White Officials racked up the frequent flyer miles shilling for endangered Repugs....on OUR dime

[marmar]

from the Washington Post:



Report Details Bush Officials' Partisan Trips
House Panel Finds Federal Appointees Attended Many Events on Taxpayers' Dime

By R. Jeffrey Smith
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, October 16, 2008; Page A06


When Karl Rove's office requested special help for beleaguered Republican congressional candidates in the months before the 2006 elections, the head of the Office of National Drug Control Policy jumped to the task. Director John Walters was called a "superstar" by a Rove aide after carrying half-million-dollar grants to news conferences with two congressmen and a senator.

Walters's visits to Utah, Missouri and Nevada were among at least 303 out-of-town trips by senior Bush appointees meant to lend prestige or bring federal grants to 99 politically endangered Republicans that year, in a White House campaign that House Democratic investigators yesterday called unprecedented in scope and scale.

Federal law prohibits the use of public funds or resources for partisan activities -- and specifically barred Walters's office from any involvement in a federal election campaign -- but the agencies involved said most of the trips were paid for by taxpayer funds, according to the draft report released by the Democratic majority of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

The report said that since the Rove aide and many others involved in organizing the trips are no longer in office, "there is no effective remedy" for any related violations of the 1939 Hatch Act, which restricts the use of public funds for partisan gain.

The report said the trips were freely described as political in subpoenaed e-mails and interviews. A list prepared at the White House two weeks before the election gave the names and dates of appearances by Cabinet secretaries in 73 key congressional districts, all under the heading "Final Push Surrogate Matrix."

"This is," the report said, "a gross abuse of the public trust." .......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/15/AR2008101501791.html

[AndyTiedye]

1. What That Supposed to be "White House Officials…"?

[Canuckistanian]

4. It's actually a fairly descriptive title

If not entirely accurate.

[marmar]

5. Yup.....Oops. Too late to change it now.....

:hide:

[AndyTiedye]

11. Did Seem Like a Bit of a Freudian Slip

[razors edge]

2. Well,

That leaves me to wounder, since the Democratic leadership didn't call them on this and shut it down, (I can't believe they didn't know) are we to expect the same when they take charge?

I hope we do better going forward.

This sad chapter in our history should be documented in it's entirety, and prosecuted vigorously.

[crickets]

3. Kick

[SpiralHawk]

6. republicons = a gross abuse of public trust

ptoooey - why do republicons HATE honesty, decency, and the American Way?

[Marrah_G]

7. WTF? "White Officials"

Why inject that into a story that has jack shit to do about race?

[marmar]

8. Umm, read post #5 before flying off into a tizzy...

n/t

[Marrah_G]

9. oops- sorry for jumping the gun!

Yes I am a doofus. I blame my less then usual amount of coffee this morning!

:blush:

[Solly Mack]

10. Damn white officials

:)


I didn't want to resist

[machI]

12. Kick