Bush day on Capitol HIll.  More late-breaking news in the scandal surrounding the firing of the U.S. Attorneys.  The Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Patrick Leahy (D-VT) issued a subpoena for top Bush aide, Karl Rove, today:

The chairman of the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee said on Thursday he had subpoenaed two more White House aides, including political adviser Karl Rove, in the probe of fired federal prosecutors.

"This is not a step I take lightly," Sen. Patrick Leahy declared in a Senate speech.

It was yet another salvo in the ongoing dispute with the White House. Congress appears headed toward a court fight with President George W. Bush, who has claimed executive privilege in refusing to provide documents or testimony by current or former aides, now including Rove and deputy political director Jay Jennings.

Eariler today, Rep. Henry Waxman, Chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Affairs, wrote to the Chair of the Republican National Committee. Waxman wants the RNC e-mails including those using the "gwb43.com" address that were sent relating to the now infamous powerpoint presentation at the General Services Administration and any other similar activities:

Last week, the Committee held a hearing into allegations of misconduct at the General Services Administration. One of the issues examined at the hearing involved a partisan political presentation that White House Deputy Director of Political Affairs, J. Scott Jennings, made to the GSA Administrator, Lurita A. Doan, and approximately 40 GSA appointees in the GSA headquarters building on January 26, 2007. At this event, Mr. Jennings presented a 28-page PowerPoint briefing that reviewed the 2006 election results and identified the Republican party’s top electoral targets in upcoming federal and state elections. Following the presentation, Ms. Doan asked her staff to consider how GSA resources could be used to help “our candidates” in the next election.

Serious questions were raised at the hearing about the legality and propriety of Mr. Jennings’s presentation and the discussion that followed it. In addition, the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service issued a report finding that the presentation itself and Ms. Doan’s comments could be violations of the federal Hatch Act.[1] According to a White House spokesperson, however: “This is regular communication from the White House to political appointees throughout the administration.”[2]

In communicating with GSA about the presentation, Mr. Jennings and his assistant used “gwb43.com” e-mail accounts maintained by the RNC rather than their official White House e-mail accounts. In their e-mails, they described the presentation as a “close hold” and said that “we’re not supposed to be emailing it around.”[3]

To assist the Committee in its investigation of these issues, I request that you provide any electronic messages sent or received by Karl Rove, J. Scott Jennings, or any other White House officials using accounts maintained by the RNC that relate to (1) the January 26, 2007, PowerPoint presentation at GSA, (2) the presentation of any similar political briefings at other federal agencies or to other federal employees, or (3) the use of federal agencies or resources to help Republican candidates.

snip

[1] Memorandum from Congressional Research Service to House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Meetings, Conferences as “Political Activities” in a Federal Office, and “Hatch Act” Considerations (Mar. 26, 2007) (online at www.oversight.house.gov/ Documents/20070328154603-20874.pdf).

[2] Panel Asks Rove for Information on ’08 Election Presentation, Washington Post (Mar. 30, 2007).

[3] Email from Jocelyn Webster to Tessa Truesdale (Jan. 19, 2007) (W-02-0310).

 

At yesterday's hearing on misconduct at the General Services Administration before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, some very revealing emails were disclosed that indicated further use by White House officials of RNC email accounts.

These emails accompanied a PowerPoint presentation prepared by the White House Office of Political Affairs targeting the most vulnerable democratic members of the House and Senate. The White House will undoubtedly continue to defend White House staffers' use of RNC email accounts as required by the Hatch Act, which allows certain White House staff to conduct political activities while at the White House but prohibits them from using government resources to do so.

Here’s the hitch, however -- if these materials were truly “political,” then GSA administrator Lurita Doan and others violated the Hatch Act when they allowed and participated directly in partisan political activity at GSA headquarters during working hours.