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IG-Gate: Sincere Doubts

By Robert Stacy McCain on 7.14.09 @ 11:02PM

Investigations of the inspector general firings are "moving forward in a bipartisan fashion," I was told Tuesday afternoon in separate face-to-face meetings with both Democrat and Republican staffers on Capitol Hill. The Democrat said it with apparent sincerity, while the Republican's repeated the same words with transparent irony.

Exactly how "bipartisan" are these investigations? Republicans remain skeptical of Democratic sincerity. Some telephone interviews with key witnesses have been scheduled as bipartisan conference calls. Sometimes Democratic investigators are on the call; other times, they're no-shows.

This on-and-off, hot-and-cold interest in the IG story by Democratic staffers may or may not be politically significant. Republicans continue slogging forward either way, though mystified or frustrated by the intermittent nature of bipartisanship.

Much more is going on behind the scenes than has been reported and, indeed, I was told Tuesday afternoon by one investigator that keeping up with all the meetings and phone calls prevents staffers from seeing all the reporting. However, the investigator praised the thorough work of the Examiner's Byron York and was heartened by a Tuesday morning report from USA Today's Matt Kelley. 

Two intriguing tidbits emerged from my Tuesday trip to the Hill:

• Attention to the IG story has prompted at least one more inspector general to contact Congress. Meaning . . .? "When they come knocking on our door," said the source, "it's not because everything's hunky-dory."
• The name of Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) was mentioned in an indirect way. Many questions have been asked publicly about Dodd, the TARP bailout and troubled insurance giant AIG. There are now whispers of hints of shadows of suspicions that certain "Friends of Chris" may be trying to muzzle at least one watchdog that threatens to bite Dodd.

As I say, however, that was just an indirect mention and there was no suggestion of actual malfeasance by the senior senator from Connecticut. Certainly, none of my Hill sources mentioned the senior senators's good friend Ned Lamont. However, when I discussed all this with a fellow journalist, he observed that the junior senator from Connecticut "doesn't owe those people squat."

If bipartisanship doesn't work, perhaps tripartisanship will.