WEASELS VS. AIDS RELIEF:

Some of the personnel stumbles of the Obama administration — including the abortive nomination of Bill Richardson as commerce secretary — resulted from incompetent vetting. William Lynn’s reception as deputy secretary of defense has been complicated by hypocrisy — the administration’s attempt to gain political credit for a restrictive lobbying ban it swiftly violated to get a qualified appointee.

But one major personnel error was made from malice. And it calls into question the depth and duration of President Obama’s “new politics.” . . . It is difficult to imagine what vision of public service could cause any Obama official to celebrate a victory by sabotaging a good man and a good cause. And it is difficult to conceive what political gain Obama has achieved. This type of captivity to extreme interests is precisely what has discredited Democrats so often in the past. It is a kind of politics with all the “newness” of a purge, all the “freshness” of a mugging.

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