http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/opinion/ssi/images/Toles/c_01252009_520.gif

Enjoy.

Second, federal employees are not going to come forward to challenge the politically-driven dependent findings or assessments. It is very uncomfortable to do so, and the so-called whistleblower protections only kick in long after some adverse action has been taken against you. Management knows that. They make you fight your way back, expensive and time consuming.

Yes, you see my name out there, but you don’t know what it takes. The latest assault (I said only the latest) was when I distributed a Washington Post cartoon by Tom Toles to my division. My management (presumably, have FOIA’d to make sure) turned me in to the U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC), charging that I had violated the Hatch Act which prohibits political activity by Federal employees. But the Hatch Act only prohibits supporting a particular candidate or political employee. After somebody is elected, they are the President.

I cannot seem to pull up the particular political cartoon from the Washington Post archive, but search their site with the key words “Toles cartoon archive” and try the date 1/28/09 to find it. This is the link to the page that did not work:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/opinions/cartoonsandvideos/toles_archive.html

The OSC cleared me of the charges. This is how the OSC described the cartoon, and you will understand how it had such an incredibly strong appeal to me. Also, I have given some of the language OSC used when it cleared me.

“This letter responds to a complaint the U.S. Office of Special Counsel (OSC) received concerning allegations that you violated the Hatch Act when you forwarded a political cartoon from your government e-mail account on February 2,2009. The cartoon depicted what appeared to be President Obama pulling another figure from a box identified as “Science” in which the figure had been trapped while the Presidential figure said “We’ve ended the torture policy.”
…
“Based on the definition of political activity, the cartoon at issue did not violate the Hatch Act. Political activity is limited to those activities that are directed toward the success or failure of a political party, candidate for partisan political office, or partisan political group. In this case, you sent the political cartoon about President Obama via e-mail on February 2, 2009. At the time you sent the political cartoon e-mail, President Obama was no longer a candidate. “