BANANA REPUBLICANS….CONTINUED….The Washington Post reports today that White House political officials conducted “20 private briefings on Republican electoral prospects in the last midterm election for senior officials in at least 15 government agencies.” The only one of these briefings we know anything about is one given at the GSA last year:
In the GSA briefing — conducted like all the others by a deputy to chief White House political adviser Karl Rove — two slides were presented showing 20 House Democrats targeted for defeat and several dozen vulnerable Republicans.
At its completion, GSA Administrator Lurita Alexis Doan asked how GSA projects could be used to help “our candidates,” according to half a dozen witnesses. The briefer, J. Scott Jennings, said that topic should be discussed “off-line,” the witnesses said. Doan then replied, “Oh, good, at least as long as we are going to follow up,” according to an account given by former GSA chief acquisition officer Emily Murphy to House investigators, according to a copy of the transcript.
And what about all the other briefings? The Post reports the Stepford-like answer: “By the end of yesterday afternoon, all of those describing the briefings on the record had adopted a uniform phrase in response to a reporter’s inquiries: They were, each official said, ‘informational briefings about the political landscape.’”
Informational briefings! With specific information about, among other things, which particular Republicans in which particular districts in which particular states were in the most trouble. Right before an election. You betcha.
But you never know. Maybe it’s just a wild coincidence that the only meeting we actually know anything about included conversations about how to help “our candidates.” Maybe the rest of them really were just “informational.” And maybe OJ really is innocent.
