State Department: Obama speech off limits

By GottaLaff

Via CLG:

Berlin Rally Is Off-Limits for Embassy Workers 24 Jul 2008 The U.S. Embassy in Berlin has instructed Foreign Service personnel stationed there not to attend Sen. Barack Obama's public rally today, which the State Department this week labeled a "partisan political activity" prohibited under its regulations for those serving overseas. Government employees serving in the United States are permitted to attend such events under the Hatch Act, which bars other partisan activity, such as contributing money or working in behalf of a candidate. [Bush has been violating the Hatch Act six ways to Sunday, since the first GOP coup d'etat in 2000.]

The bracketed comment is CLG's, but I agree. Who can blame Bush, really? If any of his minions attended, they'd have been forced to witness what over 100,000 others did: A genuine leader with a strong sense of responsibility who doesn't have to manufacture his own reality.

Yeah, better that he kept them shackled to their office chairs. Exposure to someone like Obama who reveres the Constitution and the rule of law might have short-circuited their collective psyche and caused an international incident.