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.
