REPORT: Karl Rove’s Politicization Of The Federal Government

[babylonsister]

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/05/05/rove-politicization-government/


REPORT: Karl Rove’s Politicization Of The Federal Government

In March, the Washington Post revealed that General Services Administration chief Lurita Doan and Karl Rove deputy Scott Jennings held a videoconference earlier this year to devise “ways to help Republican candidates.” ThinkProgress has produced a report that documents the fact that GSA is only one of many federal agencies that the Bush White House has infiltrated for partisan purposes.

READ THE REPORT HERE:
http://thinkprogress.org/rove-empire/

Politicization of the federal government has been illegal for decades. The 1939 Hatch Act specifically prohibits partisan campaign or electoral activities on federal government property, including federal agencies. But in 2005, Ken Mehlman, formerly one of Bush’s top political advisers, outlined the White House’s strategy of utilizing government resources for partisan gain:

One of the things that can happen in Washington when you work in an agency is that you forget who sent you there. And it’s important to remind people that you’re George Bush people. … If there’s one empire I want built, it’s the George Bush empire.

With that imperial partisanship in mind, the Bush White House has engaged in an unprecedented quest to politicize the federal government, giving briefings and PowerPoint presentations everywhere from the Interior Department to NASA on how to secure Republican victories. Said one Interior Department manager, “We were constantly being reminded about how our decisions could affect electoral results” (One Party Country, p. 103). Bush loyalists in federal agencies have also helped generate millions for favored political candidates.

ThinkProgress’ report highlights the pervasiveness of the White House’s politicization efforts since 2001. Check out the report. Let us know if there’s something we missed in the comments section, or contact us.

[Cleita]

1. So Karl is in violation of the Hatch Act here?

I really want Congress to take off the kid gloves and start investigating this guy to find out exactly how many laws he has broken and if they come down to treason. He's got to go to prison down the line IMHO.

[Morgana LaFey]

6. Karl's very presence at the White House is a violation of the Hatch Act

if you ask me. The Dems should have NEVER allowed that to happen. But there was nary a peep from any of them at the time. A whole hella bunch of problems, not all of them political (Katrina springs immediately to mind), could've been avoided had Mr. Rove been given his Hatch Act walking papers when he first needed them.

[Cleita]

7. I guess we'd better start goosing our Democratic elected

representatives to move investigations of Karl Rove to the top of their calendar. Ensnaring him would solve a lot of peripheral problems in the White House. I would like to see Condaleeza Rice called on the carpet too and not nicely. I was listening to a major general on the Ring of Fire radio program today who had recently returned from Iraq. He basically said she wasn't doing her job. There was only so much the military could do and there was a real need for diplomacy to solve the many problems we created in Iraq, but she seemed to have no plan nor care much about trying diplomacy there.

[aquart]

2. Ah, Mehlman. Can we indict him, too? Please?

[JohnnyLib2]

3. Do we have some DU political scientists who can comment?

I don't have the expertise, but have to think that this corruption will go down in U.S. history, something like Teapot Dome and Nixon's resignation.

[formercia]

5. More like Boss Tweed

but then, he was a Democrat. It's all about ideology rather than party affiliation. Crooks always gravitate to the party in power because that's where the money is, as one famous bank robber was fond of saying.

[rodeodance]

4. ’ve got is everything—and I mean everything—being run by the political arm. It’s the reign of the Ma

John DiIulio, former head of White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives:
“There is no precedent in any modern White House for what is going on in this one: a complete lack of a policy apparatus,” says DiIulio. “What you’ve got is everything—and I mean everything—being run by the political arm. It’s the reign of the Mayberry Machiavellis.”

source: Ron Suskind, Esquire , January 2003. “Why Are These Men Laughing?”
http://www.ronsuskind.com/ newsite/ articles/ archives/ 000032.html