| Mar 30, 2007 @ 7:07 PM |
They Just Keep Piling Up...Violations of the Hatch Act at the GSA
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eastham
Posts: 6,317
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Named for Senator Carl Hatch of New Mexico (and not Orrin Hatch of Utah) the Hatch Act of 1939 is a federal law that prohibits federal employees (civil servants) from engaging in partisan political activity. While the law does allow modest forms of political expression -- you can have a political bumper sticker on your car, volunteer with your church for voter registration, etc -- there are many overt partisan political acts which are against the law, including raising money for a particular candidate.
This week, Congressman Waxman announced he was holding hearings about a meeting called by J. Scott Jennings, an aide to Karl Rove, and staff members of the General Services Administration. The GSA negotiates the majority of the contracts for the civilian departments of the federal government.
The crux of the meeting, and the powerpoint presentation is attached, was to reward political contributions to Republicans in key House and Senate races in 2008 through the granting of federal contracts. I worked in Washington for 20 years, 10 on Capitol Hill and I've never seen anything this blatant.
http://rawstory.com/news/2007/White_House_Power_Point_slides_target_0330.html
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| Mar 30, 2007 @ 10:11 PM |
They Just Keep Piling Up...Violations of the Hatch Act at the GSA |
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SunBabe
Posts: 12,242
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In January, the White House sent J. Scott Jennings, an aide to Karl Rove, to present a slide show to a group of employees of the General Services Administration.
"Blatant" -- excellent word!
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| Mar 30, 2007 @ 10:14 PM |
They Just Keep Piling Up...Violations of the Hatch Act at the GSA
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eastham
Posts: 6,317
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Hubris would be another good word.
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| Mar 31, 2007 @ 12:54 AM |
They Just Keep Piling Up...Violations of the Hatch Act at the GSA |
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Martin666
Posts: 2,142
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I think they were able to act for so many years without any accountability to anybody that they've lost the ability to operate honestly--they probably don't even know where the boundary lines are.
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| Mar 31, 2007 @ 6:44 PM |
They Just Keep Piling Up...Violations of the Hatch Act at the GSA
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eastham
Posts: 6,317
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My mouth fell open when I looked at those slides.
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| Mar 31, 2007 @ 8:10 PM |
They Just Keep Piling Up...Violations of the Hatch Act at the GSA |
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MusicMonster
Posts: 2,954
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Well, the Sole-Source, Open-ended, Iraqi Support contractual awards to Halliburton exclusively, by the Pentagon, were pretty blatant Eastham. That's not how federal contracting usually works at all.
The've been breaking altogether new ground these last several years...
-MM 
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| Mar 31, 2007 @ 8:28 PM |
They Just Keep Piling Up...Violations of the Hatch Act at the GSA
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eastham
Posts: 6,317
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You're right MM. No bearing on traditional contract practices nor the LAW! And did you see the IG's report on the Veterans' Affairs Department's computer system. He said it wasn't a blank check as much as a blank checkbook.
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| Apr 6, 2007 @ 7:42 AM |
They Just Keep Piling Up...Violations of the Hatch Act at the GSA |
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eastham
Posts: 6,317
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Apologies for two posts in a row...guess there is a time limit on the little blue pencil....
Anyway, a special counsel has been named to investigate the goings on at GSA. Here's the link from ABC News:http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2007/04/probe_targets_g.html
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| Jun 17, 2007 @ 10:04 AM |
They Just Keep Piling Up...Violations of the Hatch Act at the GSA
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eastham
Posts: 6,317
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The Office of the Special Counsel has been quietly working away on an investigation of violations of the Hatch Act by political appointees in the General Services Administration (GSA) and other entities. They've been issuing supoenas, etc.
Here's an update on their work. OSC Investigation
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