Well, I've been saying this since March. According to a report from the Bush-appointed (and independant) Office of Special Counsel (OSC), Lurita Doan broke the law. She arranged for a White House congressional election strategy presentation to be shown in a conference room at GSA headquarters during lunchtime on a business day (Friday, January 26th). That's a mouthful, but it means that she knowingly or unknowingly violated the Hatch Act, which forbids government resources or government employee time to be used on behalf of any political party. The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform has been all over this, and has investigated Doan's actions since January 1 2007.

There are witnesses who have sworn under oath that following the PowerPoint presentation, Ms. Doan asked the 35 other people in the room, "How can we help our candidates?" "We" would be the GSA, and "our" would be the GOP.

Chairman Henry Waxman has invited Lurita Doan to testify again to explain the results of the OSC investigation. She will appear before the committee at 10:00 EDT. I'm surprised she has agreed to return, given how disastrous and potentially incriminating her first appearance was in March. Maybe that's just how arrogant GOP political appointees act. She was appointed as head of the GSA in May 2006 after she and her husband donated tens of thousands of dollars to the RNC and other Republican party groups and elections. As I wrote in my e-mail to her, she was on the job for less than a year and was intimately involved in two scandals. Well done!

Down with Tyranny has a great summary on the latest developments. The presentation that Administrator Doan arranged to be shown was produced by the White House political office (Karl Rove's office). We can count on Henry Waxman reminding his colleagues of Rove's role this morning.

If she is really going to appear before Waxman's committee and repeat that she didn't realize she was violating the Hatch Act because she was too busy opening and replying to 200 e-mails on her blackberry, then this is going to be fun.

Recall how Doan was burned by Congressman Braley in March:

The hearing is on! See it here if you have Windows Media Player:

http://play.rbn.com/play.asx?url=cspan/cspan/wmlive/cspan3v.asf&proto=mms?mswmext=.asx