An Office of Special Counsel report has found that General Services Administration chief Lurita Doan violated the Hatch Act, which bars federal officials from partisan political activity while on the job, sources say.
The report addresses a Jan. 26 lunch meeting at GSA headquarters attended by Doan and about 40 political appointees, some of whom participated by videoconference. During the meeting, Scott Jennings, the White House deputy director of political affairs, gave a PowerPoint presentation that included slides listing Democratic and Republican seats the White House viewed as vulnerable in 2008, a map of contested Senate seats and other information on 2008 election strategy.
According to meeting participants, Doan asked after the call how GSA could help âour candidates.â
Doan has until June 1 to respond to the OSC report, which was delivered to her May 18, according to officials. The officials asked to remain anonymous because the report has not been made public.
Did I miss something here. This graf is buried down in an article just out from The Hill (emphasis added) …
The postponements may be bad news for former Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Texas) and Rep. John Doolittle (R-Calif.), who had close ties to Abramoff and whose Northern Virginia homes the FBI recently searched. Since the searches, both Doolittle and DeLay have vehemently defended themselves and lashed out at the FBI, demanding that agents âfish or cut baitâ in their investigations.
Did Tom DeLay have his house searched? Did I miss that? Does Doolittle have two homes? Is there some editing error here?
Late Update: The Hill has now corrected/revised this passage. Seems it was just an editing error. No raid of DeLay’s home. The honor is still Doolittle’s alone.
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) talks about the warrantless wiretapping program at TPMCafe.
Today’s the day: Monica Goodling heads up to Capitol Hill this morning, compelled to testify with a grant of immunity before the House Judiciary Committee. Paul Kiel has our rundown of who Goodling is and what role she played in the US Attorney Purge in today’s episode of TPMtv …
Late Update: For a summary of today’s episode, click here.
Today’s Must Read: The central question today: was Monica Goodling acting on her own?
House liberals likely to bail on Dem leadership’s Iraq funding bill. That and more political news of the day in today’s Election Central Morning Roundup.
Monica Goodling’s testimony before the House is starting now. We’ll be providing running updates over at TPMmuckraker.
“In the most liberal state in the country, one Republican stood up…”
In a new and sneering ad, Mitt Romney bashes the state he served as Governor.
Paul Kiel is going to be providing detailed coverage of the Goodling testimony at TPMmuckraker, as we’ve discussed. But just on first glance, beside calling Paul McNulty a liar, Goodling’s line is that, like everyone else, she really didn’t have much of anything to do with compiling the firing list.
Late Update: Here’s Goodling’s opening statement. Here’s Paul Kiel’s initial analysis of her statement.
In big foreign policy speech today, John Edwards will emphatically reject the notion of a “war on terror,” deriding the phrase as a “bumper sticker” slogan.
Late Update: The full text of Edwards’ speech is right here. How’d he do?