Lurita Doan, Chief of the GSA has been under scrutiny by the House and Senate for her comments following a Rovian power point presentation by Scott Jennings, White House Deputy Director of Political Affairs (aka Rove butt boy). She was outed by whistleblowers in the GSA who apparantly thought not only the presentation, but her comment, "What can we do to help our candidates" was not only over the top, but illegal.
Special Counsel Scott Bloch from the Department of Justice was appointed to investigate Lurita Doan, Chief of the GSA for possible violations of the Hatch Act. Bloch himself is under investigation for squelching whistle blowers, thus, eyebrows were raised as to whether his pursuit of the matter would be just another cover-up. In April, mcjoan posted an excellent diary which gives insight into Bloch.
TPM has been following the travails of Ms. Doan since December 2006 here when she claimed oversight was interfering with the GSA's ability to get it's work done. Her embarassing appearance before the House Oversight Committee in March 2007 demonstrated what an incredible incompetent she is as can be seen here. A month later, the Senate picked up the pace as noted here. In May, the Office of Special Counsel found that Doan violated the Hatch Act here and had lied about being distracted during the power point presentation because she was using her Blackberry to retrieve email messages. Oooops, Doan didn't realize that there is a way to discover whether or not that statement was true -- it was not.
In response, Doan claimed the whistleblowers were low performers who were basically malcontents. Ooops again, problem with those pesky performance reviews. Waxman wants another shot at her to confront her with her lies before his committee. Tomorrow, the House Oversight Committee will listen to the woman who refers to them as, "you guys," to see how she can weasel out of her perjury.
In the meantime, Bloch sent a damning letter to George Bush, the essence of which can be found at ThinkProgress. Bloch recommends exercising the full extent of penalties for violation of the Hatch Act, i.e. firing.
Questions arise as to the speedy investigation and conclusions: Is Doan the sacrificial lamb to distract from the real targets? Will Doan be another Gonzales who retains her job even though she has lied to Congress and is a demonstrable incompetent? Stay tuned.