Connecting the Dots

Tom Hamburger of the LA Times reports a new and potentially significant investigation by a normally obscure federal office, one that is looking at whether the nexus of the various scandals of the day might be at the White House. Hamburger writes:

The new investigation, which will examine the firing of at least one U.S. attorney, missing White House e-mails, and White House efforts to keep presidential appointees attuned to Republican political priorities, could create a substantial new problem for the Bush White House.

First, the inquiry comes from inside the administration, not from Democrats in Congress. Second, unlike the splintered inquiries being pressed on Capitol Hill, it is expected to be a unified investigation covering many facets of the political operation in which Rove played a leading part.

"We will take the evidence where it leads us," Scott J. Bloch, head of the Office of Special Counsel and a presidential appointee, said in an interview Monday. "We will not leave any stone unturned."

UPDATE: As "Chinatown"-inspired commenter Jake Gittes notes, Scott Bloch is not without controversy himself. Among other things, the Log Cabin Republicans called for his resignation two years ago because of his position that federal law does not protect government employees from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

UPDATE2: CREW weighs in on Bloch.