Speaking of corrupt… Drug Czar may be on the Congressional hot-seat

Via Dare Generation Diary and Raw Story…
Henry Waxman’s House Oversight and Government Reform Committee is getting feisty: Politicization of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy

At the request of Sara Taylor, the former White House Director of Political Affairs, John Walters, the nation‰s drug czar, and his deputies traveled to 20 events with vulnerable Republican members of Congress in the months prior to the 2006 elections. The trips were paid for by federal taxpayers and several were combined with the announcement of federal grants or actions that benefited the districts of the Republican members.

Oops.

We knew this, of course, yet it’s so delightful to see Congress actually doing something about it.

And check out this little email that they found… ONDCP’s White House liaison Douglas Simon sends a congratulatory email to all the ONDCP staff passing on the kudos given by Karl Rove for ONDCP’s work in coordinating all those campaign appearance trips. ONDCP Deputy Director Scott Burns responds, thanking him for “great work.”

From: Burns, Scott
Sent: Wednesday, November 22,2006 9:11 AM
To: Simon, Douglas A.
Subject: RE: November 7th Recap

Great work Doug…

From: Simon, Douglas A.
Sent: Tuesday, November 21,2006 5:34 PM
To: Bishop, Michael F.; Blake, Brian; Boyd, Cynthia M.; Buikema, Sally L; Burns, Scott; Cole, Jason R.; Horton, John C. (ONDCP); Janik HeatherJ.; Justce,Cary G.i Katsurinis, Stephen A.; Nelson, Keith B.; Lang, Jonathan D.; Madras, Bertha; Mclaughlân, Evan C.; Murray, David W.; O’Gara, James F,; Overdyke, Laura-Ashley; Raden, Erin E.; Rand, Justin W.; Reid, Margaret A.; Riley, Thomas A.; Simon, Douglas A.; Skoczylas, Paul E.; Solberg, Mary A.; Walters, John P.; Schatz, Stephen E.

Subject: November 7th Recap

Folks,

I just wanted to give you all a summary of a post November 7th update I received the other night. Presidential personnel pulled together a meeting of all of the Administration’s White House Liaison’s and the WH Political Affairs office. Karl Rove opened the meeting with a thank you for all of the work that went into the surrogate appearances by Cabinet members and for the 72 Hour deployment. He specifically thanked, for going above and beyond the call of duty, the Dept. of Commerce, Transportation, Agriculture, AND the WH Drug Policy Office.

This recognition is not something we hear everyday and we should feel confident that our hard work is noticed. All of this is due to our efforts preparing the Director and the Deputies for their trips and events. Director Walters and the Deputies covered thousands of miles to attend numerous official events all across the country. The Director and the Deputies deserve the most recognition because they actually had to give up time with their families for the god awful places we sent them. I attached the flnal list of all of the official events that the Director and Deputies attended.

Karl also launched into a feisty discussion about the plans for the final two years of this administration. ln no uncertain terms, he said he is not going to let the last quarter of this presidency be dictated to by the Capitol Hill.
There are a number of things this admçnistration and more specifically ONDCP have to accomplish before the time is up. lt is time to regroup and move forward.

ln the next 2-3 weeks I am going to set up one on one meetings will all political appointees to get a sense your plans for the next two years. lt will just be informational for planning purposes.

Thanks again,

Doug Simon

The Drug Czar has always (arguably illegally) campaigned against various drug policy initiatives and legislation around the country. But this particular bit of sloppiness in recording what everybody knows was happening may get more Congressional scrutiny as it relates to provable specific violations of the Hatch Act.
Update: DARE Generation Diary has an action item calling for the Drug Czar’s resignation.