OSC's Bloch: Investigator and Target

The Project on Government Oversight raises an interesting point about Office of Special Counsel Scott Bloch's announcement that he's investigating possible Hatch Act violations at the White House: Bloch, as GovExec's Daniel Pulliam reported in October 2005, is himself the target of an investigation ordered by Clay Johnson, deputy director for management at the White House Office of Management and Budget. That probe, by Office of Personnel Management Inspector General Patrick McFarland, concerns allegations, as Daniel put it, that "the head of the small, independent agency responsible for protecting federal employees against prohibited personnel practices, including retaliation, improperly retaliated against his own employees."

Beth Daley, POGO's director of investigations, says, “It’s hard to believe that the Office of Special Counsel will be able to conduct a thorough investigation into the White House while Scott Bloch is under investigation himself." But don't you also have to wonder if Bloch might have an incentive to be especially thorough, since he's probing a White House that hasn't exactly had his back throughout his own travails?