the Bush web site. Of this one,

she comments, "After you fire the genius who came up with the Sloganator, you might call the photo editor in your office. [Bush] looks like the avenging angel of death, right? . . . Why do these people have jobs?"

A month ago, I mocked some Bush photographs too. In that case it was the illustrations in the Fiscal Year 2005 Budget of the United States of America. In the first budget that his administration prepared, Bush argued that the inclusion for the first time of "color and photographs" would enhance the "readability" of the document, and support the larger goal of "inaugurat[ing] an era of accountability in the conduct of the nation’s public business...[and] reporting to taxpayers on the relative effectiveness of the thousands of purposes on which their money is spent." I said in jest that the actual photographs in the Bush budget for FY 20005 made it seem more like the administration had decided to close the deficit by selling ad space in a trusted document to the reelection campaign.

But Wonkette's picture looked familiar. Yes, the budget photos and the campaign ads are exactly the same photos

This appeared in the section of the Federal budget entitled Upholding America's Values:

Caring for our seniors. President Bush meets with 94 year old Anna Tovcimak after a roundtable discussion on Medicare Liability Reform in Scranton, Pennsylvania.

Is there anything illegal about this? Probably not. A picture of the President is a picture of the President, and maybe they think the Religious Right will see the Annunciation imagery here, although a 94-year-old is usually a poor candidate for a virgin birth.

But all humor aside, let's have no illusions: No President before Bush would even think of doing this. The budget is a statement of government. The campaign is the campaign. Budgets don't have pictures in them, much less campaign pictures. It just isn't done.

But the problem with this kind of thing is that, once done, there may be no turning back.

Comments

[praktike]

Sure makes ole DiIulio look reliable, eh? Everything is being run by the political arm, was it?

[Tom]

I'm not sure what the rules are for presidential campaigns, but I know from personal experience that you in a congressional campaign you certainly could not use an "official" photograph - which I would assume means one where the camera, photographer or film were paid for out of government funds - for anything related to the campaign.

For example, I found the Mass GOP complaining that "A photograph of Congressman Meehan at the Pentagon on Sept. 13th, which first appeared in a campaign newspaper advertisement, was then improperly used at least three times in official mailings from his Congressional office. House rules clearly state materials used in campaign literature cannot then appear in franked mailings.

There is a pattern of Meehan using self-promoting photographs both campaign and official purposes. Numerous photographs appear on both his campaign Web site and his House Web site." http://www.massgop.com/press_releases/020702.htm

I'm sure somewhere there is an even more specific prohibition and precedent.

[BC Inaz]

"No President before Bush would even think of doing this."

I imagine, by the extent of the right-wing power-grab and assault on all 3 branches of government, there is alot being dared by this president, that no other president before him his has ever dared. He may have the employment record of Herbert Hoover, but I'm more reminded of Warren G. Harding.

And, I really think it's past time that we stop refering to the bullshit produced in the WH as policy. Think of some other name for it.

[Ben Page]

OK, I'm late commenting here, but what really strikes me about the pictures in the President's budget document is how mind-numbingly stupid the idea is. I mean, how many copies of the Budget are printed? How many people who actually read the budget are undecided voters? I'm guessing close to zero. If you could come up with one (who wasn't offended by the pictures) I'd be amazed. Sure, this says a lot about how unprincipled these people are. But it may say even more about their incompetence.

[none]

OK, I'm late commenting here, but what really strikes me about the pictures in the President's budget document is how mind-numbingly stupid the idea is. I mean, how many copies of the Budget are printed? How many people who actually read the budget are undecided voters? I'm guessing close to zero. If you could come up with one (who wasn't offended by the pictures) I'd be amazed. Sure, this says a lot about how unprincipled these people are. But it may say even more about their incompetence.

[carpeicthus]

Bush is totally draining her vital fluids.

[grava]

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