White House admits breaking law, but claims it was appropriate

April 16 (EIRNS)--The White House has now admitted that it conducted 20 private briefings on Republican prospects in the last Congressional elections in at least 15 Federal government agencies covered by the Hatch Act. One such briefing at the headquarters of the General Services Administration is already being investigated by the House Oversight and Government reform Committee, chaired by Henry Waxman, and by the Office of Special Counsel, whose director is Scott J. Bloch. But par for the course the Administration insists that the meetings, which violated the law prohibiting the use of federal resources including office buildings for partisan purposes, were appropriate.

In addition to these meetings during 2006-2007, according to the Washington Post, White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said "there were others throughout the last six years."

Such meetings, which were generally addressed by a deputy to chief White House political adviser Karl Rove have been confirmed to have occurred in the following departments: Commerce, the Environmental Protection Agency, Health and Human Services, Interior, Labor, Housing and Urban Development, Treasury, Education, Agriculture and Energy, NASA, the Small Business Administration, the Office of Science and Technology Policy, the Office of National Drug Control Policy, the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Although not yet confirmed, the list undoubtedly includes meetings at the Social Security Administration during 2005 when the Bush Administration unsuccessfully promoted privatization of Social Security.