White House official may have violated Hatch Act
Federal Times reports: Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee want to know whether a presentation given by a White House official to senior General Services Administration employees last January was also given at other agencies.
Democrats released the PowerPoint presentation at a Wednesday hearing called to address allegations of a series of improper actions by GSA Administrator Lurita Doan.
Slides list Democrat “targets” and vulnerable Republicans, along with other Republican electoral information. It was presented by Scott Jennings, White House deputy director for political affairs, at a luncheon teleconference for GSA senior staff and political appointees. Jennings, an aide to Bush administration adviser Karl Rove, also was involved in the firing of Bud Cummins III, one of the eight U.S. attorneys fired last year.
A Jan. 19 e-mail regarding the slideshow, sent from an unofficial e-mail address by Jennings’ assistant to Doan’s, says “Please do not email this out or let people see it. It is a close hold and we’re not supposed to be emailing it around.”
Democrats said the e-mail and the PowerPoint showed a violation of the Hatch Act, which bars federal employees from partisan political activity while on the job. -- Federal Times
TalkLeft has a link to an excerpt of the C-SPAN coverage of the hearing. Ms. Doan keeps insisting she does not remember ever seeing that Powerpoint slide before.
Update: NPR has the Powerpoint if you would like to read it without the "I honestly don't remember seeing that."