Sometimes a Presidential scandal has a certain feel to it that's hard to describe, but you know it has the potential to be more than the typical Washington knife-fighting and rumor-mongering. Such is the story that's been building this week about the Obama administration's treatment of several Inspectors General.
The story broke early with the news that the administration called an Inspector General named Gerald Walpin and gave him an hour to choose between tendering his resignation or getting fired. Walpin has been highly critical of the Corporation for National and Community Service and its subordinate group AmeriCorps. Walpin has also investigated Obama ally Kevin Johnson, who had once run a non-profit group called the St. HOPE Foundation. Johnson was found to have been complicit in the misuse of nearly a million dollars in grant money. Walpin's recommendation that Johnson be prohibited from applying for grant money in the future was upheld by the CNCS board but was overturned by the acting U.S. Attorney when Johnson was elected Mayor of Sacramento, CA. You can find the rest of the story as recounted by Byron York, Michelle Malkin, and Moe Lane. Since the initial story came out, we have learned that a second Inspector General had been fired and a third, in charge of overseeing the billion-dollar financial industry bailout, has been stonewalled. As Stacy McCain reported,
the elements of cronyism, cover up, and corruption have gotten the
attention not only of Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA) but also the FBI,
which is investigating the possibility that Mayor Johnson's office
impeded Walpin's investigation.
Essentially, this growing scandal is about transparency and accountability. The President, when he was a Senator, sponsored the Inspector General Reform Act of 2008 but seems to have violated that law with his attempted firing of Walpin. But this story is becoming more than tale of an unjust firing or a simple violation of the law. By interfering with three separate Inspectors General, who exist solely to ensure that billions of our dollars are spent fairly and legally, the administration is undermining the promises the President made to make our government operations more transparent and to be more accountable to the voters.
It could very well be that this small scandal becomes the lead domino that begins a chain reaction that could spell unmitigated disaster for the Obama administration. Regardless, the Inspector General firings and the Treasury Department's unwillingness to cooperate with IG Barofsky are another sign that when they administration claimed to be in favor of greter accountability, it was only blowing smoke.