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"Why Isn't The White House Letting Him Go?"
Career officials are in open revolt over at the Office of Special Counsel.
The underlings are outraged at their boss, Scott Bloch, who is under investigation by the FBI. The one man in the Bush Administration who is supposed to investigate whistle blower complaints is himself accused of retaliating against whistle blowers.
"We're trying to deal with this by decapitation," one official told TPM. "The big question is: Why isn't the White House letting him go?"
Meanwhile, Bloch is desperately trying to improve morale.
Against the advice of career officials in the office -- some of whom have been subpoenaed in the investigation -- Bloch is convening a day-long "retreat" in Alexandria, VA, flying in officials from offices in Dallas, Oakland and Detroit, for a pep talk.
During the training session, Bloch himself will give a talk entitled: "Training on Accountability, Efficiency, OSC's Independence, and "What a Whistleblower is."
The meeting was scaled back from Bloch's original idea of a multi-day retreat out in the Shenandoah Valley.
"He brought up the idea and said, 'What does everybody think? And everybody just kind of sat there," the official said.
We'll post the agenda for next week's retreat shortly.
Late Update: One former OSC official points to the afternoon session on "E-Discovery Training" and says it's "ironic in the extreme, given the accusations of his own attempted destruction of computer files that were requested in connection with the investigation of him!"
Bloch reportedly hired Geeks on Call to erase his email files.
Late Update: Here's the agenda.
Josh
Zachary
He's getting braced by the FBI, his office is on the verge of full mutiny and he strong-arms underlings to write PR flack for him. In a rational, reality-based cosmos, his ass would be a Post Toastie by now.
But, instead - dammit - he's headed to the woods for some interface and rub-downs. Simple truth: In the Bush Administration, job performance is the polar opposite of job description. Anyone hired to, say, protect whistleblowers perforce beheads them.
...Nobody had to tell Scott that.
Ladies and gentlemen, our next recipient of the Medal of Freedom is schlubbing the Beltway in Scott Bloch's shoes!
June 19, 2008 11:04 AM | Reply | Permalink
Heckuva job, Scotty!
Wow. This is stranger than truth! (And since truth is stranger than fiction, that must be really strange!)
You couldn't make this stuff up.
June 19, 2008 11:26 AM | Reply | Permalink
The guy who asked a bunch of non-accountable professional computer scrubbing experts to clean off his government-provided laptop in secret is actually going to give a talk with the word "Accountability" in the title?
I'd be stunned if his entire staff doesn't just stand up and leave en masse.
June 19, 2008 11:07 AM | Reply | Permalink
All,
Interesting that the final item on the agenda is HSPD-12, the Homeland Security Directive concerning common identification for federal employees.
[http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/08/20040827-8.html]
Why is this on the agenda?
June 19, 2008 11:27 AM | Reply | Permalink
I agree. It doesn't make sense.
Bush's edict was dated August 27, 2004, and the Secretary of Commerce was supposed to "promulgate" the standard for the IDs "in accordance with applicable law a Federal standard for secure and reliable forms of identification (the "Standard") not later than 6 months after the date of this directive in consultation with the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Defense, the Attorney General, the Secretary of Homeland Security, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy."
Did something this basic not happen? Is the ineptitude of this admin so broad and so deep?
June 19, 2008 12:05 PM | Reply | Permalink
BTW, the agenda (2008-06-25 Wed) says there'll be a cash-bar reception at the Monaco Hotel at 4:30 p.m.
That might be a good source for a few juicy tongue-loosened quotes!
(Sez here there's a Hotel Monaco in DC at 700 F St NW, FWIW.)
June 19, 2008 11:43 AM | Reply | Permalink
Washington TPMers should doll up and see if they can help loosen those tongues in some productive directions. With morale as low as is reported, I would imagine many of these people would appreciate a sympathetic ear.
June 19, 2008 12:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
More likely it's the Hotel Monaco on King Street in Alexandria. I'd be willing to bet that's where the entire "retreat" is happening.
I live within walking distance of it, but alas, I have plans this evening :P
June 19, 2008 12:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
See: http://thinkprogress.org/2007/06/16/counsel-hatch-probe/:
“(…). Eighteen agencies have been asked by the Office of Special Counsel to preserve electronic information dating back to January 2001 as part of its government-wide investigation into alleged violations of the law that limits political activity in federal agencies. (…)”.
Eighteen agencies, of course not counting the OSC! Thus make it nineteen, but it does not matter, their electronic information is clean (by now).
Under this administration, the OSC has become the “Office for Silencing Complaints”.
June 19, 2008 11:46 AM | Reply | Permalink
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/06/16/counsel-hatch-probe/
Try now.
June 19, 2008 11:49 AM | Reply | Permalink
I think the WH strategy for the rest of Bush's time in office is to screw up as many things as possible, keeping every department and agency from being able to do its true job. If the OSC could actually function—which it likely could without Bloch—investigations into BushCo. could actually proceed. Now why would they want that to be able to happen?
June 19, 2008 11:57 AM | Reply | Permalink
Perhaps the multitentacled TPM crew can start asking around why this item is on the agenda -- I can see no role for Bloch's office in the issue of Federal ID's, and no reason for it to be on the agenda.
Smells a bit fishy
June 19, 2008 12:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
Typical left-wing bloggers are giving Scott Bloch a bum rap.
Since day one, he's been vigorously protecting whistle blowers at all levels of government administration. He even took the initiative himself to investigate U.S. Attorney firings.
He destroyed the data on that hard disk to protect the anonymity of whistle blowers.
The government would be well served with more patriots like Scott Bloch.
June 19, 2008 12:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oooh, Mr Hat! You get so eloquent when I've got my hand up your butt!
June 19, 2008 12:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sometimes, this place scares me. And by "this place," I mean TPMwhatever, not Mr. Hat's butt.
June 19, 2008 3:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
Agenda is funny. For the speakers first or last names are listed. But when Bloch's up - he's only known as "Special Counsel." Not Scott. Not Bloch. Not Scott Bloch.
June 19, 2008 12:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
so this guy is gonna spend the whole day with his entire staff,, while that staff is laughing at this fool ???
what a fookin moroon
that accountability speech sounds like comedy GOLD
hope somebody gets video
June 19, 2008 12:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
Isn't this the guy who spent a fortune on bathroom accesories so he could pee in luxury?
June 19, 2008 12:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
Come on...Bloch is a great guy. Completely misunderstood, and being railroaded by the corrupt Bush administration. None of this is his fault - it's just a big cover-up. Plus, he lets us go home early sometimes on Fridays. Bloch is the man!
June 19, 2008 1:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
"The big question is: Why isn't the White House letting him go?"
Because he`s a criminal who is loyal to their criminal causes of destroying whistle blowing,
law -abiding citizens.
June 19, 2008 1:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
We should all be thanking Scott Bloch for eradicating all corruption from the federal government, something everyone said couldn't be done! Not only that, but he singlehandedly saved the lives of nine -- count 'em -- nine whistleblowers!! This man is bravely standing up to the slings and arrows of a lying press corps each and every day. I simply don't understand why people want to knock him down. We owe this man a lot. The least we can do is pat him on the back and tell him what a heckuva job he's done.
I'm in love with Scott Bloch!!!!
June 19, 2008 3:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Hey gang, lets put on a show!"
June 19, 2008 4:13 PM | Reply | Permalink
Scott Bloch saved my baby from a pack of horny dingoes.
June 19, 2008 6:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
I love it when you call me your baby, Genghis.
June 19, 2008 6:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
Go away, baby. If it weren't for that meddling Bloch, you'd be dingo food.
June 19, 2008 6:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
That is so darn peculiar, I just have to call it out.
Er, bravo?
June 19, 2008 9:35 PM | Reply | Permalink
Scott is to protecting whistleblowers as Alberto Gonzales is to Justice.
When they say Special Counsel is that like "short bus" special?
June 20, 2008 12:15 AM | Reply | Permalink
I WILL MAKE A GREAT NATION OF SCOTT BLOCH, AND I WILL BLESS HIM!
June 20, 2008 12:25 AM | Reply | Permalink
Oh looky! Jim Byrne is starting off the conference. What in the heck does Jim Byrne do all day, anyway? He was supposed to be mangling... managing some of the Iglesias complaint. They don't even give the guy a bio on the OSC website and he's been deputy special consul for how long now? 14 months, that's how long. It's pretty clear Bloch doesn't want him there.
Why doesn't anyone know anything about James M Byrne?
June 20, 2008 2:26 AM | Reply | Permalink
This sounds like, quite possibly, the greatest job ever. You can do the complete opposite of the job description and requirements and still not get fired--I guess it's true what they say about working for the guh'ment.
June 20, 2008 5:20 AM | Reply | Permalink
It seems everyone here has quite a lot to say about this agency and it's personnel - how many of 'you' actually work there? How many of you REALLY know what's going on? It seems to me this is yet another instance of a lot of people forming opinions from nothing but hearsay and rumor and stereotype. Oh, yes, of course, every government worker is a slacker and a dolt. Ever stop to consider the remote possibility that the 'official' who is feeding you is merely a malcontent who has found an audience for their 'cause?'
June 28, 2008 1:46 PM | Reply | Permalink