The American Spectator : Obama Plays Hardball With Watchdogs

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Obama Plays Hardball With Watchdogs

By Robert Stacy McCain on 6.25.09 @ 6:07AM

The independence of inspectors generals comes under fire.

Gerald Walpin has quickly become the most famous of the three inspector generals who've left their jobs in recent weeks, exposing what appears to be a pattern of pressure from the Obama administration.

In radio and television interviews, the silver-haired 77-year-old former AmeriCorps IG has certainly contradicted insinuations of senility that administration officials made in defending the quit-or-be-fired ultimatum that Walpin said he received on June 11. On Tuesday, Walpin released a letter signed by more than 140 allies -- including a former White House counsel to President Clinton -- attesting that they have never seen him "confused" or "disoriented," as the administration claims he appeared to be at a May 20 meeting.

Yet the investigations into President Obama's evident crackdown on IGs -- designated watchdogs who guard against waste, fraud and abuse in federal agencies -- are not about Walpin.

Those familiar with the investigations (and yes, that noun is plural) caution against personalizing or politicizing the situation. These sources are especially concerned that inquiries by Republican members of Congress should not be portrayed as a partisan "gotcha" game against the popular new president.

Similar words of caution are expressed by some members of the IG community, who note that Walpin had only been watchdogging the Corporation for National and Community Service for two years. An able attorney and certainly not the doddering incompetent that Obama officials portrayed him to be, Walpin hasn't been an IG long enough to have acquired "veteran" status, and some say he had a reputation as "arrogant" or "holier-than-thou."

Whatever Walpin's reputation, however, sources familiar with his dismissal believe it was no accident that he was shown the door immediately after getting into a dispute with Eric Holder's Justice Department over a program affiliated with Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, an enthusiastic political ally of Obama. And perhaps the most important fact of the case so far is that the FBI is now investigating an accusation that e-mails relevant to Walpin's work were deleted by Johnson or others. Destroying evidence in a federal investigation is a serious crime, no matter what the other circumstances of the case may be.

While Walpin's case has pushed the IG story into the headlines, the cases of two other ex-IGs are now the subject of congressional inquiries:

• Judith Gwynn, inspector general for the International Trade Commission, was notified last week that her contract would not be renewed. She received that notice shortly after Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley sent a letter to ITC Chairwoman Shara Aranof inquiring about an incident in which Gwynn said procurement documents "were removed forcibly from [her] possession" by a commission staffer.

• Fred Wiederhold Jr., inspector general for Amtrak, retired without notice or explanation June 18. Grassley says the unexpected resignation came after Wiederhold was asked to provide "specific examples of agency interference with OIG audits and/or investigations."

An interesting angle to emerge in the Wiederhold case, according to sources, is that many of the IG's problems involved Amtrak vice president and general counsel Eleanor Acheson. A former Clinton administration Justice Department official under Attorney General Janet Reno, Acheson is not only the grandaughter of former Secretary of State Dean Acheson, but also happens to have been Hillary Rodham Clinton's roommate at Wellesley College.

That famous connection may be merely coincidental, but shortly after The American Spectator's blog first mentioned Acheson's name in regard to the IG probe Tuesday, Michelle Malkin noted another connection that is almost certainly less of a coincidence. After joining Amtrak in January 2006, Acheson brought in as her deputy Jonathan Meyer, who spent six years as a top Senate aide to Joe Biden, who for years has proudly proclaimed himself Amtrak's No. 1 advocate in Washington.

It was Biden who in March announced that the money-losing passenger rail service would get $1.3 billion from the massive $787 billion "stimulus" bill Obama signed in February. As Malkin also noted, the vice president's son, Hunter Biden, serves on the Amtrak board of directors.

Clearly, the Amtrak IG situation will get close scrutiny on Capitol Hill -- as of Tuesday, Wiederhold had made no public comment about his sudden retirement -- but perhaps the most interesting part of the developing inspectors general story involves an IG who is still on the job.

Neil Barofsky is "SIGTARP," the special investigator general whose job is to keep an eye on disbursement from the Troubled Assets Relief Program, the $3 trillion financial bailout that was rushed through Congress in October. Last week, Grassley sent a stern letter to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, asking about "a dispute over certain Treasury documents that were being withheld from SIGTARP auditors on a specious claim of attorney-client privilege."

At stake in the TARP case -- as in the cases of the IGs at Amtrak, AmeriCorps and the ITC -- is whether the inspectors generals will remain vigilant watchdogs on behalf of taxpayers or become compliant lapdogs, allowing Obama's political appointees to do as they wish without fear of independent scrutiny.

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topics:
Inspectors General, Gerald Walpin, Kevin Johnson

About the Author

Robert Stacy McCain is co-author (with Lynn Vincent) of Donkey Cons: Sex, Crime, and Corruption in the Democratic Party (Nelson Current). He blogs at The Other McCain.

Letter to the Editor View all comments (23) | Leave a comment

Robert Rosencrans| 6.25.09 @ 6:41AM

This is but another reason the economy won't recover. When you have corruption on this scale people lose faith in their government, and it's only a few short steps before they lose faith in themselves.

GonzaloCorrea| 1.19.11 @ 1:21AM

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Darin| 6.25.09 @ 7:05AM

"Appears to be a pattern"?

Once is an event. Twice is a coincidence. Three times is a pattern. Call it what it is. A Republican administration would NEVER get away with this.

smitty| 6.25.09 @ 7:08AM

@Robert
Faith in anything temporal is wasted.
However, I think it's high time to subscribe to AmSpec, so that they can keep Mr. McCain beavering away at this kind of reporting.

Marc Jeric| 6.25.09 @ 7:08AM

What did you expect? AG Holder pardoned those murderous PR terrorists and was Castro's lawyer in the Elian Gonzalez case. No lousy IG's will screw up the work of our soviets - I mean community organizations which now have several new names in addition to ACORN.

Bob Belvedere| 6.25.09 @ 7:37AM

Bravo RSM! I'm thinking of setting up a fund and asking for donations to purchase you shoes--the leather on the current pair must be kinda worn down by now.

Pete| 6.25.09 @ 9:32AM

Let's stop calling this "political hardball" and start calling it what it is: corrupt and illegal. This is not a "style" of governance, it is plain wrong and has no place in this country.

Bob Belvedere| 6.25.09 @ 10:08AM

Quoted from and linked to at:
http://www.thecampofthesaints.com/2009.06.21_arch.html#1245938702876
Linked to at:
http://www.thecampofthesaints.com/wwuam.html

Oldefarte| 6.25.09 @ 12:34PM

Yea, the 'Chicago Way' was examplified by Capone, Dillinger and Blogo also!!!!!!!!

grs| 6.25.09 @ 1:11PM

Good grief. It's "inspectors general." I expect better writing from TAS.

John Pennell| 6.25.09 @ 1:41PM

THUGOCRATIC STATISM, our country in the best of hands?

megapotamus| 6.25.09 @ 2:33PM

Among the many, many things this putrid crowd does not know we can add the fact that deleting an email is not like good old fashioned burning or shredding of correspondence. Unless they have either a specifically high-security deleting software or the attention of an IT security pro, those messages are still out there and recoverable. Sanford's footsie emails leaked out withing 24 hours. Only a complete halt to the investigation (or a sham) can stop these emails being revealed, if they exist. In any case, welcome to Obamamerica where NBA stars have personal car washers and YOU pay for it. I mean, unless you are a Democrat of course. Tax paying is obviously optional for Democrats.

JP| 6.25.09 @ 3:52PM

Megapotamus,
I will even go farther and state deleting government emails is a serious felony. Publicly held companies are required to save and archive emails. Only an IT administrator with the highest clearance has the ability to delete the emails; but auditing software usually is required on public networks -that is, if someone did delete them they would leave an obvious audit trail.

Pete| 6.25.09 @ 4:04PM

Obama: "I am the president and so I must take full responsibility. But I have only been here 6 months, so clearly we have Federal IT infrastructure problems that were handed to us by the previous administration. I will not rest until I have formed a new federal task force of czars, chosen by me, to look into the enactment of a federal IT infrastructure tax, so never again can justice be obscured so easily with a mere keystroke. The other side of the aisle is asking us to produce written documents on this issue or hand over the pertinent hard drives. This is a false choice, because remember, we won."

Jim| 6.25.09 @ 7:41PM

I am OBAMA, I won, how dare pieces of sub-human garbage investigate my actions? There are two kinds of people, those who support and obey me and those who wish they had!

Anonymouse| 6.26.09 @ 5:41AM

@ grs 6.25.09 @ 1:11PM
who railed at the author:

— Good grief. It's "inspectors general." I expect better writing from TAS. —

You nitpick over a grammatical slip while withholding appreciation for the author's investigative skills and contribution to the store of knowledge pertaining to this scandalous issue?

In so doing, do you know what you have revealed about yourself?

As an editor, I can assure you this piece is very well written throughout. With one exception, the syntax is excellent, the piece contains no verbal redundance (e.g., you won't find one instance of the word 'there'), the editor (or typographer) did not italicize the possessive letter 's' attached to "The American Spectator." Those are just a few of many positive grammatical and typographical attributes of Mr. McCain's report.

As for the minute bit of syntax that could have been more precise, I am surprised that the astute critic I'm addressing did not note it. Can you find it now that I've called attention to it?

www.onnhl.com| 6.27.09 @ 2:44AM

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Richard Baker| 6.28.09 @ 10:25AM

The Kenyan is going to make the Grant, Harding, Nixon, Carter, and Clinton administrations seem models of probity when this is all said and done.

chaussures pas cher| 3.28.10 @ 10:51PM

Acheson? June 19:chaussures pas cher IG-Gate: Domino Theory June 18: AmeriCorps Scandal Won’t Go Away Soon Blowback Note from Hot Air management: This section…

chaussures pas cher| 3.28.10 @ 10:51PM

Acheson? June 19:chaussures pas cher IG-Gate: Domino Theory June 18: AmeriCorps Scandal Won’t Go Away Soon Blowback Note from Hot Air management: This section…

chaussures pas cher| 3.28.10 @ 10:51PM

Acheson? June 19:chaussures pas cher IG-Gate: Domino Theory June 18: AmeriCorps Scandal Won’t Go Away Soon Blowback Note from Hot Air management: This section…

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