It has been 11 months since investigators found that Lurita Doan, chief of the General Services Administration, violated the Hatch Act's ban on politicking on the job, asking her staff how they could "help our candidates." Last week, the White House finally got around to ousting Ms. Doan from the government's principal agency for awarding rich contracts in goods and services.
The White House blandly praised Ms. Doan as it pushed her out. There was no mention, of course, of gross behavior when she suggested turning her agency into a patronage clubhouse. Nor was there mention of the fact that her call to the aid of the party came during a briefing of top GSA managers " organized by the White House and delivered by a Karl Rove political operative " on targeted Democratic politicians.
Her one undeniable service for taxpayers was in laying bare the partisan diktat that so deeply scars the Bush administration's approach to government service. Evidence of such chicanery extends from regulatory agencies packed with pro-industry appointees to the purging of nine United States attorneys responsible for enforcing justice, not the Republican Party's agenda.
Considering the usual stonewalling, it is surprising that Ms. Doan wasn't allowed to stay on through the final months of the Bush presidency. She exits as a minor but revealing character in a far more sweeping tale of the partisan undermining of public service. (Reprinted from The New York Times)