Open Thread: House Report Rips White House 'Propaganda'

The ranking Republican on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee recently criticized the administration's attempts to promote its policies, alleging that some may even be illegal. 

Rep. Darrell Issa, California Republican, is blasting the Obama administration in a new report, charging the administration has engaged in an "unprecedented" propaganda effort to sell the president's health care and other policies.

"Under one-party rule in 2009, the White House used the machinery of the Obama campaign to tout the President's agenda through inappropriate and sometimes unlawful public relations and propaganda initiatives," the report says...

Issa's report cites as evidence for his charges 11 separate episodes where the report says theadministration abused taxpayer resources and, in some cases, violated federal law.

Those include well-known flash points like expensive road signs touting economic progress under the economic stimulus law and an attempt in the early months of the administration to coordinate taxpayer-funded art to boost the president's legislative priorities.

But it also includes a number of lesser-known episodes including a government-funded online web form allowing users to urge members of Congress to pass health care legislation and the shady online practices of a Justice Department spokeswoman.

Propaganda or just P.R.? Are Issa's accusations exaggerating the problem, or is there some serious malfeasance here?