Editorial: Never-ending propaganda

Saturday, May 13, 2006 | 7:09 a.m.

It appears the White House is instructing even its lower-level agency bureaucrats to start leading cheers for President Bush's Iraq policies. The Washington Post reports that a May 2 e-mail from an Agriculture Department speechwriter was sent to about 60 assistant secretaries and other political appointees, who routinely give speeches to a wide variety of groups.

The e-mailed memo stated, "The president has requested that all members of his Cabinet and sub-Cabinet incorporate message points on the Global War on Terror into speeches, including specific examples of what each agency is doing to aid the reconstruction of Iraq."

Further, the e-mail included suggested language that the officials should include in their talks. The e-mail also included helpful examples of how to deftly slip message points about the war into a speech about, of all things, farming: "Several topics I'd like to talk about today - Farm Bill, trade with Japan, WTO, avian flu ... but before I do, let me touch on a subject people always ask about ... progress in Iraq." How clever.

The missive went on to suggest that agency officials link terrorism and Iraq, instructing them to make the dubious claim that Iraq "will never again be a safe haven for terrorists." The e-mail also included instructions to the officials to forward a weekly list of the dates and places of their speeches to the USDA speechwriting office, which would forward it to the White House. No heavy hand here, huh?

It is one thing for the White House to keep Cabinet secretaries on message, but it's ridiculous to micromanage every department head who gives a speech on soybean rust or egg production. The Bush administration should let the federal agencies do their jobs - making them spin war propaganda not only is ridiculous but it is also unseemly.