Elections do have consequences, and the best of them are having the likes of Patrick Leahy and Henry Waxman in the chairman's seats on critical committees.
On the heels of yesterday's fun-filled GSA hearing, Waxman follows up with Turdblossom himself:
Dear Mr. Rove:
Yesterday, the Committee held a hearing into allegations of misconduct at the General Services Administration (GSA). One of the allegations involved a political presentation that your deputy, J. Scott Jennings, made to the GSA Administrator, Lurita A. Doan, and approximately 40 GSA political appointees in the GSA headquarters building on January 26, 2007....
As part of the Committee’s investigation into Mr. Jennings’s presentation, I ask that you answer the following questions:
- Did you approve of the slides in Mr. Jennings’s presentation? Did you approve of Mr. Jennings’s participation in this meeting?
- Does the White House Office of Political Affairs or the White House Counsel have a policy addressing when and where White House employees can make political presentations such as the one Mr. Jennings gave at GSA headquarters on January 26, 2007? Please explain the legal authority you believe allows you to make such presentations on federal property during business hours....
- Have you, Mr. Jennings, or other employees of the White House Office of Political Affairs given this political briefing or any similar briefing mentioning future elections or candidates on other occasions? Please provide the Committee a list of the dates, times, and locations of any of these presentations at which federal officials were present, whether they occurred on federal property or not, as well as a list of the people and organizations who participated....
- Why did Mr. Jennings and his staff assistant use private "gwb43.com" accounts rather than their "eop.gov" accounts to correspond with Administrator Doan’s office about the PowerPoint presentation?
In addition, I ask that you provide the Committee with any documents and communications relating to (1) the presentation of the PowerPoint presentation or any similar presentation mentioning future elections or candidates to federal officials and (2) the use of federal agencies or resources to help Republican candidates.
But wait, there's more, and a connection to the Prosecutor Purge:
A second letter was sent to White House Counsel Fred Fielding asking him for information and a briefing regarding White House e-mail policies, citing the new revelations that White House officials have been conducting official business using nongovernmental e-mail accounts.
The "concern" of D.C. punditry like Rick Stengel to the contrary, Henry Waxman is doing the people's work, which the people are certainly smart enough to understand and support. Because, after all, they are working for us.