coastie
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Political firing of IG?from the washington examiner:[quote]
AmeriCorps feared bad press if IG investigation continued
By: Byron York
Chief Political Correspondent
06/24/09 5:42 AM EDT
One of the mysteries surrounding President Obama's firing of AmeriCorps inspector general Gerald Walpin is what prompted the White House, supported by the board of directors of the Corporation for National and Community Service, which oversees AmeriCorps, to try to get rid of Walpin so quickly and quietly?
On the evening of Wednesday, June 10, an official of the White House counsel's office called Walpin to tell him he had one hour to resign or be fired. The action flew in the face of a law (sponsored by Barack Obama when he was a senator) that requires the president to give Congress 30 days' notice, plus cause, when he intends to fire an IG. In this case, the White House apparently wanted to dispatch Walpin quickly by pushing him to resign, which would not have required the president to go through the congressional notification process. Instead, Walpin refused to quit, and only then did the White House tell Congress.
Why the rush? Walpin had certainly displeased the board by his aggressive investigation into the misuse of AmeriCorps funds by Kevin Johnson, the former NBA star who is now mayor of Sacramento, California and a prominent supporter of President Obama. Prior to his election as mayor, Johnson ran an educational organization called St. HOPE, which received $850,000 in AmeriCorps money. Walpin discovered that Johnson and St. HOPE had failed to use the federal money for the purposes specified in the grant and had also used federally-funded AmeriCorps staff for, among other things, "driving [Johnson] to personal appointments, washing his car, and running personal errands."
Walpin recommended that Johnson be banned from ever receiving any more federal funds. But after the passage of the $787 billion stimulus bill, amid worries that such a ban on the mayor would keep Sacramento from receiving its share of the stimulus cash, the board of the Corporation for National and Community Service reached an agreement with the acting U.S. attorney in Sacramento under which Johnson would repay some of the mis-spent money and also be eligible to receive new federal grants in the future. Walpin strongly objected to the agreement. (Knowing his opposition, the board excluded him from the negotiations.)
Walpin's objections were the subject of a now-controversial May 20 meeting in which Walpin, to use his term, "lectured" the board on what he believed was its mistake in approving the Johnson settlement. On the morning of the meeting, the Sacramento Bee reported that a man named Rick Maya, who worked with Kevin Johnson in the St. HOPE project, claimed that Johnson's emails had been deleted during the time of Walpin's investigation. The Maya news suggested that there might have been obstruction of justice in the St. HOPE affair, and Walpin used it to drive home his point that the board should have let his investigation stand.
It appears the discussion of the St. HOPE matter was a turning point not only in the May 20 meeting but in Walpin's tenure at the Corporation. In a recent interview, a Republican member of the Corporation board told me that Walpin told board members at the meeting that he wanted to issue some sort of public statement to the effect that there should be more investigation of the St. HOPE matter. "He said, 'I feel so strongly about this that today I am going to issue a statement to the press calling for further investigation,'" the member said, recalling Walpin's words. "The board members all caught that. Several of us wrote down that he was going to be issuing a statement to the press that afternoon."
It was a distressing scenario for the board. As a favorite program of Barack and Michelle Obama, AmeriCorps was enjoying a higher profile than ever before. The Corporation also stood to receive vast amounts of new funding from the $5.7 billion Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, which would triple the size of AmeriCorps. And in the midst of that, here was the agency's inspector general saying he might re-open an investigation into an embarrassing episode involving hundreds of thousands of mis-spent dollars and a politically prominent supporter of the president.
"Right now, when there is such a great emphasis on service, we did not need any press out there on this St. HOPE matter, which was already settled," the board member told me. "We thought he was going to use the press…He had an issue with the fact that a settlement was reached…and he was doing everything he could to continue to keep the issue at the forefront."
As it turned out, Walpin did not issue any statement, to the press or anyone else. (He doesn't recall whether he said precisely what the board member recalls, although, he told me, "There wouldn't have been anything wrong if I had.") Instead, Walpin contacted the FBI in Sacramento with word of the Maya allegations, and agents there are now investigating the matter.
Later in the meeting, members questioned Walpin about his intentions. It was at that point that they say Walpin became confused and disoriented. But whatever Walpin's demeanor, it appears that board members, of both parties, were worried about the possibility of embarrassing new revelations involving a sensational case they thought had been closed. After the meeting, the board began an accelerated effort to remove Walpin, compiling an informal list of grievances against him -- he could be difficult, he telecommuted, he was somehow disabled -- that the White House would ultimately cite as cause for his firing. But there is no doubt that, whatever the other reasons, the board feared that a revival of a scandal they thought was in the past would be embarrassing to the newly-prominent AmeriCorps.
For more background on the Walpin firing, see here and here and here and here.
-Byron York
Former Inspector General Gerald Walpin's determination to investigate further the alleged misuse of AmeriCorps funds may have led President Obama to fire him, a Republican member of the board overseeing the volunteer agency alleged to a Washington newspaper.
If true, the assertion contradicts an explanation provided by White House, which said Walpin, 77, was "confused" and "disoriented" at a recent meeting of the board, exhibited a "lack of candor" and "engaged in other troubling and inappropriate conduct."
Meanwhile, a bipartisan group of officials -- including four former U.S. attorneys, three former federal judges, one former attorney general and a former counsel to President Clinton -- sent a letter to the Senate Wednesday defending the integrity and competence of Walpin.
Walpin's dismissal came after he announced to the AmeriCorps board that he wasn't done with the investigation into the alleged misuse of federal grants by Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, a former NBA star and an Obama supporter who heads a nonprofit education group, according to The Washington Examiner.
A probe by Walpin's office found that Johnson and his academy, St. HOPE, which received $850,000 in AmeriCorps money, had misused the funds and AmeriCorps volunteers for personal purposes, by having them help in political campaigns and even wash his car.
The U.S. attorney's office reached a settlement, under which Johnson and the academy reportedly were ordered to repay about half of the federal grants.
But a Republican on the board of directors of the Corporation for National and Community Service, which oversees AmeriCorps, told the Examiner that Walpin wanted to issue a public statement asserting the need for further investigation into the case.
"Right now, when there is such a great emphasis on service, we did not need any press out there on this St. HOPE matter, which was already settled," the board member told the newspaper. "We thought he was going to use the press. He had an issue with the fact that a settlement was reached ¦and he was doing everything he could to continue to keep the issue at the forefront."
In an interview with FOXNews.com earlier this month, Walpin, who called the White House explanation "insufficient" and "baseless," said his performance at the May meeting drew criticism because he issued two reports critical of the board. In one, he criticized the settlement reached in the Johnson case; in the other, he criticized the use of millions of dollars for a program at the City University of New York.
"The board at that meeting was clearly angry at my temerity," he said.
First lady Michelle Obama's role in Walpin's dismissal has come under GOP scrutiny after press reports indicated she was taking a strong interest in AmeriCorps activities and when her former chief of staff, Jackie Norris, became a "senior adviser" to the CNCS.
In the bipartisan letter sent to the Senate, the former officials state that they have known Walpin for many years.
"We have never seen Mr. Walpin to be "confused, disoriented [or] unable to answer the questions," they wrote, adding that such an allegation "is totally inconsistent with our personal knowledge of Mr. Walpin who has always, through the present day, exhibited a quick mind and a command of the facts (whether we agree with him or not) and eloquence."
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flyupsidedown
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There is more to be uncovered on this subject but the fawning concubines of the mainstream press won't let it see the light of day. There is such abuse of our tax dollars and all in a matter of 100+ days.
I have noticed some encouraging signs of journalists braving the Obama look-of-scorn, to ask some hard questions. As his polls start to fall it will snow ball. The press must be kept in the pocket if their program of usurpationistic fascism is to work. All the necessary elements seem to be there but the window of opportunity is closing as conservatives rise. It is encouraging.
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Kestrel
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So we can have our tax dollars abused by someone like Bush? I haven't seen republicans do better than democrats in that respect. Yeah, they talk the good fight, but then quickly give up when in power.
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