Mirror game:

Published claims against Bloch from multiple sources and a few sundry relevant facts:

1. Bloch retaliated against employees who favored equal protection based on sexual orientation by reassigning them to Detroit.

2. That Bloch obstructed justice by erasing his hard drive and that of two subordinates and was using government computers for personal matters.

3. Lorita Doan is gone.

Through the looking glass:

1. Bloch was investigating BushCo retaliation against US Attorney’s by firing these attorneys for failing to politicize their offices (is Alice Fisher implicated here?).

2. Bloch was investigating BushCo failure to maintain digital records.

3. Bloch was investigating Hatch Act violations by Doan and others pertaining to the politicization of executive agencies.

It’s all so Rovian. Isn’t it interesting that leaks concerning the “Raid” are sewn up so tightly. State secret probably.

“The Bushies determined that it would be necessary to take out Bloch, but they didn’t want it to be alleged that they did it to cover and protect Lurita “Cookies” Doan and wanted it to look like they did it for cause against Bloch.”

I disagree with this statement because they don’t give a rat’s rear about keeping up appearances of propriety or anyone’s opinion about their protecting Doan. Their desire to have it appear to be for cause against Bloch has to do with not appearing to protect somebody else. (probably Rove, but I still think that Doan gave a port contract to a Cheney friend who for some reason was not qualified to receive that contract. It’s the contract(s), not the appearances, and not Rove’s Hatch Act violations.)

Federal Computer Week

Last year, Bloch faced off with Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.), ranking member of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, about Bloch’s alleged use of government equipment to send disparaging messages about Davis and others from his personal e-mail account.

One message accused Davis of acting like the defense counsel for Lurita Doan, former head of the General Services Administration, in Bloch’s investigation of Doan for possible Hatch Act violations. Doan resigned from her position last week at the request of the Bush administration.

From JohnJ at 31:

now all the evedence is in control of friendlies under an “active investigation”, and NOT available to Congressional investigators etc. They just drag the “investigation” on into next year and “lose” the serious stuff after too much time has passed and everyone loses interest.

Yep. Furthermore, I think Bloch was doing an assignment in the first place.

Guardian picked up some good quotes…

“Democrats weren’t all that crazy about Scott Bloch … but when he trained his sights on the Bush administration, they were all too willing to let him slide,” Davis said in a statement.

But Bloch vocally pursued high-profile probes that helped oust several of George Bush’s appointees. Lurita Doan, head of the US agency that handles government property, was asked to resign by the White House this week after a scandal that began when Bloch charged her with lavishing lucrative contracts on a personal friend.

Davis and fellow Republican congressmen supported Doan and blamed Bloch for fuelling the flap.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/may/07/usa

Thing of it is, according to The Times report, the subpoenas, of which bmaz would love to examine the filings in support [Me too but after over 87.27 months under Bush & Cheney I’ve no more breath to hold… glub…], derive from a “grand jury” proceeding.

Now, if I were sitting around the man-sized safes gaming this out with Dick & David, & assuming the “draft” document on POGOs site is a genuine reflection of what was going on inside OSC over the times covered in it {A Mighty If, IMO], I’d be pointing out that:

whereas the plan was to let Bloch head up the OSC to:

[a] carry on a process of “stall-til-the-next-big-shiny-object-comes-along-then-hit-delete” in relation to matters clearly or apparently under his jurisdiction, and

[b] take on the burden of housing the unshreddables in relation to whatever we send him to house regardless of whether it may be clear or apparent that he has no jurisdiction over that whatever, to bury in the files, or shred if he can, or resorb if necessary,

Scott has been good enough to tip us off to a few realities, starting with the readily apparent increasingly surly mood among the career types in his office as they start to take on the look of Fletcher Christian & the mutineers;

Scott has also been good enough to alert us to the fact that at this point, even with only 8.73 months left before “d” day, the plumbing over a OSC is pretty much all backed up with paper creating this rather substantial clog of partially completed investigations on a whole whack of sensitive stuff, not to mention a number of things we asked him to add to his to-do list despite the obvious LACK of jurisdiction, and those he’s doing his paper trencherman best to resorb it all, its starting to tell on his boyish figure;

& Scott has also been good enough to inform us that despite his best efforts over a number of months, apparently there is no reputable law firm, & indeed perhaps no disreputable law firm either, prepared to greet him with a suitable sinecure should he opt for early retirement – so Scott thinks he might stay on & hope for a McCain victory, or hope he gets overlooked in a postive hailstorm of bi-partisanship, or hope he can b.s. the Obama transition team into treating him like GWB treated folks like Glen Fine & Pat Fitzgerald ie leave him be – cuz he needs the job & likes the towels – I mean he REALLY likes those towels.

So now Scott is concerned about his being caught holding the bag full of evidence on “you know what” & related tomfoolery & needs a solid.

So how about we get an FBI posse ordered up, & maybe we can bury it all in the Grand Jury hearing, & the FBI can say: we did our job by the book, & Scott gets to say: Hey my staff handled the paper work, not me & then maybe Leahy retires or croaks & we can try to bore DiFI or schumber to sleep.

****

Then there is the entire alternative universe of speculation assuming the “draft” memo to be bogus. And JThomason’s observation at 68 has me concerned that might be so.

And I had forgotten about this:

On February 28: Pelosi asked the DOJ to open a grand jury investigation and pursue misdemeanor charges against Harriet Miers, the former White House counsel, and Joshua Bolten, President Bush’s chief-of-staff, for contempt of Congress. Miers refused to testify to Congress regarding the dismissals of federal prosecutors in 2006.

February 29: Mukasey rejected referring the House’s contempt citations to a federal grand jury, saying Bolten and Miers had committed no crime. Mukasey said they were right in refusing to provide Congress with White House documents or to testify about the firings of federal prosecutors.

March 10:

(Washington, DC)- Today, the U.S. House of Representatives General Counsel filed a civil lawsuit on behalf of the House Judiciary Committee to enforce subpoenas issued by the committee seeking information on the U.S. Attorney firings. The defendants in the case are former White House Counsel Harriet Miers and White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten who were cited by the House for contempt of Congress last month. Last week, the Justice Department refused to present the House-passed contempt citations to a grand jury, contrary to federal law. Based on the House resolution that also found Bolten and Miers in contempt, the Committee is now filing the civil lawsuit to enforce the subpoenas.

Which becomes more interesting irt the testimony in the Renzko case by Ata noted at 77 above…

This testimony makes Davis and reps “panic”. Davis pushes on Bloch. With the timing, Dems say, “Sure, we should “get” Bloch.” All the while “getting Bloch” helps the Dems…

So, civil suit and then the Ata tesimony = possible cause of the raid? Which now makes Bolton/Miers their testimony related to a criminal case of obstruction? And all can be tied to obstruction irt Plame case as well?

Again I may be crazy and pulling at the wrong threads…

What I need help with bmaz is can a civil suit result in a Grand Jury when related testimony comes out and exposes a criminal case is present? IANAL.

Those “deeply religious” types who are so willing to break the law are oh so dangerous

Regarding the Dallas Field Office Raid:

There is this from a POGO letter in 05:

On Thursday, January 6, 2004, without notice or warning, Mr. Bloch directed the involuntary geographic reassignment of twelve career OSC employees (approximately 20 percent of the legal and investigative team at headquarters, including two of the four career senior executives at OSC). Seven employees, including one of the two career senior executives, as well as the Director of OSC’s alternative dispute resolution (ADR) program, have been directed to report to a newly created field office in Detroit, Michigan. Four others are being told that they are being transferred to fill vacancies in OSC’s existing Dallas field office. The twelfth employee, a career senior executive who has been with OSC since 1983, has been reassigned to head the existing Oakland field office. Among other duties he has discharged over the last twenty years, with consistently outstanding performance appraisals, this career executive has served as Acting Special Counsel for extended periods of time during vacancies in that position. He has also been in charge of enforcement of the Hatch Act for many years, through the terms of several Special Counsels. The Oakland field office has a staff of only approximately six employees. Further, like the Dallas field, the Oakland field office has been headed successfully for many years by an experienced grade 15 manager.

http://64.233.167.104/search?q…../osc/joint

NPR today references this letter too:

http://www.npr.org/templates/s…..d=90245837

Hey klynn, I am glad you are still on this topic/thread.