Investigation of Karl Rove by political appointee under investigation. Oops.

The head of the Office of Special Counsel, Scott J. Bloch, is himself under investigation by the inspector general of the Office of Personnel Management over accusations of politicizing his agency.

A group of employees who work for Mr. Bloch has filed a complaint saying he tried to dismantle the agency, illegally barred employees from talking to the news media and reduced a backlog of whistle-blower complaints by simply discarding old cases. Debra Katz, a Washington lawyer representing the employees, said it was obvious that Mr. Bloch was trying to use the investigation to divert attention from his own problems.

Ms. Katz said Mr. Bloch’s assertions that he would conduct a wide-scale investigation of the Bush White House political activities, first reported in The Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post, were not believable because his office had only limited authority in such matters.