Playing partisan politics with international telecom standards

The State Department has traditionally put together a list of industry representatives for these meetings, and anyone in the U.S. telecom industry who had the requisite expertise and wanted to go was generally given a slot, say past participants. Only after the start of Bush's second term did a political litmus test emerge, industry sources say.

The White House admits as much: "We wanted people who would represent the Administration positively, and--call us nutty--it seemed like those who wanted to kick this Administration out of town last November would have some difficulty doing that," says White House spokesman Trent Duffy.

Well, I won't call you "nutty", but I will call you a filthy partisan bribe-seeking whore. Good enough? (No offense intended to the hard working sisters in the International Order of Manual Release Technicians)