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.htmlTHE 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