The Left-Cheek Ass Clown for August, 2020

Sometimes, the level of sheer brazenness lets this award write itself. This is one of those times. The dishonor of being

The Left-Cheek Ass Clown for 2020

is bestowed, without the least hesitation and for the fifth time, on

Secretary of State

Mike Pompeo

Such is the outrageous behavior of Mr Pompeo that in January of this year, he was presented with an out-of-cycle special award for over-the-top ass clownery for undermining his own department and employees in in order to defend Der Furor in his impeachment investigation*. And yet, he has now exceeded even that level of brazen disregard for the dignity of his office and his determined undermining of the norms expected of elected officials.

On Tuesday of this week, Mr Pompeo delivered a taped speech to the Republican National Convention which provided a full-throated endorsement of Der Furor. It is bad enough that this is an open and shameless violation of the Hatch Act - 5 USC §§7321-7326 - (which prohibits all federal employees other than the president and vice president from engaging in overtly partisan political activity) while on an official, taxpayer-funded visit to Israel. His action was made more indefensible and hypocritical in light of an e-mail which Pompeo sent on July 24th of this year to the Department's employees:

"... the Department’s longstanding policy is that U.S. citizen employees and family members may not engage in partisan political activity while posted or on TDY abroad, even on personal time. (3 FAM 4123.3) Similarly, Presidential and political appointees and career SES are subject to significant restrictions on their political activity; they may not engage in any partisan political activity in concert with a partisan campaign, political party, or partisan political group, even on personal time and outside of the federal workplace." (emphasis added)

Mr Pompeo and the GOP defended his action by claiming that he was speaking "in his personal capacity," although this is specifically forbidden by his own policy, and as if his remarks could be separated from his official position and the reason for his being in the location from which he was speaking in the first place.

There are those who will either cheer this action as yet another example of Der Furor's administration employing outrageous (and often arguably illegal or unconstitutional) actions to stick a finger in the eye of tradition and the sober and thoughtful behavior we expect of our elected officials, or will shrug helplessly at yet another brazen violation of the law in support of a partisan agenda. The former will deserve what they get if they succeed in the reelection of Der Furor; the latter will regret their willingness to ignore scandalously illegal behavior.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Dear Readers, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is the Left-Cheek Ass Clown for August, 2020. I wish it were not so, because of the focus it brings to the degradation of our government in support of a manifestly ignorant, morally corrupt, professionally unfit, and blatantly authoritarian administration.

Have a good day. Come back tomorrow for Cartoon Saturday. After listening to a week of historical revisionism and denial of reality at the RNC, you'll need it.

Bilbo

* Here are Mr Pompeo's other previous Ass Clown Awards: December 7, 2018; November 22, 2019; and May 22, 2020.