General Services Administrator Lurita Doan has endured not one
witch hunt, but a series of them, conducted by Rep. Henry Waxman,
in an attempt both to slime Ms. Doan and, almost certainly, to use
her to get at the man the left considers the Ultimate Bogeyman,
Karl Rove. I’ve been blogging about this case for months now.
Earlier this month, both Bob
Novak and Stephen Moore (no link available), to their credit,
came rushing to her defense. About nine days ago, Waxman’s
committee again raked her over the coals. Never mind that two
earlier allegations against her turned out to be utterly unfounded.
Never mind that the current allegation wouldn’t amount to a hill of
beans even if true. The idea is to punish Ms. Doan for daring
(she’s an African-American) to actually be a Republican despite her
supposed place in life as a vassal of the Democratic Party—and,
while they are at it, use her as a stepping stone to Rove, because,
well, the newest allegation against her involves a meeting
conducted by an aide to Rove, and, well, all roads lead to Rove and
of course the Dems all think Rove is evil, so, golly gee, there
just MUST be something Roven in the state of Doanmark!
For the unitiated: a group of political appointees at GSA
attended a brown bag lunch in January at which a Rove aide gave a
report on the recent elections and what they meant for the
long-term political outlook. (Political appointees talking
politics: The horrors!!) At some point, Doan supposedly asked what
“they” could do to “help our candidates.”
That’s it. There is no allegation that anybody used those words
as a prompt to actually do anything political. No allegation that
anybody was pressured to do anything. No nothing — just a question
that, frankly, on its face, seems rather innocent.
But the Office of Special Counsel, led by a guy himself
embroiled in controversy who is now making a name for himself
sucking up to the Washington Post (could he hope that the
Post will help him get off the hook for the allegations
against him?), concluded that Ms. Doan violated the Hatch Act that
forbids politicization of the bureaucracy.
Hence the Waxman hearing.
Well, when all the smoke cleared, Waxman had nothing more of
consequence. It was a whole lot of hoo-rah over a whole lot of
nothing. The committee’s ranking Republican, Tom Davis, put it all
in perspective. Mind you, Davis is no partisan hatchet man. He’s
about as moderate a member of Congress as you’ll ever find. But
here’s what he said at the hearing:
“I cannot for the life of me figure out what we’re doing here
this morning.” And: “No such retaliation [against ANY government
employees] occurred.” And: “Today’s hearing is a gross misuse of
Committee resources, built on an unprofessional and seemingly
preordained report from the Office of Special Counsel. It is a
farce premised on a sham.” And the OSC report “cites no evidence.
There are not footnotes, no exhibits…The report fails to identify
a single election or candidate Administrator Doan sought to
assist.” And “There are so many flaws and injustices and
fabrications here [in the OSC report and in the committee
investigation], I hardly know where to begin.”
Hear, hear, for Tom Davis! It’s time for Republicans and
conservatives of all stripes — indeed, time for all fair-minded
people — to rally to Doan’s defense and keep her from being
sacrificed. The truth is that she has done a great job streamlining
GSA, saving money, improving agency services, etc. She is a boon to
this administration and to the country. The administration ought to
ignore any suggestions from Waxman or from the OSC, and give Doan
some strong support and keep her on the job.
