GSA Political Under Bush, also the Sun Rises in the East

The US Office of Special Council has found that Lurita Alexis Doan, Chief of the General Services Administration, politicized the GSA, using its recourses to help both Republican candidates and Republican causes. This is in violation of the federal law known as the Hatch Act. Doan has 14 days to respond to the report before it is presented to the President. (She was provided the report last Friday.)

The General Services Administration (GSA) is an independent agency of the US government, established in 1949 to help manage and support the basic functioning of federal agencies. The GSA supplies products and communications for U.S. government offices, provides transportation and office space to federal employees, and develops government wide cost-minimizing policies, among other management tasks. Its stated mission is to "help federal agencies better serve the public by offering, at best value, superior workplaces, expert solutions, acquisition services and management policies."

At its most basic level, its role is administrative, not political. Just as with the Department of Justice, however, under the Bush Administration, everything is political and is to be used for partisan purposes. As reported in the Washington Post:

The special counsel's investigation was spurred by allegations that Doan solicited agency employees "to participate in political activities during a meeting held at GSA headquarters on January 26," the report said. The meeting, a "brown bag" luncheon, featured a presentation by J. Scott Jennings, deputy director of political affairs in Karl Rove's office at the White House.

Jennings gave a PowerPoint presentation of polling data about the 2006 midterm elections. In a slide called "2008 House Targets: Top 20," the presentation named 20 Democrats on whom Republicans intended to focus in 2008. Another slide, called "2008 House GOP Defense," listed GOP candidates to be protected.

At the conclusion of the presentation, Doan "asked a question about, 'How can we help our candidates,' " the report said. Some participants began to offer suggestions before Jennings asked that the session be taken "off-line," according to the report.

This is an open and shut case. It is well documented and Doan has no leg to stand on… except the President himself. It is up to him to discipline Doan for wrongdoing and I’ll be interested to see what the ultimate outcome will be. After all, it is a bit like the fox guarding the henhouse.

Postscript: It would appear that Doan, who was called before the House oversight committee earlier, is destined for a sequel. The committee is interested to learn both if Doan threatened retaliation against those who testified against her during the investigation and if she perjured herself before the committee earlier.

25 May 2007