Posted on 04/24/2007 2:02:32 PM PDT by Sub-Driver
Political activity by White House probed
By DEB RIECHMANN, Associated Press Writer 22 minutes ago
A little-known federal investigative unit has launched a probe into allegations of illegal political activity within the executive branch, including a White House office led by President Bush's close adviser, Karl Rove.
The new investigation, which began several weeks ago, grew out of two other investigations still under way at the U.S. Office of Special Counsel: the firing of U.S. Attorney David Iglesias from New Mexico and a presentation by Rove aide J. Scott Jennings to political appointees at the General Services Administration on how to help Republican candidates in 2008.
"We're in the preliminary stages of opening this expanded investigation," Loren Smith, a spokesman for the special counsel's office, an independent investigative and prosecutorial agency, said Tuesday. "The recent suggestion of illegal political activities across the executive branch was the basis we used to decide that it was important to look into possible violations of the Hatch Act."
The office, led by Scott J. Bloch, enforces the Hatch Act, a 70-year-old law that bars federal employees from engaging in political activities using government resources or on government time.
Whether politics played an inappropriate part in the firings of eight U.S. attorneys, including Iglesias, was at the heart of the controversy that has threatened Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' job. Whether executive branch employees violated federal laws that restrict them from using their posts for political activity also is at the center of the controversy about the January meeting at GSA.
"Six participants have confirmed that, at the end of the presentation, GSA Administrator Lurita Doan asked all present to consider how they could use GSA to 'help our candidates' in 2008,'"
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Can anyone say, “Clinton War Room”.?
GGGGGGGGGGGGGGRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
Is this the same office that vigorously went after Bill Clinton and the Chinese, and Al Gore and the Buddhist Temple, and Bill Clinton and the Lincoln Bedroom Motel?
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
I am so sick of this crap!!!!!!
Childish, “You impeached ours” now “We impeach yours” B.S..
Exactly. It's up to the Bush administration to hammer the democrats over this. Will they? NO!
According to www.macsmind.com/wordpress/, this is being done by the White House to wrap this issue up for good. Nothing to worry about. I hope he is right
But a valid thing to investigate is about the fact that Iglesias was fired for “not being there enough”, but he was not there because he was doing his national guard duty. It’s illegal to fire a guy for not being at work if his military service requires it. If Rove or anyone else did that, they deserve what is coming to them.
This site seems a bad lefty one. Anti Bush hate stuff out the wazoo.
The point being made there is that this investigator of Rove is head of an office because Bush appointed him. If people are complaining about him it’s mainly because he’s Bush’s man and some think he’s not doing his job properly in that he’s too partisan, etc. Read “Pro Bush” is what I got from it. That he would be investigating Rove I think would hack off the leftys because they would assume he’s there to cover up for Rove and not to cause him or Bush trouble.
So, I’m not sure what your point is that he himself is being investigated. That’s not a good thing, from what I gleaned from the blog and the comments.
My point is, I just find it very funny that the investigator is and has been under investigation himself.
The site does seems a bit worried about that. Is it possibly a diversion from the Dems other endless investigations?
Who appointed Bloch? What will be the effect of him also being under investigation?
In the LA Times article, Bloch pretty much says he is acting on his own, but is he? It seems a lot rides on the outcome of the investigation against him.
It will be interesting to see just how it plays out, but if it upsets the left, I usually like it.
Where’s that picture of OBAMA, sitting with his top campaign advisor, IN HIS SENATE OFFICE???!!!
This might be a very smart move by Rove/Bush to head off the RAT a*oles.
They serve at the pleasure of the President. Enough said.
BTW, welcome to FRee Republic.
There may be a reason for that :
WASHINGTON — Even as Special Counsel Scott J. Bloch moved forward with plans for a sweeping probe of the Bush administration, several advocacy groups complained that his ties to the administration and to conservative groups, as well as his record on gay rights and whistle-blowers, made him the wrong man for the job.
“There is a serious question as to whether Bloch will just provide cover for an administration that is covering for him,” said Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a Democratic-leaning group.
A spokesman for the Office of Special Counsel, communications director James Mitchell, waved away the complaints, saying agency staffers have already begun to form an internal task force, led in part by career staff, to probe three broad areas of activity involving the White House and senior advisor Karl Rove.
The agency will use its subpoena power if necessary, Mitchell said. It will focus on whether White House political concerns improperly intruded on the decision to fire at least one U.S. attorney; whether Rove’s office staff or others violated the Hatch Act in briefing Cabinet agency managers on political developments and Republican campaign goals; and whether the White House improperly used Republican National Committee e-mail accounts for official business.
Many of those e-mails are now missing, and Bloch has said his agency will probably join the effort to find them.
The advocacy groups charge, among other things, that Bloch initiated a policy that made it more difficult for gay employees to allege discrimination.
A whistle-blower group said Bloch had a poor record of protecting those reporting wrongdoing. And, these critics pointed out, the Office of Personnel Management is investigating alleged improper employment practices including intimidation of workers at the Special Counsel agency.
...
Mitchell said office procedures on whistle-blower and other cases were reviewed by a bipartisan congressional staff in 2005 that later provided a positive report.
While Bloch has alienated advocacy groups on the left, he has also lost support from White House insiders, according to one report. The Weekly Standard, a conservative magazine, reported last year that Bloch was ostracized by the White House and might even be urged to step down.
Mitchell said such attacks are expected by investigators like Bloch. “He is a watchdog,” Mitchell said. “That’s what he likes to do.”
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