Just another crime

It's starting to seem like breaking the law is a requirement for membership in the Republican party.

The former chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting broke federal law by interfering with PBS programming and appearing to use political tests in hiring the corporation's new president, internal investigators said Tuesday.

Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, a Republican, also sought to withhold funding from PBS unless the taxpayer-supported network brought in more conservative voices to balance its programming, said the report by CPB inspector general Kenneth A. Konz.

Tomlinson was chairman of the corporation until September and resigned as a board member earlier this month after Konz privately shared his findings with the board. The report was publicly released Tuesday.

How long until moderate, white suburbanites can no longer ignore the crimes of their party so they can keep a little bit more money? How long will they consider "taxes" a dirtier word than "perjury," "ethics violation," "money laundering," "election rigging," "racism," "fixing intelligence" and "torture"?