Government Employees Could Be Fired For A Hobby

Federal employees could be fired for blogging about politics with their personal computers, on their own time, Stephen Barr reports:

Blogging about politics at work falls into the don't-do category, but

blogging from home may also get a federal employee in trouble.

Presidential campaign Web sites, for example, encourage supporters

to create blogs on the site to advocate the candidate's positions. They

also usually carry a link for campaign donations, and that can be

trouble for a federal employee, even when using a home computer. The

OSC may view the donate button as soliciting for political

contributions, another no-no under the Hatch Act, and set off an

investigation. [WaPo]

This passage is part of a longer story about how the Office of Special Counsel (OSC) has decided crack down on political activities of federal employees in advance of the election.

The Hatch Act restricts the political activities of federal, state, and local government officials. The rules are very complicated. Presidential employees confirmed by the senate can even engage in political activities on government time, in government facilities, as long as these aren't paid for with government money. However, appointees must not compel their subordinates to play along. 

Since the beginning of the Bush administration, the definition of electioneering has been very narrowly indeed, at least when it comes to Republicans helping Republicans. Karl Rove was allowed to make the rounds of 20 federal agencies, delivering regular PowerPoint presentations about how bureaucrats could help get Republicans elected. This went on for years. In fairness the OSC did investigate some of these allegations, but neither Rove nor the senior government employees who participated in these briefings has been sanctioned.

The highest-profile targets for Hatch investigation, Rove, Ken Mehlman, and Scott Jennings, all resigned before any action was taken. Proximately, Jennings was a casualty of the U.S. Attorney scandal. It's not clear how much influence the Hatch Act investigations by OSC and Rep. Henry Waxman's Oversight Committee had on the timing of Rove's exit.

According to Barr's story, government employees could be fined, suspended, or even fired for blogging at home, on their own time if their blogging takes place on a website associated with a presidential candidate. (Public policy grad student Isaac explains that Barr is talking specifically about employees who blog using software sponsored by presidential campaigns, such as McCain MySpace or MyBarack Obama.)

The law hasn't caught up to new technologies. It's not clear whether government employees are allowed to "friend" a candidate on Facebook, or leave a partisan comment on someone else's blog from the privacy of their own homes. If the problem is links soliciting campaign contributions, what happens if a federal employee posts non-electioneering content in a diary at DailyKos or some other site that has electioneering ads and links?

I predict that petty and tangential Hatch Act investigations will be disproportionately directed at Democratic-leaning government employees in the run-up to the elections.  (Barr notes that Hatch Act enforcements have been on the rise since 2000.) 

This is an empirical question, and I hope that I'm wrong. Maybe close scrutiny during this period will deter Hatch Act abuse.

If you are a government employee of any political persuasion who has been investigated or disciplined for blogging about politics outside of work, please email me. I want to hear your story.