Report: Taxpayers paid for GOP politicking in 2006 elections

[struggle4progress]

Tuesday, Nov. 04, 2008
Report: Taxpayers paid for GOP politicking in 2006 elections
Marisa Taylor - McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — The White House dispatched cabinet members and other agency officials to more than 300 events nationwide to help Republican candidates in the run-up to the 2006 midterm elections, according to a House of Representatives committee report.

Taxpayers paid for more than half of the events, the report said.

The draft report, issued Wednesday by California Rep. Henry Waxman, the Democratic chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, accuses the White House of requesting the travel to save money for the Republican congressional campaigns ...

http://www.centredaily.com/206/story/941559.html


THE ACTIVITIES OF THE WHITE HOUSE OFFICE OF POLITICAL AFFAIRS

... When Congress drafted the Hatch Act, it envisioned that political activity by White House officials
would be incidental to their official duties. Congress also prohibited the use of taxpayer funds to
aid political candidates. These principles were flouted by President Bush’s White House. Under
the Bush Administration, the Office of Political Affairs ran a full-fledged political operation that
enlisted agency heads across government in a coordinated effort to elect Republican candidates to
Congress. Officials were directed to make hundreds of trips — most at taxpayer expense — for the
purpose of increasing the electability of Republicans. This is a gross abuse of the public trust.

In effect, the Bush Administration established precisely the type of “political boiler-room” that
Congress warned against when it amended the Hatch Act in 1993.

The Hatch Act is a civil statute. Its violations can be punished by removal from office or other
administrative sanctions. Once officials like Ken Mehlman, Matt Schlapp, Sara Taylor, Scott
Jennings, and others leave the administration — as they all have done — there is no effective
remedy for any Hatch Act violations they committed. For this reason, the Committee is making no
referral to the Department of Justice or the Office of Special Counsel for further investigation.

To prevent a repetition of the abuses of the White House Office of Political Affairs, Congress
should revise the Hatch Act. American taxpayers should not pay the salaries of White House
officials when they are engaged in helping to elect members of the President’s political party. They
should also not pay the travel expenses of cabinet and other senior officials who fly across the
country to boost the reelection chances of vulnerable members of Congress ...

<pdf file:> http://oversight.house.gov/documents/20081015105434.pdf

[xochi]

1. This alone was an outrageous, impeachable offense!

I remember watching the investigative hearings on C-SPAN. Hardly covered by the mainstream media. I remember GSA Administrator Lurita Doan lying her ass off under oath about all the blatant partisan politicking carried out by the GSA that could have easily passed for RNC strategy meetings, except that they were all paid for with our (U.S. taxpayers') dollars. They should ALL be imprisoned for such criminal, unpatriotic corruption, instead of getting off scot-free the way they did. Just more slime and corruption from Bush&co.

[Enthusiast]

2. Remember all the outrage

over AL Gore supposedly making calls from the white house? Here it is. Any time Republicans speak out against something a Democrat is supposed to be doing wrong, they are generally guilty of the same. Only Gore's issue was completely trumped up.

Today The Republican Party will engage in numerous acts of criminality and treason. Think the worst and you will fall far short of their actual crimes.

[xochi]

3. Exactly! My worst fears when Bushco first took over the White House

were realized a thousandfold--beyond anything I could then imagine--in the horrific nightmare of violence, destruction, corruption, and desecration he and his cronies have unleashed upon our planet.

[Doctor_J]

4. Prosecute the Hatch Act AND voter suppression

aggressively.