Scandal Visits the White House:
The Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal reached into the White House yesterday, picking off President Bush’s top procurement official — who just barely had time to resign before being arrested.
The federal charges against David Safavian stem from his tenure as chief of staff of the General Services Administration, predating his arrival at the White House a year ago. But his arrest nonetheless draws renewed attention to the ongoing corruption and influence-peddling inquiry swirling around Abramoff, a lobbyist well known for his connections to conservative Republicans in the White House and Congress.
And for a White House so desperate to build public confidence in its ability to respond to the Gulf Coast disaster, it doesn’t exactly help that the man who up until Friday was overseeing contracting policy for the multi-billion dollar relief effort has now been charged with lying and obstructing a criminal investigation.
Oh, my! Oh my, my my! The Abramoff scandal turns out to have a slight bearing on the Katrina debacle? And oh my, this David Safavian’s wife Jennifer, “is chief counsel for oversight and investigations on the House Government Reform Committee, which is responsible for overseeing government procurement and is, among other things, expected to conduct the Congressional investigation into missteps after Hurricane Katrina.” Oh, there really can’t be a whiff of impropriety or conflict of interest there.
Here’s another item from the same column: the administration is attempting to appoint Julie Meyers, a lawyer with no immigration experience as the head of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, part of the TSA (why don’t they just cally it the Department of Cronyism and Payback?). A howl of protest has already gone up from employee groups, homeland security types, and immigration advocates. Past experience includes the last 4 years bouncing around from the White House to Commerce and Justice and Treasury. Before that? 16 months working for Kenneth Starr. Yes, that Kenneth Starr. Smells like post-Lewinsky team spirit to me.
