Bush regime bans voter registration at VA hospitals

Another day, another instance of the Bush regime stabbing veterans in the back.

I'm about as antiwar as you can get, but at least I appreciate vets - which chickenhawks like Bush do not. It turns out that back in May, Bush's Veterans Health Administration issued a ukase to hospitals that are under its control. According to the directive, voter registration drives - even by nonpartisan groups - are no longer permitted at the hospitals.

Because of this order, a nonpartisan group can't come in and register veterans to vote. I guess Bush thinks it's fair that a soldier who was grievously injured fighting for their country shouldn't be able to exercise one of the country's most basic rights.

The directive cites the Hatch Act as the reason for this new rule. But that's not what the Hatch Act is for. The Hatch Act is to stop government employees from engaging in partisan activity. It says nothing about independent nongovernment groups engaging in nonpartisan activity.

The directive is here (watch out, for it's in PDF format):

http://www1.va.gov/vhapublications/ViewPublication.asp?pub_ID=1687

I don't understand why the media hasn't been all over this story. The directive clearly says that "voter registration drives are not permitted." They said it, not me.

So which option will Bush's apologists choose? Will they ignore this issue? Will they defend the directive (despite it being utterly indefensible)? Or will they say the directive doesn't really mean it?