Remember when Bush appointee Lurita Doan ran the GSA?
GSA Chief Violated Hatch Act, Special Counsel's Report Alleges:
The U.S. Office of Special Counsel has found that General Services Administration chief Lurita Alexis Doan violated the federal Hatch Act when she allegedly asked GSA political appointees during a January briefing how they could "help our candidates" win the next election, according to a report by the office.
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"Her actions, to be certain, constitute an obvious misuse of her official authority and were made for the purpose of affecting the result of an election," investigators said in a copy of the 19-page report obtained by The Washington Post. "One can imagine no greater violation of the Hatch Act than to invoke the machinery of an agency, with all its contracts and buildings, in the service of a partisan campaign to retake Congress and the Governors' mansions."
As is their habit, instead of acting with integrity and holding Doan accountable for her law-breaking, the GOP circled the wagons and began an all-out effort to help Doan get away with it.
And they did it in their typical crude, ugly and cynical way - play the race card first, and play it hard:
Faced with law-breaking Bush official, GOP plays the race card
06/14/2007
In a hearing Wednesday examining the findings that Bush appointee Lurita Doan of the General Services Administration appeared to violate the Hatch Act by politicking in a federal workplace, several Republican Congressmen played the race card. On a number of occasions, Rep. Tom Davis (R-VA), the ranking Republican on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, led his colleagues in accusing their Democratic counterparts of targeting Doan because she was a black woman and a Republican.
"You're an African-American Republican so you've got a big bull's eye on you," Davis, the former chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, said to Administrator Doan at one stage.
Doan was brought before the committee to testify on the Office of Special Counsel investigation that found she violated the Hatch Act during a Jan. 26, 2007 briefing given to GSA political appointees by White House staff from Karl Rove's office. In the briefing, a PowerPoint presentation was given that included slides on vulnerable Congressional districts in the 2008 election where Republicans believed they could regain seats. According to attendees, Doan asked at the end of the meeting how the GSA can "help 'our candidates' in the next elections."
Davis wasn't the only Republican member in the House hearing to make such an allegation.
"You're a Republican, a minority, and a woman, a GOP contributor, and they've targeted you, they're circling you to come after you," said Rep. John Mica (R-FL), who objected to the hearing at various occasions.
Rep. Chris Shays (R-CT) also said, "I find that when an African-American is a Republican, somehow, she is treated differently by Congress."
One African-American Democratic congress member objected strongly to the Republican representatives' use of race in the proceedings.
"I am a female and I am an African-American, and I resent the fact that race and gender is always thrown into it," said Rep. Diane Watson (D-CA). "I do not feel that this committee, or the chairman of this committee would ever bring you in front of us because you're a woman, and you're black."
Doan compares critics to racist bullies
Doan for her part admitted that she didn't believe she was being targeted because she was a black woman.
"I believe this hearing has a completely different agenda that even I probably am not aware of and not experienced about, I think this is a political thing. I don't think this is a race thing," she said.
But Doan also started off her testimony in a prepared statement by comparing her critics to racist bullies she encountered in her youth.
"I grew up in Ninth Ward in New Orleans and being one of the first minority students in all white school taught me a lot about how to deal with unfairness, harassment, and hostile environments," she declared. "Quitting would be far worse that persevering the face of adversity."
The Committee's Chairman, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), pointed out at one stage that race had been raised first by Rep. Davis. He made note of the fact after Davis accused the Committee's Democrats of making the hearing focus on race.
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What if Sonia Sotomayor used her opening statement in front of the Senate to label her critics as "racist bullies"? That would be absurd and outrageous! But hey - IOKIYAR, especially a GUILTY one. Country First!