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Special Counsel Calls On Bush To Punish GSA Head
The head of the General Services Administration should be punished "to the fullest extent" (i.e. fired) for wrongfully attempting to help Republican candidates based on their political affiliation, Special Counsel Scott Bloch wrote in a letter to President Bush released last night.
Now GSA chief Lurita Doan's fate is up to the White House. Bloch's Office of Special Counsel, which is charged with investigating Hatch Act violations, interviewed Doan for nine hours over the course of two days and spoke with 21 GSA employees, the Associated Press reports:
White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said they had received the Bloch letter and it was under review. The White House previously acknowledged conducting about 20 meetings over the past several years for federal employees on GOP election prospects while insisting that such informational briefings are neither unlawful nor unusual.
Doan is set to testify before the House Oversight Committee tomorrow.
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So once again we're going to have people demanding that adminsitration officials be punished for doing EXACTLY what this administration hired them to do. The Administration wants us to believe that Doan, Gonzales, Sampson, Goodling, Schlozman, et al, are somehow rogue, and that their actions (now that they've been caught) are not sanctioned. We will get nowhere until the Dems discover enough fortitude to put Rove on the stand.
June 12, 2007 11:08 AM | Reply | Permalink
Is there not one Democrat that is capable of stealing the data from the RNC and publishing it? C'mon you black hat bastards, do some ahcking for chrissakes.
June 12, 2007 11:14 AM | Reply | Permalink
Will this hearing be on Cspan3 or streamed on the committee website?
June 12, 2007 11:16 AM | Reply | Permalink
We will get nowhere until the Dems discover enough fortitude to put Rove on the stand.
Not even then will you get anywhere. Remember Rove is the king of liars. The rest of these people are his underlings. No.... it will require some drastic acts either by congress or the people.
June 12, 2007 11:39 AM | Reply | Permalink
Yeah, but here's the thing. What (apparently) pissed off OSC was that Doan was dishonest and unrepentant in her nine hours of testimony. Which is pretty much par for the course.
But focusing on Doan misses the larger point. She didn't create the presentation, she didn't request it, and she didn't deliver it. Scott Jennings and other Rove deputies were going around to executive branch offices and delivering canned presentations in blatant violation of the Hatch Act. Doan's getting slammed because she's incredibly stupid - she crossed the line so blatantly, and alienated the bulk of her staff so thoroughly, that she was an easy target.
Her offense, though, was making explicit the clear implicit message of the presentation: government employees were expected to abuse their positions to aid Republican candidates. She spoke aloud what should not have been said, what Jennings himself was careful never to say. It'll be interesting to see what OSC says when they hand down their decision on the presentation itself.
June 12, 2007 11:41 AM | Reply | Permalink
Can she be impeached?
June 12, 2007 12:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
FlyOnTheWall has it right. While Doan does deserve what she gets, the real offenders have not been called to task.
June 12, 2007 12:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ms. Doan is just a witting supplicant. Mr. Rove's flying monkeys devised and disseminated the program; Ms. Doan just wanted to do her masters' bidding.
She should be fired, of course, and might want to see if she can recover any of that $200,000 she previously donated to the RNC & Co. Forget impeachment; the Senate won't even slap 'Fredo's paws.
There are many more Lurita Doan's scurrying throughout govt, fed the grain of partisan corruption by Mr. Rove's Shoppe. Investigating her mismanagement at the GSA is just lifting the latch on Pandora's box. Time to open the lid.
June 12, 2007 12:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
"We will get nowhere until the Dems discover enough fortitude to put Rove on the stand."
Posted by: conniptionfit
Date: June 12, 2007 11:08 AM
Let it be said, much to their shame, so far, the Democrats as a political party have been useless. Nor is there any sign of their becoming any better.
Are the Republicans and the White House corrupt, absolutely.
Are the Democrats talking out of both sides of their mouth about getting out of Iraq, while at the same time trying to stay in (It's all about oil), without doubt.
You don't have to be a blind conservative not to see it, just an ignorant one to deny it.
June 12, 2007 1:06 PM | Reply | Permalink