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The Obama Watch
The Little Scandal That Could
"We're not there yet," one Democratic source on Capitol Hill said last week, when asked about the prospect for hearings on the Obama administration's firing of AmeriCorps inspector general Gerald Walpin. Congressional investigators are still conducting interviews in the case, so the question of whether to "pull the trigger" on a full-blown inquiry -- with subpoenas for witnesses to testify under oath at committee hearings -- has yet to be decided.
The fact that both Democrats and Republicans are involved in investigating the Walpin dismissal is, however, highly significant. With Democrats controlling both houses of Congress, bipartisanship is absolutely necessary to getting the truth about the AmeriCorps case, as with the other cases in the smoldering "IG Gate" scandal.
Sensitive political considerations are involved, given the potential fallout from investigations into whether the Obama administration -- which promised to be the most "transparent" in history -- is trying to muzzle the independent watchdogs tasked with preventing waste, fraud and abuse in federal agencies.
In the span of barely a week, beginning with the White House's quit-or-be-fired ultimatum to Walpin on June 10, two other inspectors general left their posts in what appears to be a pattern of administration pressure against IGs:
• International Trade Commission IG Judith Gwynne was told June 17 that her contract would not be renewed, shortly after Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) sent a letter to ITC asking about a March incident in which "certain procurement files were removed forcibly from the possession of the Inspector General by a Commission employee." Grassley had also asked questions about the unusual arrangement in which Gwynne was employed by the ITC on a series of six-month temporary contracts, a situation scarcely conducive to the IG's independence of agency authority.
• On June 18, Amtrak IG Fred Wiederhold submitted a 94-page report, prepared at his request by an outside law firm, showing that the federally subsidized passenger rail service had, as Grassley said, "systematically violated the letter and spirit of the Inspector General Act." Immediately after the Amtrak board meeting where he presented that report, Wiederhold submitted notice that he would retire.
Those familiar with the congressional investigation say Wiederhold has denied being forced out at Amtrak -- personal considerations were also involved in his decision -- but the report he submitted June 18 details a pattern of obstruction by Amtrak's law department.
This department is the bailiwick of Amtrak vice president and general counsel Eleanor "Eldie" Acheson, who just happens to be a longtime friend (and Wellesley College roommate) of Hillary Rodham Clinton. Acheson's deputy general counsel, Jonathan Meyer, joined Amtrak after spending six years as a top Senate aide to Joe Biden, who has long proclaimed himself as Amtrak's No. 1 advocate in Washington and who personally announced the $1.3 billion in "stimulus" funds for Amtrak.
Led by the well-connected Acheson and Meyer, Amtrak's law department tried to require the IG's office to get prior approval before communicating with Congress and instituted a policy where documents subpoenaed by the IG's office were first reviewed and occasionally redacted by Amtrak management.
None of this squares with the law and Grassley, the congressional patron saint of inspectors general, wrote in a letter to Amtrak chairman Thomas Carper that, in the wake of Wiederhold's retirement, IG staffers were "fearful of retaliation" if they spoke to congressional investigators. The seriousness of these charges prompted Rep. Edolphus Towns (D-N.Y.), chairman of the House Oversight Committee, to join with the committee's ranking Republican, California Rep. Darrell Issa, in announcing an official investigation., parallel to the probe led by Grassley's team in the Senate.
Bipartisan interest in the Amtrak IG case on the House side was greeted by Republicans on Capitol Hill as a promising sign that may bode well for prospects that the AmeriCorps IG case will get a full investigation by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, chaired by Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman.
Lieberman has been officially an independent since losing a 2006 Democratic primary to a left-wing challenger, and he has so far been noncommittal on the AmeriCorps case. Last month, Lieberman and the committee's ranking Republican, Maine Sen. Susan Collins, initially seemed willing to accept the White House's claim that Walpin had been "disoriented" at a key May 20 meeting with the board of the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), which oversees the AmeriCorps program.
However, when accused by the Washington Times of "punting" the Walpin case, Lieberman responded that he was "committed to conducting an independent review to make sure Mr. Walpin's termination was not arbitrary, capricious, punitive, or political." And the suspicious circumstances surrounding that termination continue to be investigated.
Walpin had protested a decision, apparently approved by Obama administration Justice Department officials, not to prosecute Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson -- a Democrat and Obama supporter -- on charges of misusing AmeriCorps funding for Johnson's St. HOPE Academy charity.
Last week, when congressional investigators asked CNCS general counsel Frank Trinity about White House involvement in decision to fire Walpin, Trinity refused to answer, saying he was "not authorized" to discuss the subject. One Republican investigator said Democrat staffers participating in the interview of Trinity "were as upset as we were" at the CNCS lawyer's refusal to talk about the role White House counsel Norman Eisen played in Walpin's firing.
A subpoena to testify at a Senate committee hearing would be necessary to compel full disclosure in the case, which highlights the sensitive political considerations involved. Democrats are understandably averse to convening hearings -- which, unlike background investigations conducted by staffers, are very public events -- to ask questions about charges of wrongdoing by Obama administration officials. On the other hand, Democrats also don't want to be accused of helping cover up wrongdoing.
Meanwhile, the investigations continue, as staffers interview witnesses and pore over documents in the cases. So far, there is no clear proof of criminal malfeasance and sources caution against a media rush to "connect the dots," but IG-Gate keeps chugging along.
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Robert Rosencrans| 7.14.09 @ 6:38AM
The echo of "Not proven" lingers in our future.
Pingback| 7.14.09 @ 7:53AM
Instapundit » Blog Archive » INSPECTOR-GENERAL-GATE: The Little Scandal That Could. I links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 7.14.09 @ 9:28AM
Morning Round Up. : Urbin Report links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pete| 7.14.09 @ 9:29AM
Chicago trained mobsters such as our current rulers won't allow this to go anywhere. People are being intimidated, emails deleted, files destroyed. All the while, the MSM completely ignores the subject. Our chief clown knows he can get away with pretty much anything.
Pingback| 7.14.09 @ 9:56AM
Michelle Malkin » IG-Gate: Still smoldering links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 7.14.09 @ 10:25AM
Moe Lane » American Spectator’s quick update on the IG Scandals. links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Oldefarte| 7.14.09 @ 10:29AM
This is simply the WAY THINGS ARE DONE in Chicago, Boston, New York and New Orleans; and Obama is only following the precidents he learned as a community-organizing political operative in the Windy City!!!!!!!!
Pingback| 7.14.09 @ 10:56AM
RS McCain « Sister Toldjah links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
JerseyJ| 7.14.09 @ 10:58AM
"and sources caution against a media rush to "connect the dots,""
Now that's laughable. Since when has the MSM been adverse to connecting dots ... be they related or not? My guess is only when everyone knows the resulting line would reflect negatively on our teleprompter-in-chief.
Pingback| 7.14.09 @ 11:29AM
The Greenroom » Forum Archive » The Inspector General Story: It’s Real– And (Potentia links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Pingback| 7.14.09 @ 11:37AM
From Hope To St. Hope « Around The Sphere links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
tsj017| 7.14.09 @ 1:31PM
"Since when has the MSM been adverse to connecting dots ... be they related or not?"
Since 1.20.09.
Pingback| 7.14.09 @ 2:35PM
The American Spectator : The Little Scandal That Could | Youth Political Blog links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Robert Belvedere| 7.14.09 @ 4:25PM
Quoted from and linked to at:
http://www.thecampofthesaints.com/2009.07.12_arch.html#1247596343964
and linked to at:
http://www.thecampofthesaints.com/wwuam.html#unwelcome_distractions
megapotamus| 7.14.09 @ 5:50PM
If there are Dems who are going to see this through it is pretty heartening. Could it be that these mooks actually think the stimuli could "work"? Quaint. It doesn't say much for their mathematical skills but it is another hopeful wave of reality breaking through the puffery. For those of us who always saw the stimuli (including Bush's) as a straight drain of resources it doesn't change much. Could the stimulus faithfully applied really be that much better than one that is nothing but an insiders' honeypot? Eh, not by much.
Pingback| 7.14.09 @ 5:57PM
About That Transparency… « Obi’s Sister links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Big J| 7.14.09 @ 6:28PM
What? Scandal and cover-ups connected with the Obama administration?
I'm shocked, shocked, I tell you!
The Chicago Way is alive and well in Washington.
Keep it up, thugs. I have a feeling that one way or the other, the American people are not going to take this nonsense much longer.
I certainly am not.
Wally Sandaber| 7.14.09 @ 8:07PM
This is a bizarre format. These posts with the excerpts are really hard to read. Why can't the Spectator just print a snippet and a link without all the formatting and double linking?
I am a communist/terrorist/Nazi. Otherwise known here as a Democrat. Good for Grassley to defend IGs. I don't think though that this is a secret plot in the WH to crush evil IGs. I think separate political appointees got overzealous. In some of these situations, overzealous means obstructing IGs and that is bad. But for instance in Walpin's case, Walpin is a far rightwingnut whose targets are not violations of election law but is Obama. The Kevin Johnson story is old and the reports filed and Johnson looks bad and Obama took the hit. Which, as you guys would point out, bounced off. So why try to bring the scandal back. Obama's team is too sharp for that. Walpin just wasn't doing his job. The other two look interesting and I hope we hear more about it from Grassley.
Pingback| 7.14.09 @ 8:50PM
IG-Gate Chugs Along « The Rhetorican links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
tailgunner| 7.15.09 @ 12:47AM
If Democrat cooperation is required to hold hearings on IG intimidation and firings, FORGET IT.
IT WON'T HAPPEN. Remember the Clinton impeachment. Any Democratic Senator even thinking of voting to convict would have turned up face down in the Potomac.
There is NO WAY Obama and his consiglieri will allow hearings. All this 'talk' is designed to drag the issue out until it's 'old news'.
The GOP has to hold their own hearings and keep this in the media. If the GOP won't grow a pair and fight these criminals we're screwed.
Kiss 'bipartisanship' goodbye for the next four years.
tailgunner| 7.15.09 @ 12:49AM
AMERICAN SPECTATOR YOU HAVE A SERIOUS SPAM PROBLEM ON THIS FORUM.
Tootsie| 7.15.09 @ 1:55AM
Wally, not only are you a commie, terrorist, nazi--you are a liar. Of course, as a liberal, you're all of the above.
Walpin is a good man and righteous public servant; you hate him because he doesn't fear you--you fascist liberals are goin' down, moron.
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The Greenroom » Forum Archive » IG-Gate UPDATE:Behind the Scenes of the Investigation links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
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