More From The Bloch Head

Scott Bloch, head of the Office of Special Counsel (OSC), is back in the news. In May 2005 I told you about Bloch, in an article titled "Bush's House Homophobe." At that time, the White House had assigned an Inspector General to investigate complaints filed against Bloch. That investigation has yielded little to date, thanks to Bloch's stonewalling and obfuscating.

This April I told you that Bloch had taken it upon himself to launch an investigation of Karl Rove's alleged improper politicization of, among others, the Attorney General's office. At that time, I quoted Barney Frank's concern that Bloch was taking on that investigation to stall it, and protect Rove and others from real inquiry.

I may not have been sinister enough in my thinking; others have since charged that Bloch did it to create a conflict of interest between the OSC and the White House that is investigating him.

Today, the Wall Street Journal writes that last December, Bloch had his computer's hard drive surgically scrubbed, along with those of two of his departing deputies. And I mean scrubbed -- real high-level, leave-no-trace stuff; and he used a private computer-service firm rather than his department's techies. And yes, your irony sensors are correct, one of the main allegations Bloch is supposedly investigating is whether Rove and others erased incriminating emails from their computers.

Bloch absurdly claims that the procedure was done to eradicate a computer virus. Then, the WSJ has this doozy, apparently confirming the suspicions cast upon Bloch's self-insertion into the Rove mess:

Mr. Bloch believes the White House may have a conflict of interest in pressing the inquiry into his conduct while his office investigates the White House political operation.

The lawyer for the former OSC employees who brought the complaints against him issued a letter today to President Bush, copied to the White House Counsel and various senators and congressmen, begging for him to do something about Bloch. But then, who would get to the bottom of the Rove/AG scandal?