Toe the line -- or else

When are these people going to learn?

You toe the line on Bush administration policies -- no matter how disastrous -- and you get promoted. Maybe you even get a Presidential Medal of Freedom. Dare to dissent? You're history.

Lawrence Greenfeld got the message earlier this month. In 2001, the president appointed Greenfeld to lead the Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics. But as the New York Times reported the other day, the White House pressured Greenfeld to resign -- then demoted him -- after Greenfeld complained that senior officials at the Justice Department were trying to suppress data that showed disparities in the way racial minorities are treated when stopped by police.

Now it's Bunnatine Greenhouse's turn. Greenhouse, a senior contracting official for the U.S. Army, was demoted this weekend after raising concerns about Halliburton's no-bid contracting in Iraq. The Army says the action is the result of Greenhouse's poor performance on the job. Her lawyer says it's "obvious reprisal" for objections she has raised about Halliburton subsidiary Kellog Brown & Root.