Wyden Says Fire Lawbreaking GSA Chief, Smith Has No Comment

Michelle Neumann

This is not a close call. Bush appointee Lurita Doan, Administrator of the GSA, broke the law. She violated the Hatch Act. She abused her office. She was called on it. Far from being remorseful, she chose instead to dig her heels in, obstruct the investigation, deceive Congress and threaten subordinates who told the truth to investigators.

Doan clearly believes that she is to run the GSA for the benefit of the Republican party and any means justify that end. Doan is corrupt and unrepentant. She is not the person who should be in charge of managing billions of taxpayer dollars and a powerful federal agency.

On April 23, 2007, Sen. Ron Wyden and Sen. Byron Dorgan called for Doan's resignation or firing.

From Sen. Wyden's news release:

Wyden said two incidents have troubled him the most: Doan’s efforts to undermine the Office of the Inspector General of the GSA and her riding roughshod over career professionals and the IG to award a questionable contract, thus ignoring the recommendations of critical members of her staff and wasting millions of taxpayers’ dollars.

“What these incidents come down to is a complete disregard for the principals of responsible government and government accountability,” Wyden said. “While Congress mandated Inspectors General to fight waste, fraud and abuse in the executive branch nearly 30 years ago, Ms. Doan has disregarded three decades of oversight in less than a year on the job. It doesn't matter what your politics are. Taxpayers should be outraged."

Wyden continued, “I have always believed that an Administration deserves a broad berth to put its own people in federal agencies. But when someone spends their time holding political workshops on how to elect Republicans to office, that is so far over the line, I want them replaced.”

...

Other alleged ethics or legal violations include:

-Doan’s overruling and removal of several career GSA contract negotiators who questioned the GSA’s awarding of a contract to Sun Microsystems. ...

-Doan’s attacks on the GSA’s Office of the Inspector General, which has included drastic budget cuts and her referring to the IG’s investigators as terrorizing her. Individual Offices of the Inspector General independently investigate waste, abuse and fraud in federal agencies.

-Doan’s participation in a January 26, 2007, political briefing for GSA employees on how the GSA could promote Republican congressional candidates in 2008. Speakers allegedly included Doan and J. Scott Jennings, the White House deputy political affairs director. The federal Hatch Act of 1939 prevents federal government and agency employees from using their jobs for political purposes.

-A $20,000 no-bid contract Doan awarded to a close personal friend for a 24-page report on diversity even though the GSA has its own communications and public relations staff. By law, the contract should have been competitively bid.

... (emphasis added)

Dorgan's press release noted that 25 senators signed a letter to the White House, asking the following questions about that infamous January meeting:

On January 26, 2007, Deputy White House Political Director J. Scott Jennings joined a lunchtime meeting of political appointees at the General Services Administration (GSA). In a government building, on government time, he presented federal employees with a PowerPoint presentation that outlined Republican political goals for the 2008 election. Other GSA employees joined in from government buildings around the country via a government-owned videoconferencing system.

...

-Does the White House considers the preparation and delivery of such a presentation to be an appropriate use of taxpayer funds?

-Did the White House Counsel approve of preparing and delivering this presentation on federal property during business hours?

-Did Mr. Jennings or any other White House employee make this or a similar presentation to any other federal employee?

-Why did Mr. Jennings and his staff communicate the presentation materials, which bear the White House seal, via private e-mail account affiliated with the Republican National Committee?

...

The Executive Branch is not an extension of the Republican National Committee nor of any political party. Those who treat it as such must be held accountable. (emphasis added)

I suspect those questions remain unanswered.

Dorgan's press release also includes this quote from Wyden: "In less than a year on the job, Ms. Doan has shredded her own credibility," Senator Wyden said. "Good government and accountability are nowhere to be found at the General Services Administration under Ms. Doan's tenure. It's time for her to go."

On June 8, 2007, the U.S. special counsel wrote a letter to President Bush and called on him to discipline Doan "to the fullest extent" for violating the federal Hatch Act when she allegedly asked political appointees how they could "help our candidates" during the January meeting.

In this amazing video from Doan's first appearance before the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Doan shows her contempt for Congress when she refuses to acknowledge that PowerPoint slides she is being shown (the same slides presented by the White House at her January GSA meeting, which her office supplied to the investigating committee) listing Democratic politicians under the heading "Targets" are about targeting certain Democratic politicians for defeat.

In other words, this is a video of Doan lying to Congress.

Here's another equally contemptuous performance by Doan in her second appearance before the oversight committee this past Wednesday. In this video, Congressman Braley gets Doan to admit that the Republican members of the oversight! committee secretly met with her in advance of this follow-up hearing. She pretends to be oblivious to the (un)ethical implications of such a meeting, and responds with extreme smarminess "Congressman, I'd be happy to meet with you any time to discuss what GSA is doing!"

Doan proceeds to provide absurd and irrational responses when confronted with virtually incontrovertible evidence of her wrongdoing. For example, when asked about the following statement she made:

Until extensive rehabilitation of their performance occurs, they will not be getting promoted and will not be getting bonuses or special awards or anything of that nature.

she claimed she was merely using the "hortatory subjunctive" and was not threatening her subordinates for cooperating with investigators. Excuse me?

In other words, this is a video of Doan lying to Congress.

Way back in December of 2006, the Washington Post reported on Doan's mismanagement of the GSA. When the inspector general attempted to exercise his oversight responsibility over the GSA, she called him a "terrorist" and tried to cut his budget by $5,000,000, which is unprecedented in GSA history. Then she lied about what she was up to. It made no never-mind to Doan that this particular inspector general helped prosecute Zacarias Moussaoui. Sen. Chuck Grassley dressed Doan down in a letter, painstakingly explaining to her the value and purpose of oversight.

Ms. Doan is a former government contractor. Are we starting to put all the pieces together now?

Sen. Wyden has called for Doan's ouster. I contacted Gordon Smith's office at least 5 times over the past week. I was told at last that Sen. Smith was not going to have a comment on Ms. Doan, or Sen. Wyden's demand that she be fired. Is it really asking too much of him to take a public stand on this clear-cut issue?

This week the head of the Oregon Republican Party took it upon himself to investigate a Democrat who is not running for anything. He publicly and in writing declared that she lacked the necessary "integrity" for public service because she has received, apparently, a lot of parking tickets. Perhaps next he can investigate what Karl Rove was saying in his presentation to employees of the Interior Department on government time in government offices back in 2002.

Does anyone know if Lurita Doan has received any parking tickets? If not, she apparently has the requisite "integrity" to serve. In fact, she's probably on her way to a Presidential Medal of Freedom. Heckuva job.

By Michelle Neumann June 16, 2007