Haiku of the Day

Daniel Pulliam will have much more on this later, but I couldn't resist a little preview: The House Government Reform Committee has made public a choice excerpt of the correspondence between GSA Administrator Lurita Doan and her friend Edie Fraser -- to whom, you'll recall Doan is alleged to have attempted to steer a $20,000 contract. It's from an e-mail from Fraser to Doan, and it's almost poetic:

Lurita, I will do anything for you and will do for the rest of my life.

Bottom line, want relationship with GSA and will keep delivering as you know.

But I have spent so much time at GSA from the report planning to these sessions

with ZERO $$

How do we solve

In the meantime, Doan's personal PR campaign appears to be paying off. She has won the support of former House Appropriations Committee Chairman Robert L. Livingston, in the form of an op-ed in today's Washington Times. In the piece, Livingston portrays Doan as a martyr to the cause of cost-cutting in government. "Mrs. Doan is new to Washington politics and government bureaucracy," he writes, "but she should have known any effort to actually cut federal spending would be fiercely resisted."