How Often Did Bush Administration Use Government Agencies For Partisan Purposes?

Some agency appointees have directly asked Bush spin doctors how they might help ‘our candidates’. How Often Did Bush Administration Use Government Agencies For Partisan Purposes?By Cliff Montgomery – June 5th, 2007A task force is being put together by the Office of Special Counsel (OSC) to conduct a government-wide investigation into the Bush Administration’s apparent violations of a law which outlaws partisan political activity in federal agencies.Loren Smith, a spokesman for OSC, the independent agency charged with investigating suspected Hatch Act violations, told Government Executive magazine that the agency is still trying to determine who will be on the task force.The investigation may last from a few months to “well into 2008,” Smith added.James Byrne, deputy special counsel at OSC, is already slated to head the task force. OSC Hatch Act division chief Ana Galindo-Marrone will be deeply involved in its day-to-day activities, Smith told Government Executive.”We’re taking the steps that we need to get the task force up and running. We’re recruiting members…There may [even] be outside hires,” Smith said.OSC recently found General Services Administration (GSA) chief Lurita Doan guilty of violating the Hatch Act, via her role in a Jan. 26th meeting with Bush Administration spin doctors at the agency’s headquarters.The partisan discussion, involving Doan and more than 30 other political appointees, contained a PowerPoint presentation by Scott Jennings–a deputy to Karl Rove, the top Bush Administration spin doctor. The slides listed both vulnerable Republicans and Democratic political targets the Bush Administration has pegged for possible defeat in 2008.At the end of the briefing, Doan directly asked Jennings how GSA activities might help “our candidates,” according to at least half a dozen witnesses recently quoted by the Washington Post.The GSA meeting came to light in March of this year, and prompted an investigation by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.The Bush Administration further revealed last month that Rove deputies held about 20 other such briefings with federal agency appointees in 2006 and 2007. This revelation prompted OSC officials last month to create the new task force looking into the partisan presentations.The tenure of Scott Bloch, director of the OSC, expires in December 2008; but previous OSC heads have extended their direction of the agency due to ongoing investigations.Don’t count the White House out just yet, however. Previous OSC head Elaine Kaplan has actually claimed that nothing in OSC’s investigative report on GSA suggests any improper happenings at the agency before Doan initiated the discussion with Jennings.”As OSC investigates the presentations given at other agencies, it will be looking closely at the remarks that were made by the officials who hosted or gave the presentation and the employees who participated in it,” Kaplan admitted.But in such circumstances, it is the responsibility of those heading the discussion to end the matter by making it clear to one and all that government offices cannot be used for political brainstorming, Kaplan told Government Executive.But this is false reasoning on Kaplan’s part. For Kaplan’s interpretation is like declaring that a judge should find guilty of numerous robberies not the actual robbers, but those present who failed to stop the robberies.Rep. Bruce Braley (D-IA), who guided the questioning of Doan during a Mar. 28th House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing, agrees. He retorts that a partisan presentation given on government property is itself a violation of the Hatch Act.”When you talk about 2008 targeted races, and the only targets on that page are Democrats and the presentation is from the White House political office, that’s clearly a violation,” Braley told Government Executive.William Wiley, former counsel to a Merit Systems Protection Board director appointed by President Clinton, also questioned Kaplan’s reasoning.  The OSC should simply rule on Hatch Act violations using the “preponderance of evidence” legal standard, he said to Government Executive.”If the meeting is directed toward the success of a particular party, then it’s a Hatch Act violation,” said Wiley.”It’s a slam dunk if I were the judge. It doesn’t have to be as raw as [someone saying] ‘What can we do to support our people?’ for OSC to find violations,” he added.Wiley thinks the person to find culpable in each case should be the one who first directed the federal employees to attend the meeting.In any case, the question remains: Will the OSC also hold accountable top Bush Administration spin doctors for the Hatch Act violations, or just a few unfamiliar Bush appointees?* Correction – In a May 25th article revealing possible Hatch Act violations by the Bush White House “throughout the last six years”, the GSA meeting in which agency chief Lurita Doan apparently spoke to Bush spin doctor Scott Jennings was wrongly said to have occurred in January 2006. In fact the meeting occurred in January of this year.The May 25th article has been corrected.Like what you’re reading so far? Then why not order a full year (52 issues) of thee-newsletter for only $15? 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