The situation in Iran and other news had kept me from looking
into the firing of AmeriCorps inspector general Gerald
Walpin until yesterday, when
Michelle Malkin's column slapped me in the face. Wow.
Just a quick preliminary survey of what's already online
convinced me that this story will likely still be making
headlines a year from now. As
Quin Hillyer said, it makes TravelGate look tame, and the
fact that the FBI is
reportedly investigating the involvement of Sacramento Mayor
Kevin Johnson -- an Obama ally and target of one of
Walpin's reports -- indicates a potentially serious scandal
in the works.
The White House has
pushed back hard against the 75-year-old IG, seeking to
portray him as senile and incompetent, but Walpin seemed
sharp in a
Fox News interview with Glenn Beck yesterday. Byron
York of the Washington Examiner scored an exclusive
with a report from one witness at the May 20 meeting
where an administration official claims Walpin was
"confused."
As York explains, a report in
the Sacramento Bee that morning had broken new
accusations in the case, the board members in the meeting were
confrontational, and the witness didn't get any impression
that Walpin was "disoriented," as the adminstration now claims.
Complaints against Walpin by the acting U.S. attorney in
Sacramento, Lawrence G. Brown, appear
"contrived" and "false," according to The Washington
Times.
The problem for the administration, however, is not Walpin. Even
if the inspector general were a doddering old fool, as
the White House seems eager to imply, a federal
investigation is still a federal investigation --and woe unto the
administration official who does not cooperate to the full
satisfaction of federal investigators. (Ask Scooter Libby about
that.)
At this point, every communication between Brown and other
officials about AmeriCorps, Mayor Johnson and Walprin's dismissal
is evidence, and any monkey business with
evidence in a federal case is a serious crime.
Communications among officials trying to figure out how to slow
an investigation or "spin" the scandal can easily result in
charges of obstruction of justice and/or conspiracy.
Federal investigations are sticky like flypaper.
It was the accusation that Mayor Johnson had destroyed
e-mails relating to Walpin's investigation that reportedly got
the FBI sniffing around in Sacramento. And lots more folks
might soon be sniffing around.
Tidbits of
news reported by the Bee -- "Chris Young, the
mayor's former special assistant, left City Hall last month for a
job as an associate under Jeff Bleich, a special counsel to the
president" -- could arouse curiosity. Bee
columnist Marcos Breton says of Mayor Johnson, "There is
seemingly always a skeleton poised to fly out of Johnson's
closet." With so many Washington
journalists interested in this case, how long before one of
them books a flight westward and starts filing stories with a
Sacramento dateline?
It's not just journalists and FBI agents sniffing around
AmeriCorps, however, and Mayor Johnson isn't the only one who's
being scrutinized. Buried in the last paragraph of
today's New York Times story is this paragraph:
Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, who has taken up
Mr. Walpin’s complaints, has asked the Obama administration to
provide further information about the dismissal. On Wednesday,
Mr. Grassley asked Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. to look
into whether Mr. Brown’s complaint was appropriate. He also wrote
to Gregory B. Craig, the White House counsel, asking questions
raised by [presidential special counsel Norman L.] Eisen’s
letter.
Holder and Craig are not rookies on the scandal-management
circuit, of course, but Grassley is no rookie senator, either.
And the Wall
Street Journal's John Fund notes that at least one
of Grassley's Senate colleagues may soon take an interest:
Here's hoping that Senator Joe Lieberman, who has shown streaks
of independence in the past as chairman of the Senate
Governmental Affairs Committee, is willing to hold a hearing on
the firing and give Mr. Walpin a chance to defend himself.
Grassley has other questions, too, as
Ann Sanner of the Associated Press reported:
Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa requested that Alan Solomont,
chairman of the government-run Corporation for National and
Community Service, which runs the AmeriCorps program, provide
"any and all records, e-mail, memoranda, documents,
communications or other information" related to contacts with
officials in the first lady's office. . . .
Michelle Obama's former chief of staff, Jackie Norris, is
expected to join the national service corporation as a senior
adviser on June 22.
One way or another, this story could take a long, long time to
play out. They say the weather in Sacramento is lovely in
June.
