The Hatch Act says you can’t use taxpayer time or money even inadvertently for political purposes, even inadvertently.

When I joined the Obama Administration, they scared the crap out of me about this.

They told me a story of someone I knew who was in trouble for a Hatch Act violation and had to exit the government.

I was shocked. This was one of the most ethical people I had met. Deeply kind, the type that would do anything to help someone & who advised us on the rules.

It sounded scandalous.

Indeed, his partner had a fundraiser at their apartment for a candidate and he attended. Meaning he went to his own apartment.

Now I’m not sure of all the details. He may have used his work email (emails!) to invite people or it may have been that the event started during work hours and so he was technically getting paid.

Any way this was discovered. He was embarrassed. He agreed to resign. And honestly he had a little of a Scarlett H behind his name.

The Ethics team meant business in the Obama Administration. It would be embarrassing to be seen even flirting with the red line.

I remember waiting outside in the rain before setting foot inside an event while my chief of staff talked to ethics lawyers about the appearance of me being there. It was a private event and we all agreed I could walk in, have no food or drinks, and send them a check as if I had.

I also decided to tweet my attendance so it would be public.

I wasn’t going above & beyond. I was trying to fit in with the norm in the Administration.

Forget about making money on hotel properties.

If a Democratic Senator asked someone in our agency to do a local event on a policy area like opioids, I would only let staff do it if we had a record of doing similar things for Republicans.

Today Administration staff are splayed out in battle ground states like Florida, Minnesota, Arizona and Michigan. The Hatch Act is one of the “many rules meant to be broken.”

The White House chief of staff Mark Meadows says Americans don’t care if they break these little laws.

That’s because you’ve warn them down. Because you’re breaking too many. Because you can exist above the law. At least for now.

It’s because if you can find one person to defend you, you make it seem like it’s a grey area. And there’s always an unqualified corrupt toady who will defend you.

Meadows is right. For many people the Hatch Act isn’t in their top 10 reasons for people who will vote against Donald Trump & family.

And to his supporters, sticking his finger in people’s eye & getting away with it is apparently part of why they like him.

Whoever is at the top will set the tone. The Obama-Biden tone made us proud to serve under them. It made us constantly think about how each action served the public who pod us.

My boss Secretary @SylviaBurwell used to call the American public “our bosses.” Even though I was 48, I was new to Washington. I’m grateful that’s the example I had to follow.

From Burwell to @DenisMcDonough to Obama & Biden, each of us & civil servants respected them deeply.

I’m tired of a government that thinks we are subservient to them.