On the Campaign Trail with Ed Tibbetts

U.S. Rep. Bruce Braley, D-Iowa, got back into the ring with General Services Administrator Lurita Doan Wednesday, and it was a repeat of their March toe-to-toe.

This is mostly an inside-the-Beltway story, but it also provides a look at your congressman at work.

Here’s the gist: Doan, the Republican appointee to head the GSA has been accused of urging several of her subordinate employees to help GOP congressional candidates get elected in 2008. This allegedly took place at a January meeting of political appointees where a White House official discussed targeted ‘08 races.

Doan is alleged, at one point, to have asked: “How can we help our candidates?” She’s said she doesn’t recall it.

Earlier this week, the Office of Special Counsel, a federal investigative agency, called her actions a serious violation of the Hatch Act and urged President Bush to discipline her.

Some high-ranking Democrats called for her resignation.

Here’s where Braley comes in. Back in March, he and Doan went through a lengthy Q-and-A about the meeting at a House Oversight and Government Reform committee, which Braley sits on.

Doan spent a lot of time saying she didn’t recall much of the January meeting, while Braley grilled her repeatedly.

For those of us who heard a lot during the 2006 campaign about Braley being a trial lawyer, it was a chance to see him put his courtroom skills to work.

The House leadership apparently was impressed. It posted the exchange to the video sharing site YouTube and, promoted by liberal blogs, it got quite an audience, with more than 90,000 viewings.

That’s a lot of hits for a political video (though it pales in comparison to such YouTube classics as the Hamster Dance).

At any rate, they were back at it again Wednesday.
The committee brought Doan back for another 3-hour-plus hearing and you can see it again on (yes, on YouTube) right here.

The Democrat leadership posted several videos of the hearing, in fact, and Braley’s office helpfully alerted supporters to the one featuring him.

Like in March, it’s a contentious back and forth. And in a statement, Braley said Doan was just as evasive as in March. He called the hearing the latest example of a Democratic majority finally holding the Bush administration accountable.

For her part, Doan has denied she violated the law or that she tried to exert any pressure on employees to do political work. In fact, her lawyer says the Office of Special Counsel did a hatchet job.

The Republicans on the committee were a combative lot yesterday, labeling the hearing a political sideshow that idled more important work.

It was a lively session, no doubt. But you can judge for yourself. Go to the committee’s web site here and you can see a video of the whole thing.

There are lots of serious allegations at the hearing, but there’s a good bit of political theater, too.

For my money, the best part was Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and Doan arguing over how many verb tenses there are in the English language. In fact, it may be the only time in congressional history the phrase “hortatory subjunctive” arose in testimony.

Or, you could just watch the Hamster Dance. Find it here.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 14th, 2007 at 10:15 am and is filed under On The Campaign Trail. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.