Govt. investigator under fire himself

Scott Bloch may be one of the most provocative government officials you've never heard of.

As the head of a small federal agency known as the Office of Special Counsel, Bloch is charged with protecting the rights of federal workers and ensuring that government whistle-blowers aren't subject to reprisal.

Since the 48-year-old lawyer took over the job in January 2004, he has been vilified by the left, become a cause celebre for the right and gotten slapped down by the Bush White House.

And all of that was just a warmup for a circular Washington-style contretemps in which Bloch's agency is opening an investigation into the conduct of White House employees at the same time that he is under federal investigation for alleged misconduct in his own office, including charges of intimidation and retaliation against whistle-blowers within his ranks.

It has been a wild ride for Bloch since his November 2003 confirmation hearing before the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee, in which he quoted Plato's Republic and reflected upon Socrates as the original whistle-blower.

"I grew up with an understanding of the importance of the underdog," Bloch told senators then. "My father was a lifelong member of a union, the Writers Guild of America, and he taught me the need for protections for those who are trying to earn a living for their families, who stand as a lone voice against a powerful industry."

Such lofty talk soon gave way to bitter fingerpointing and recriminations over one his first acts, which was to deny gay federal workers protection against discrimination based on sexual orientation and to remove references to sexual orientation from the agency's Web site and complaint forms.

That endeared him to some social conservatives, who also appreciated the observant Catholic father of seven for his previous work as deputy director of the Justice Department's faith-based initiatives office. But the White House, under pressure from Democratic lawmakers, effectively rebuked him by affirming President Bush's support for protecting gay federal workers from discrimination.

"He has sort of held himself out as martyr to the cause," said employment lawyer Debra Katz, who is representing a group of current and former Special Counsel employees who filed a complaint against Bloch in 2005.

The workers allege that Bloch retaliated against those who disagreed with his policies through intimidation and involuntary transfers, and refused to protect federal workers from discrimination based on sexual orientation. The charges remain under investigation by the Office of Personnel Management.

What thrust the dustup over Bloch from the realm of left-vs.-right interest groups and blogs onto front pages this week was his decision to open an investigation leading right to the doorstep of Karl Rove's political shop at the White House.

Bloch said he is looking into whether a presentation by Rove aide J. Scott Jennings to political appointees at the General Services Administration violated the federal Hatch Act, which bars federal employees from engaging in political activities with government resources or on government time.

Katz says she thinks he did it simply to make himself bulletproof. How could the White House dare sink Bloch when he's investigating the Bush administration?

"He put himself on the map in a way that will insulate him from the investigation," Katz said. "This was an extreme act of trying to put himself in the spotlight and create pressure on the White House not to take action against him."

Bloch spokesman Loren Smith bats away that notion, saying: "We're the agency assigned by law to enforce the act. The two simply are not related."