Our Opinion
Published Thursday, March 29, 2007
Thanks to Jimmy Carter’s fecklessness, Ronald Reagan’s successful two-term presidency and George H.W. Bush’s able stewardship of the Cold War’s final years, Republicans have enjoyed a reputation as being more effective than Democrats at running the federal government. No more.
As syndicated columnist Robert Novak recently observed, even top Republicans in Congress routinely question the competence of the present Bush administration.
“We always have claimed that we were the party of better management. How can we claim that anymore?” a House leader told Novak.
Those laments were over the combination of the Walter Reed hospital scandal, the firing of eight U.S. attorneys and the FBI’s admitted abuse of the Patriot Act. Now there is yet another example.
On Wednesday, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee held a hearing on an egregious attempt to subvert the Hatch Act - the landmark 1939 federal law restricting executive branch officials from using their powers for political purposes. House investigators have documented that in a Jan. 26 videoconference, General Services Administration boss Lurita Alexis Doan urged dozens of regional GSA administrators to brainstorm on how to help “our candidates” in the next elections.
It is plain whom Doan was talking about. Her remark came after a White House political operative gave an overview of polling data from the 2006 election.
At Wednesday’s hearing, Committee Chairman Henry Waxman, D-Calif., presented some of the slides in the PowerPoint presentation from the Jan. 26 videoconference.
One named 20 Democrats in the U.S. House that the White House was targeting for defeat in 2008. Another identified 20 Republicans in the House that the White House viewed as vulnerable in 2008.
“The White House briefing was partisan. It was strategic,” Waxman said. “And it had absolutely no connection to GSA’s government mission.”
Defying the Hatch Act is far from Doan’s sole transgression in her 10 months on the job. She also attempted to circumvent GSA rules and federal law to give her friend’s firm a $20,000 no-bid contract to write a 24-page report and has fought with her own inspector general over his aggressive contract audits. Given that the GSA is the federal government’s largest procurement agency, overseeing $56 billion in annual contracts, those audits are crucial.
How on Earth could someone with such bad judgment get such an important job? Surely the White House - so badly burned by Federal Emergency Management Agency chief Michael Brown’s incompetence in responding to Hurricane Katrina - isn’t still installing political hacks in jobs beyond their skill set.
Guess again. Doan may have been a successful government contractor, but that is a far cry from running an agency that has 13,000 employees and manages nearly $500 billion in federal assets. Her predecessor was a senior executive for a firm with 20,500 workers and annual sales of $2.6 billion. What appears to have “qualified” her for the GSA post is the fact that she is considered a rising GOP star - she spoke at the 2004 Republican National Convention - and is also a generous party donor.
This is no way to run a government. No wonder the Republican insiders interviewed by Novak were so melancholy - and no wonder new administration scandals seem to emerge with mechanical regularity. The sad fact is we can count on another “Brownie” emerging, and soon.
Ashrak wrote at 3/29/2007 7:32:48 AM
When someone can honestly say Henry Waxman isn't using his power as an elected official for strategtic political gain, let me know. More references to Katrina without any mention of Blanco or Nagin, that amounts to manufactured scandal and more Blame Bush. I have no beef with genuine criticism but we have witnessed reaching that even the fantastic four never experienced. This opinion mentions statements but not who made them? Is this accountability? FBI admitted mistakes were made but we see the word abuse used. Sensationalism is often used to embelish in order to color a picture meaning to be painted. Why not do an opinion about Feinstein resigning from the committee that saw BILLIONS in contracts go to companies here husband owned? Oh that's right, she isn't a Republican and talking about that isn't Bashing Bush so we won't see a word about it.