More on the character of the new machine appeared in an AP story today. Here is an excerpt from the Detroit Free Press. (The full story is longer than the Free Press version, but I have not yet found it on line.)

By Nancy Benac

WASHINGTON -- The Treasury Department analyzes Sen. John Kerry's tax proposals and the numbers soon find their way to the Republican National Committee.

The Health and Human Services Department spends millions on ads promoting President George W. Bush's prescription drug plan. The House Resources Committee posts a diatribe against Kerry's"absurd" energy ideas on its government-funded Web site.

In the time-honored tradition of presidents past, Bush is using the resources of the federal government to promote his re-election. Some critics say the president is going beyond his predecessors in using government means to accomplish political ends.

"What this administration has done is taken trends from the past and then projected them into the stratosphere," said Allan Lichtman, a presidential scholar at American University."We've never seen a political operation like this White House does, and that includes the maximum use of government resources."