Rove’s RNC RoadshowGeneral Services Administration chief Lurita Doan was raked across the coals last week in a House hearing for having Karl Rove’s deputy come and brief government employees on the wellfare of the Republican Party. But apparently that presentation was just business as usual for Rove.
TPM alum Justin Rood reports at ABC News:
The White House political office has been giving presentations similar to the one at GSA since at least 2002, briefing officials throughout the government on Republican campaign information, according to a recent book by two Los Angeles Times reporters.
“[White House political adviser Karl] Rove and [former Bush campaign chief and one-time Republican National Committee head Ken] Mehlman ventured to nearly every cabinet agency to share key polling data” leading up to the 2002 midterm elections, wrote Tom Hamburger and Peter Wallsten in their book, “One Party Country,” “and to deliver a reminder of White House priorities, including the need for the president’s allies to win in the next election.”
While previous administrations had sent officials to cabinet agencies, the duo wrote, “Such intense regular communication from the political office had never occurred before.”
Justin also reports that Doan is under investigation by the Office of Special Counsel. The meeting, and Doan’s reported enthusiasm for leveraging the GSA’s considerable taxpayer-funded resources to help GOP candidates, is a possible violation of the Hatch Act, which prohibits using government resources for political means.
