Who Said Government Oversight Can't Be Fun?

Christy at Fire Dog Lake is live-blogging, here and here. If you visit atrios and click the link, you get a video from Speaker Peolsi's website, The Gavel, of the single most important part of the hearings (but Christy's posts need to be read to catch the hilarity of the Republican vs. Democratic approach to investigation; one wants to whine, the other wants to have serious questions regarding the potential violation of the Hatch Act and the general corruption [there's that word again] of the GSA by the Bush Administration; these people really can ruin anything they touch). Rep. Bruce Braley (D-IA), after reviewing portions of a Power Point presentation given to folks at GSA by a member of Karl Rove's staff at the political office in the White House, and getting a stuck record of "I don't remember" answers from GSA administrator Lurita Doan, asks the only question that needs asking:

Can you tell us what if anything these slides have to do with the GSA's core purpose of procuring supplies and managing federal buildings?

The Power Point in question included titles such as "2008 House Targets", and a map showing Senate races for 2008, color coded "Republican offense", and "Republican Defense". After trying to get Ms. Doan to offer her interpretation, and getting no answer, Rep. Braley offers his own conclusion - the presentation, from the White House Political Office, was about how the GSA could be used to assist Republican candidates for the House and Senate (building openings, ribbon-cuttings, directed federal largess are all possibilities that come to my mind although they are not mentioned in the hearings). Ms. Doan concedes the point, sticking to her "I don't recall" position (that is, since she doesn't recall, she unwittingly gives Rep. Braley the last word on the subject; who coaches these people?), and when asked the money question, tries to talk about "team building" and "brown bag lunches". Rep. Braley retorts that Ms. Doan has not answered the question, but has, again, unwittingly given a certain weight to the only possible interpretation to this entire sorry episode, to whit, the Bushies were ensuring that "their team" (whose team was being built, after all?) had the GSA on their side in the run up to the '08 elections.

At one point, Rep. Braley asks Doan if she knows what a "target" is, and she responds that she does, in fact she feels like one now. Poor thing. Poor, poor, innocent little GSA Administrator, under attack by those mean old Democrats who want to know why her office is colluding with the political office of the White House to violate the Hatch Act. The whole thing would be hilariously funny if it weren't so sad. Our government is being run into the ground by corrupt nincompoops, but at least they provide a laugh-track for the collapse.