Former GSA Administrator Lurita Doan’s long-running battle with agency inspector general Brian Miller started when she tried to reduce his budget as part of a “cost-cutting initiative.” Doan recently told Federal News Radio that the White House asked her to resign after less than two years on the job because she “refused to back down on my support for the four whistle blowers at GSA” who complained about Miller. But the Corporation for National and Community Service, which agreed to review the case, found no wrongdoing by Miller.
However, a high-profile investigation by Office of Special Counsel Scott Bloch found wrongdoing by Doan herself, who allegedly violated the Hatch Act by asking federal employees to help Republican election efforts and steered lucrative GSA contracts to friends and political allies.
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Here’s what doesn’t make sense: On April 29, White House chief of staff Josh Bolton and counsel Fred Fielding summoned Dean to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. and told her she was to resign immediately. Her unceremonious departure indicated that the administration wasn’t buying her version of events.
If so, why isBloch’s head on the chopping block?
At a July 12, 2007 House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee hearing, ranking member Tom Davis, R-VA, went after Bloch, asking him if he had authorized a leak of the GSA investigation, a charge Bloch denied. This week, Davis called for Bloch’s resignation.
What the media hasn’t reported is that Doan and her husband Doug just so happen to be some of Davis’ major contributors. According to FEC records, the Great Falls couple gave more than $200,000 to GOP candidates and PACs since 2000.
Sources tell us the Tuesday raid of Bloch’s office and Alexandria home was pay-back for being a straight arrow whose politically embarrassing investigation of the firings of the U.S. attorneys and other allegations of illegal political activity in the executive branch made him some powerful enemies in the administration, including Karl Rove, which is why the White House is now desperately trying to silence him.
