The improprieties of the Bush administration know no bounds. The Washington Post's David Brown has the latest development on the ongoing story of poorly-handled government outlays.

The Bush administration's global AIDS program last fall awarded a grant to promote abstinence in African youth to a politically connected Washington advocacy group, even though the expert committee reviewing requests for government money judged the request "not suitable for funding."

The decision by the committee was overruled by the head of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), a key agency implementing the five-year, $15 billion Bush AIDS plan. On Nov. 1, the administration's global AIDS office approved a grant for an unspecified amount of money to the Children's AIDS Fund.

The existence of the award was revealed yesterday in a letter by Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.) to Randall L. Tobias, head of the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, which is run out of the State Department.

Waxman is seeking details of the Children's AIDS Fund's grant application, why expert reviewers rejected it and why the decision was overruled by Andrew S. Natsios, USAID's head.

It's bad enough that the Bush administration doles out government contracts to its friends; it may be a waste of money, but they aren't the first ones to do it. But for President Bush to waste desperately-needed money slated for fighting AIDS is a sin. Which party has morals?