Does nobody see the blatant conflict of interest in having the co-chair of the Bush-Cheney campaign in Ohio being in charge of the elections in that state?! It seems that conflict of interest doesn’t bother the American electorate that much. The media doesn’t seem to be interested in raising questions about these matters. Why don’t we hear more about how various elected officials are profiting from their positions of power?

Here in BC, premiers have gone down over conflict of interest scandals several times in recent history. Most recently, Glen Clark stepped down over charges that he helped a neighbour get a casino license after the neighbour put a deck on the Premier’s house. A free deck is enough to end Clark’s career, but it would appear that conflicts of interest are rewarded in U.S. federal politics: Bush and friends got another four years.