First the exceedingly troubled Office of Special Counsel nailed General Services Administration chief Lurita Doan for violating the Hatch Act. Then Doan responded that if she was guilty Karl Rove and his crew of goons were guilty too. But even though the OSC is supposedly investigating Rove for potential violations of the Hatch Act, it is unsympathetic to Doan’s arguments. In its official recommendation on how to punish Doan, it pulled absolutely no punches yesterday, with OSC chief Scott Bloch writing that Doan’s actions were “the most pernicious of political activity” and that he “recommend[s] that Administrator Doan be disciplined to the fullest extent for her serious violation of the Hatch Act and insensitivity to cooperating fully and honestly in the course of our investigation.”
Yikes. All that’s left now is the denouement: Doan’s sentencing by President Bush. Bush is a notoriously loyal man — is Doan valuable enough for Bush to go out on limb to protect her? Or will he gladly fire a relatively low-level civil servant in the hope that the action takes some of the heat off Alberto Gonzales and all the Bush Adminstration’s other scandals?
