By this point, we know all about the partisan, political briefings the White House conducted in government buildings for government employees, despite clear prohibitions by the Hatch Act.
The briefings were about as subtle as a sledgehammer — administration officials needed to know which congressional races were most important, so they could in turn misuse their offices to help GOP candidates in need. It’s why, at the end of one such briefing, GSA Administrator Lurita Alexis Doan asked how GSA projects could be used to help “our candidates,” according to half a dozen witnesses. The Hatch Act was written to prevent exactly this kind of abuse.
That said, watching Scott Jennings, Karl Rove’s top aide, explain the purpose of the briefings yesterday struck me as quite amusing.
Today, Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA) took advantage of Jennings appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee to question him about the briefings. And Jennings, like Rove’s former aide Sara Taylor, was right on message.
The talking points, it is painfully apparent from both Jennings’ and Taylor’s testimony, involve heavy recycling of “thank employees,” “informational,” and “political landscape.” As in Jennings from today when Kennedy asked if he thought his briefings would help Republican candidates:
“I felt that my briefings would help boost the morale of appointees and serve to thank them for their service to the president and give them information about the political landscape for which they were trying to enact the president’s agenda.”
Now, this has always been the White House’s response. The Rove/Jennings briefings were about “team building” and “morale boosting.” Heaven forbid anyone suspect them of exerting any kind of political pressure — Jennings was reluctant to admit yesterday that specific candidates were even mentioned — because this has nothing to do with politics. It was just briefings from the White House on which races and candidates were most important to Karl Rove in upcoming election cycles. Purely informational.
But the more I think about the Bush gang’s argument, the funnier it sounds.
There are two ways to look at this — from the White House’s perspective and from the employees’ perspective.
On the prior, we’re to believe that the White House, in the middle of a war, is so deeply concerned about morale within various federal bureaucracies, that Karl Rove’s office took it upon itself to arrange detailed campaign briefings. It’s all about morale. Officials in the West Wing, who ostensibly are busy folks with huge responsibilities, are just that focused on whether middle-managers at the General Services Administration are feeling good about their jobs. From NASA to HHS to the Small Business Administration to Homeland Security, Rove was this concerned about the spirits of federal employees. What a prince.
As for the employees, why, exactly, would employees at, say, the Peace Corps feel better about their jobs based on one of these briefings? I’m hard pressed to imagine the scenario in which an employee says, “I was feeling kind of discouraged about being stuck in an ineffective and incompetent bureaucracy, but now I know that the White House is focused on Michigan’s 9th congressional district. Wow, I feel better already!” Or maybe, “I wasn’t sure if Bush appreciates my tireless service, but now I’ve been briefed on several competitive House races in Florida. Thanks, Mr. President!”
Yes, this sounds pretty silly, but this really is the Bush gang’s argument. Indeed, it’s their only defense to giving legally-dubious, partisan, political briefings to government employees in government buildings. In order to find the White House’s argument credible, you have to believe they sincerely believe that Rove was this worried about bureaucratic morale and federal employees were this easily motivated.
I’m sometimes amazed at what these folks can say with a straight face.