The story of Lurita Doan is, unfortunately, not an unusual story about the ethics of the Bush administration: 

The White House blandly praised Ms. Doan as it pushed her out. There was no mention, of course, of gross misbehavior when she suggested turning her agency into a patronage clubhouse. Nor was there mention of the fact that her call to the aid of the party came during a briefing for top G.S.A. managers — organized by the White House and delivered by a Karl Rove political operative — on targeted Democratic politicians.

She denied any violation, but she made her philosophy of government clear early on in trying to cut the funding of her agency’s inspector general office. Inspector generals are supposed to track complaints of waste and fraud. She called them bureaucratic “terrorists.”

Her one undeniable service for taxpayers was in laying bare the partisan diktat that so deeply scars the Bush administration’s approach to government service. Evidence of such chicanery extends from regulatory agencies packed with pro-industry appointees, to the purging of nine United States attorneys responsible for enforcing justice, not the Republican Party’s agenda.

Considering the usual stonewalling, it is surprising that Ms. Doan wasn’t allowed to stay on through the final months of the Bush presidency. She exits as a minor but revealing character in a far more sweeping tale of the partisan undermining of public service.