Uncategorized

The Politicization of Federal Workers, Continued? The Official Answer Is No.

By Michael Scherer | @michaelscherer | October 14, 2010 | +

During the George W. Bush years, House Democrats went on a tear about the tendency of Karl Rove’s White House political shop to dispatch federal government employees to appear in the districts of vulnerable Republican members of Congress. Rep. Henry Waxman, then chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee bemoaned what he called “improperly politicized” federal employees.

As the Washington Post reported at the time, Waxman found that “White House officials arranged for top officials at the Office of National Drug Control Policy to help as many as 18 vulnerable Republican congressmen by making appearances and sometimes announcing new federal grants in the lawmakers’ districts in the months leading up to the November 2006 elections.” On Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s blog, the investigation was posted as part of the “Draining the Swamp” project.

Today, Elizabeth Warren, the White House’s “architect” for the new Consumer Financial Protection Agency, a non-political body, has traveled to Columbus, Ohio, to the 15th Congressional District, where she will address a public “consumer roundtable discussion” as part of her effort to stand up the new agency. Her travel was announced by the Treasury Department, and according to a Treasury official I spoke with, the public event is just a single detour on a longer trip which is focused on private meetings in preparation for the new agency. The Treasury official said the event is entirely non-political, and the local Democratic congresswoman, Mary Jo Kilroy, was not invited. The event is hosted by three left-leaning non-profit groups, Policy Matters, COHHIO and Americans for Financial Reform.

But Kilroy is not just any congresswoman, and Ohio-15 is not just any district. She is among the most endangered House members in the nation, and, as a member of the House Committee on Financial Services, has been a major supporter of Warren and Wall Street reform. Her campaign message borrows heavily from Warren’s own work. “I’ll be a watchdog for your money like it’s my own,” Kilroy says in her latest ad, after a number of people praise her for taking on the banks and the credit card companies.

Coincidence? Perhaps. But if Republicans take control of Congress, my bet is that this is exactly the kind of thing Rep. Darrell Issa, who is set to take over the oversight committee, is likely to look into, with the same subpoena power that Waxman once enjoyed. As they say in tether ball, what goes around. . .

Related Topics: elizabeth warren, mary jo kilroy, Uncategorized

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  • shepherdwong

    “…my bet is that this is exactly the kind of thing Rep. Darrell Issa, who is set to take over the oversight committee, is likely to look into, with the same subpoena power that Waxman once enjoyed.”
    .
    Just brilliant. Now tell us what you think Issa won’t “look into.”

  • grape_crush

    The Official Answer Is No.

    As should be the unofficial answer, pending the presence of evidence to the contrary, Michael. Your seeming ‘gotcha’ is built on false equivalency, and your selective use of example provides cover for baseless accusations of wrongdoing.

    In your example above, you left out that administration personnel were making appearances with GOP candidates, touting grants and other government largess being showered down on their districts. Can you provide evidence of that same sort of activity occurring with Warren’s visit?

    Even then, you’ve chosen the weakest form of politicization that took place in the Rove-Bush years. For example:

    “Control of Congress will turn on handful of races decided by local issues, candidate quality, money raised, campaign performance, etc.” —From Rove’s 1/6/02 presentation to Interior Dept. officials

    Jan. 5, 2002: Rove accompanies Bush, who lost Oregon by less than 1% in 2000, to Portland, Ore.; Bush voices support for Klamath Basin farmers.

    Jan. 6: Rove gives presentation to Interior Department officials connecting regulatory actions in key states, including Oregon’s Klamath issue, to Republican prospects in the coming elections.

    Feb. 2: Rove meets with farmers in Oregon.

    March 29: Bush administration sides with farmers, diverts waters for agricultural use.

    Sept. 21: Thousands of salmon die in the shallower Klamath River.

    June 25, 2003: Regional officials tell Klamath farmers the flow of irrigation water needs to be curtailed; worried congressmen call Rove’s office for help. The decision is reversed later in the day.

    You need something much stronger than what you’ve written to substantiate a charge of politicization, Michael. All you have here is a trumped-up assertion of hypocrisy.

  • destor23

    My bet is that the media will treat visits by new administration employees who are little known to the general public and appearing at non-campaign events where the politician up for re-election hasn’t even been invited as morally equivalent to actually publicly lavishing federal grants on the districts of congressional reps up for reelection.

    As they say in tether ball… we are going to keep hitting the ball.

  • certifiablylazy

    All you need is a good tetherball to the face.

  • apr2563

    Weak Michael, weak.

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