NEA: The Final Chapter?

Three prior posts detailed the Administration's illegal and outrageous attempt to target arts subsidies to support legislation Obama favors. Though the mainstream media mostly avoided the topic, coverage from right-leaning blogs got:

1. Yosi Sergant fired: Sergant was the NEA's "Communications Director" who organized the call between NEA-funded artists and White House staff. Early this week, he was "reassigned" to other, unspecified, duties, but resigned on Thursday. The NEA says Sergant was wrong but acted without either authority or approval--but that doesn't lessen the culpability of the White House personnel involved. And it's not like this sort of abuse is unknown under Obama.



2. NEA to whitewash its homepage: Until early this week, the "resources" on NEA's webpage included a "Health Insurance" heading that linked to the Artists’ Health Insurance Resource Center (AHIRC), which urged artists to lobby Congress for health care reform. By Wednesday, the NEA link disappeared, and the AHIRC page deleted the reference to legislation and Congressional contact--a good thing because, as a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization, AHIRC is barred from "attempting . . . to influence legislation." Oops: more illegality, and a conspiracy, without the outrage that would have ensued during the Bush Administration.

Conclusion: The notion that Republican government is corrupt while Democrats are pure is nonsense. Though perhaps the perception is understandable--when the media covers up Democrat cover-ups.