Critics doubt official looking into Rove: Advocacy groups cite Bloch's ties to the administration.

[DeepModem Mom]

LAT: Critics doubt official looking into Rove
Advocacy groups cite Bloch's ties to the administration.
By Tom Hamburger, Times Staff Writer
April 24, 2007

Even as Special Counsel Scott J. Bloch moved forward with plans for a sweeping probe of the Bush administration, several advocacy groups complained that his ties to the administration and to conservative groups, as well as his record on gay rights and whistle-blowers, made him the wrong man for the job.

"There is a serious question as to whether Bloch will just provide cover for an administration that is covering for him," said Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a Democratic-leaning group.

A spokesman for the Office of Special Counsel, communications director James Mitchell, waved away the complaints, saying agency staffers have already begun to form an internal task force, led in part by career staff, to probe three broad areas of activity involving the White House and senior advisor Karl Rove.

The agency will use its subpoena power if necessary, Mitchell said. It will focus on whether White House political concerns improperly intruded on the decision to fire at least one U.S. attorney; whether Rove's office staff or others violated the Hatch Act in briefing Cabinet agency managers on political developments and Republican campaign goals; and whether the White House improperly used Republican National Committee e-mail accounts for official business.

Many of those e-mails are now missing, and Bloch has said his agency will probably join the effort to find them.

The advocacy groups charge, among other things, that Bloch initiated a policy that made it more difficult for gay employees to allege discrimination.

A whistle-blower group said Bloch had a poor record of protecting those reporting wrongdoing. And, these critics pointed out, the Office of Personnel Management is investigating alleged improper employment practices including intimidation of workers at the Special Counsel agency....

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-probe25apr25,0,7671510.story?coll=la-home-headlines

[maddezmom]

1. anyone with the "internets" that googled his name

has doubts

[donheld]

2. Bushie really knows how to pick'em

no matter what post he always seems to get the most evil person he can.