(Postmus was really a rising star in the GOP. You used to see his ads all over the Flash Report.  I suppose this is a parable about the dangers of meth. – promoted by Brian Leubitz)

For decades now, the War on Drugs has been a largely Republican propaganda campaign — devoted to criminalizing possession of even small, personal amounts of illegal drugs; imprisoning millions of mostly poor, black or brown people who were unfortunate enough to become addicted to such drugs; and demonizing Democratic politicians who support a more humane approach to the problem.

So, when a somewhat prominent Republican has an illegal drug issue, it’s one of those GOP hypocrisy moments that deserves a DKos diary.

The GOP pol is Bill Postmus, the assessor of San Bernadino County, Calif., who was “once a political juggernaut who showered money on his Republican allies.”

Now, not so much. Postmus evidently has rehab and legal bills that take precedence these days.

Details, below.

According to the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin, the reason Postmus took an abrupt “medical leave of absence last month” was because of his addiction to meth.

Postmus has for the past few years struggled with an addiction to methamphetamine, which has twice landed him in drug rehabilitation centers, said sources close to Postmus who asked to remain anonymous.

Postmus is a former county supervisor “who once dreamed of rising as high as Congress.” He won’t get there now.

Postmus has his own scandal to deal with, but so does his top protege and assessor campaign manager.

Former Assistant Assessor Adam Aleman, also “widely considered a rising star in local Republican circles,” has been indicted on six felony charges.

Three of the six charges against Aleman accuse him of backdating and falsifying documents in January. A fourth charge alleges he submitted the tampered documents to the grand jury.

Among the alleged fabrications, investigators believe Aleman ordered a reluctant secretary to alter meeting minutes to give the false impression that a consultant had been performing on a number of county-related projects, court documents say.

County investigators were looking into allegations that the consultant, Mike Richman, was doing very little county work and instead was focusing on the political campaigns of several Republican candidates.

The final charges against Aleman accuse him of destroying the hard drive of a laptop computer in mid-2007 and, in the process, destroying public records. The hard drive was in a laptop issued to Postmus when he was a county supervisor.

I’m generally a compassionate type, especially in addiction matters.

But when illegal-drug-abusing Republican hacks are found out, and their office has been illegally abused for political advantage, well, I’m not very compassionate about that.