Even these individual stories, though, don’t do justice to Bloch’s strange four-year career at OSC. He first raised eyebrows by reportedly refusing to investigate whistleblower complaints by homosexuals and stocking the OSC staff with religious conservatives.

Bloch went three years without investigating reports that the White House’s political arm, led by Karl Rove, was manipulating the civil service for partisan ends. Finally, last year, he investigated Lurita Doan, head of the General Services Admin., and found that Doan violated the Hatch Act, which prohibits the politicization of federal agencies.

In nabbing Doan, who was perceived, fairly or not, as a prototypical Bush crony, Bloch seemed to have turned his career around. But then it turned out that Bloch had been actively stopping OSC employees from investigating other possible Hatch Act violations.

Lawmakers from both parties had long since called on Bloch to resign. Now five months after Doan resigned, the person who precipitated her downfall is leaving as well.

The report recalls that Doan violated the Hatch Act by asking GSA civil servants “how we can help our candidates” and then entertainingly stonewalled the oversight committee’s look into the incident.

Doan responded to yesterday’s report with a gem of a letter to Rep. Henry. A Waxman (D-Calif.), the oversight committee chair. It accuses Waxman of “ubiquitous hypocrisy” and running a “kangaroo court.” (TPM Muckraker has helpfully put the letter in PDF form). But in the missive to Waxman is a valid point about the federal investigation that brought her down:

Your flawed report is also curious for what it does not contain. Nowhere is there mention that you relied heavily upon the flawed investigation of Special Counsel Mr. Scott Bloch.  Nor is there any mention of the fact that the OSC Director Mr. Bloch was forced to hire an outifit called ‘Geeks on Call’ to quickly come in and erase all the files of his government computers dealing with this investigation when it became clear that the evidence had been doctored, witnesses tampered with and conclusions driven by political ambitions. Nor did you mention that the FBI raided Mr. Bloch’s home and office.

Doan calls Waxman’s reliance on Bloch’s investigation “utterly craven.”

How problems with the Official of Special Counsel, a tiny federal agency designed to protect civil servants, affected the career of the head of GSA is inside baseball.

But Doan is right: Scott Bloch, the man who said she violated federal law, has been an embarrassing Bush administration appointee himself. In particular, he has been terrible investigating other instances of White House politicization of federal agencies. For this, Waxman has called for Bloch’s resignation.

Regardless, it’s good to see Doan back in the news. There are few other provocateurs who will say of Waxman, “Most Americans are familiar with your lack of candor.”