11 months after being found in violation of the Federal Hatch Act, Lurita Doan’s reign as Administrator of the General Services Administration ended last night when the White House forced her to resign. “I would rather get fired for something I believe in and a cause I was willing to fight for, rather than to believe in nothing worth being fired for,” Doan said to Government Executive’s Dan Freidman and Robert Brosky.

It’s not clear what Doan was referring to, though she has waged a near-constant personnel battle with the GSA’s inspector general’s office. The independent office of special counsel determined last May that Doan doesn’t believe in the Hatch Act, which protects government employees from having to participate in the party politics espoused by their bosses.  At a luncheon with White House GOP political operative Scott Jennings, Doan asked her employees, “How can we help our candidates?”

That such a move didn’t get Doan fired sooner is one of the great mysteries of the Bush administration. That the White House finally decided to take such action now is another mystery. Read Freidman and Brosky here.  MB

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