BREAKING: Drug Czar spending YOUR money on helping friends win elections

It's 91 degrees Fahrenheit in the District of Columbia. And I have a feeling it's about to get a whole lot hotter for "Drug Czar" John Walters.

Today, the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform (one of my personal favorite committees), announced that the Office of National Drug Control Policy spent taxpayer money trying to get friends of the Bush administration elected last year.

At the request of Sara Taylor, the former White House Director of Political Affairs, John Walters, the nation’s drug czar, and his deputies traveled to 20 events with vulnerable Republican members of Congress in the months prior to the 2006 elections. The trips were paid for by federal taxpayers and several were combined with the announcement of federal grants or actions that benefited the districts of the Republican members.

A November 20, 2006, memo from Ms. Taylor summarizes the travel Director Walters took at her request. An agency e-mail sent the following day describes how Karl Rove commended the historically nonpartisan Office of National Drug Control Policy and three cabinet departments – Commerce, Transportation, and Agriculture – for “going above and beyond the call of duty” in making “surrogate appearances” at locations the e-mail described as “the god awful places we sent them.” Other documents include an e-mail from the Interior Department to Ms. Taylor’s predecessor stating: “these folks need to be reminded who they work for and how their geographical travel can benefit this President.”

...and his friends.

Walters is probably having a bad day. Not only is Congress likely going to cut his office's advertising and drug testing budget as they've done for the past several years, but Oversight Committee Chairman Henry Waxman sent Walters a laundry list of demands related to the political motivations behind his travels.

Recite after me, Johnny. "I don't recall being aware of.... I don't recall being aware of..."


[Thanks, Sanho]