Fired Inspector General: I Want Congressional Hearings, Dammit!
Uh oh — looks like Gerald Walpin, who’s been a hero on the right since he was abruptly fired as Inspector General by President Obama, is really turning up the heat on Obama now.
In an interview with us moments ago, Walpin called on Obama to admit he made a “mistake,” and demanded Congressional hearings into his firing.
In Walpin’s firing, conservatives think they’ve found their next big scandal, one on a par with the Clinton travel office firings. He was abruptly dismissed last week from the Corporation of National Service for what the Obama administration claims was incompetence.
But Walpin, a Bush appointee, alleges he was axed for doing his job — in particular, probing a nonprofit run by a big Obama backer. The conspiracy-mongering has been in full swing, with Walpin even scoring an appearance with Glenn Beck. Senator Chuck Grassley and even Dem Claire McCaskill are turning their attention to the case.
In an interview with our reporter, Amanda Erickson, Walpin turned up the heat in a way that’s likely to earn plaudits on the right, demanding that Obama “do the right thing” and admit he made a “mistake.” He called for a hearing at which witnesses would “testify under oath as to what’s happening.” He said the matter should be left to the “good judgment” of Congress.
And one really interesting tidbit: It looks like legal groups on the right may be lining up to help his cause, just as they did with alleged victims of Clinton-era scandals. When our reporter asked him directly if groups like Judicial Watch, a major tormentor of Clinton in the 1990s, had offered their help, he refused to comment. Back to the 1990s!
Update: I’m taking a lot of grief for using the phrase “on the right,” but Judicial Watch just sent us a statement saying that this is a “unifying cause” for “conservatives.”
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Clintons? No need to go back that far. This much more closely resembles the way the Democrats harassed Bush over the AG firings, except, of course, the political implications of the investigation involved and impropriety of the firing(s) are much more obvious.
Good. We don’t need to be questioning president Obama about trivial matters like this. He needs to get on with the job of providing free heathcare, cars and homes to groups that elected him. Move on.
No, the mocking tone of the post doesn’t reveal anything about the writer’s political bias, no sirree, Jack, just good old oversight of government here.
Leave it to Strick and Peter to continue the hacktastic Republican tradition of defending the incompetent and the corrupt. That Walin was also a conservative federalist Dubya pioneer is just icing on the cake for you guys. Next you’ll be telling us that the reason that Republican Senator Ensign cheated on his wife numerous times with numerous women is because of the liberal media. Try this on for size:
Walpin was appointed to his job by President Bush in 2007. As part of an investigation into Johnson’s use of federal AmeriCorps funds — dating to when Johnson ran St. HOPE Academy, a Sacramento non-profit — Walpin found that Johnson had misused over $800,000. He took the rare step of recommending that Johnson be barred from receiving federal funds, pending a criminal investigation — a move that ended up endangering the city’s ability to get federal stimulus money after Johnson took office as mayor early this year. Walpin also publicly announced, during the mayoral campaign, that he was passing his findings on to the US Attorney’s office and suggested that Johnson might be guilty of a crime — an apparent breach of protocol. The local US attorney, also a Bush appointee, found no criminal wrongdoing in the case. And his successor, Lawrence Brown, formally complained to an oversight body for inspectors general about Walpin’s work on the St. HOPE probe. Brown charged that Walpin hadn’t even conducted an audit to determine how much money had been misspent by St. HOPE, and that he had withheld key exculpatory evidence. Brown accused Walpin of acting “as the investigator, advocate, judge, jury and town crier” in the case.
Dubya’s US AG investigated Walpin’s claims and found them without merit and dismissed them.
WaPo fired Dan Froomkin? Wow. Greg, does boycotting them extend to boycotting you? I’m stunned and angry.
Here is more on Walpin the typical Republican slimeball:
Walpin was removed last week after a review was unanimously requested by the bi-partisan Board of the Corporation (i.e., all Republicans on the Board requested that IG Walpin be terminated for incomptence and corruption).
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Additionally, the Board adds that at a May 20, 2009 board meeting Walpin “was confused, disoriented, unable to answer questions and exhibited other behavior that led the Board to question his capacity to serve.”
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The President decided to take the step after learning that the Acting US Attorney for the Eastern District of California, Lawrence Brown, “a career prosecutor who was appointed to his post by the Bush Administrator, had filed a complaint about Mr. Walpin’s conduct with the oversight body for Inspectors General, including for failing to disclose exculpatory evidence.”
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“Mr. Walpin had been absent from the Corporation’s headquarters, insisting upon working from his home in New York over the objections of the Corporation’s Board; that he had exhibited a lack of candor in providing material information to decision makers; and that he had engaged in other troubling and inappropriate conduct. Mr. Walpin had become unduly disruptive to agency operations, impairing his effectiveness and, for the reasons stated above, losing the confidence of the Board.”
http://http//abcnews.go.com/images/Politics/Jake%27s%20Blog.pdf
talking points that aren’t accurate. let’s see-brown not a bush appointee (check); breach of protocol (check, not citation to that portion of statute); somehow, this obamabot leaves out the part where an agreement was entered that half the money would be repaid. wouldn’t that be an important part of the analysis?
Yes, everyone listen to Greg Sargent (who isn’t a leftwinger at all). All of you taxpayers need to shut up and pay what you owe the government so the government can give handouts to Obama’s ACORN minions.
Funny that Sargent brings up the Clintons. He could just as easily have brought up Nixon, given that it’s always the cover-up that gets you. Had the Americorps board simply ignored Walpin (as usually happens with IG’s), he’d still be issuing reprimands via telecommute. Now that he’s been fired, he’s a cause celebre, not just on the right but with anyone that opposes government corruption or heavy-handed White House intervention.
uh oh Greg, it looks like somebody from the looneysphere is linking to you and bringing the red meat dogs here…
You say “on the right” and awful lot. Don’t you mean “in the right”?
I think we all know what the reaction of those on the left would be if George Bush had fired someone and then claimed he did so because the person was senile. And the left is still trying to prosecute Alberto Gonzales over those attorney firings. At least the President was within the law firing those Attorneys. Obama actually broke a law that he voted for in firing this guy.
The hypocrisy is so thick it could be cut with a knife.
hmm, any other IG’s been fired?
Not to mention that IG’s are protected by a law that Obama CO-SPONSORED in the Senate. Let’s tell the whole story. Obama’s own law says he has to report to Congress his intentions of firing an IG thirty days prior to the firing so they can review it. Now, according the Chicago Tribune, Obama’s got two other IG’s on the hook now too. Looks like a trend instead of an isolated incident.
My only question is if this site got a link from LGF, redstate or powerline, cuz there normally arent so many looneytunes on this side of the blogosphere…
“On the right”- “on the right” – “on the right” – I can’t figure out if the author is biased or just a poor writer. Though they so often go hand-in-hand, don’t they?
I think Walpin should be fired. I think it’s terrible that people like Walpin would accuse any politician of corruption. Our ruling class is above corruption. Send anyone who says otherwise to the asylum.
You Obots discredit yourself even more every time you attempt to defend the indefensible. BTW the link came from Instapundit, not that festering pile of cow manure known as LGF.
Wow: Greg: the attack of the looney tunes. A co-ordinated response from the ignorant.
BAAAHAAAHAAA – Greg….looks like you were linked to some nutty group that comprises a portion of the 25% of the American public that still self-identifies as Republican…either that, or sbj got tired of being the lone voice of unrealistic thought and platitudes…TOO FUNNY on all these YAHOOS…
Obama: “I fired him because he was old and senile.” Can you say age discrimination lawsuit? I knew you could. Just like with minorities and women and every other “group” for which the Dems attempt to speak, Dems will only go to bat for you as long as you stay on the Dem plantation. Otherwise you become known as a “traitor” to your kind. Ex: Malkin, Palin, Clarence Thomas, Condi, and on and on and on…
Wow david and Jenn D, no response of substance in your defense of Obama. Shocked! You laugh and point fingers in hopes that no one will notice your empty rhetoric. Say it with me: “Obama good! Not Obama bad!”
“Walpin was removed last week after a review was unanimously requested by the bi-partisan Board of the Corporation”
In other words, the people he was invesigating and finding problems with requested that he be removed?
No! That’s unbelivable!
Dear sigh,
Luckily, Clarence Thomas authored an opinion just today that Americans could no longer realistically sue for age discrimination.
That’s awful good timing, don’t you think. Here is the ruling, Gross v. FBL Financial:
http://www.supremecourtus.gov/opinions/08pdf/08-441.pdf
“# Phil Bill | June 18th, 2009 at 05:30 pm
hmm, any other IG’s been fired?”
Um, yes actually; but not directly by the White House
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-tc-nw-inspectors-0617-0618jun18,0,5718990.story
The ITC let their IG goas well, “chose not to renew her contract”which expires in a couple weeks. Less than 30 days oddly; and won’t let her continue or pursue her current investigation.
“Both inspectors general had investigated sensitive subjects at the time of their firings.”
And a third one is being refused access to Treasury documents and paperwork required to do his job… so he’s probably next on the chopping block.
But I’m sure there isn’t a pattern or anything. Just a coincidence that 2 IG’s investigating provable fraud and waste are being let go; and the one researching the Treasury is being stonewalled.
sigh~welcome to the real world from exile…you are so dense that you don’t even realize what you are saying…we have been posting here for months and we go back and forth with plenty of substanitive points…however, if you know anything about this blog, which obviously you don’t (shocker!), you know that there is no way that any one with intellect would go back and forth with the nonsensical, tin-foil hat, let’s go tea-baggin’, i was for big government spending before i was against it, Obama’s a secret muslim bulls***t that you lunatics try to spin around…so ummm, yes we laugh and point fingers because frankly, that is all your worth!!!
I see the O-bots are trying to dismiss those who aren’t gleefully gargling the Administration’s marbles in order to ignore growing political realities around them. It’s who those “on the left” are and what they do.
>Wow: Greg: the attack of the looney tunes. A co-ordinated response from the ignorant.
Yes – it was so top-down-GOP-coordinated that it’s scary. Some eeevil Republican operative somewhere behind a dark curtain told us all what to say here before they handed us our eeeevil Republican checks and sent us back to the Republican Internet Commenter Waiting Room for more Republican orders from Dick Cheney and Rush Limbaugh…oh, and Newt Gingrich or something.
Either that, or we’re just doing “on the right-ish” things like reading the Chicago Tribune and Washington Times, where those evil hacks have the audacity to keep tabs on this little bubbling scandal that the O-bots here obviously don’t want played up, lest their rank hypocrisy on matters of firing independent overseers for political reasons be laid bare for all to see.
As a side note, I’ve never seen a group of like-minded Democrat commenters infest a news thread about, say, Sarah Palin. Unless you count threads at the Washington Post or New York Times news organizations. Even though places like that read like the Daily Kos or MyDD, this sort of thing just doesn’t happen with Democrats, because Democrats don’t ever coordinate anything online. Ever. They never have.
EVER. Shut up, wingnuts.
Wow…it must be so frustrating for you guys…it’s going to be a LONG 4 to 8 years for you…and if you don’t figure out a way to shift some of the demographics…it could be ALOT longer…
Not just the right on this one… Check out Sam Smith’s UnderNews, the online report of the “Progressive Review”. http://prorev.com/indexa.htm. (scroll down) A self-described progressive who has collected what may be the most complete blog post on the topic.
His headline: OBAMA FIRES INSPECTOR GENERAL WHO WENT AFTER HIS PAL
Right/left/center/libertarian: all should be concerned when one person can subvert the intent of having an Inspector General.
Mr. Smith’s bona fides: “Having our ad refused by the Saturday Review of Literature because ‘the board just decided your magazine was a little too liberal.’”
Jenn D – Maybe not so long as you think. Love the arrogance, though. Just stay “over here” and pay no attention to what’s going on on the “other side”. Nothing to see, please move along.
Do you work for the Democrats or tpm muckraker Greg?
You’re certainly trying to spin this like crazy when it looks pretty suspicious.
Great to hear Jenn D.
Corruption and inethical behaviour is apparently ok with you as long as its from your side.
Hope! Change!
Walprin is a wingnut Rethuglican, so you know he can’t be trusted.
Unlike Brown, that other Bush appointee, who is pure and good.
I hope this is clear to everyone.
bello~ Unethical, not inethical; and Behavior, not behaviour; good grammar skills are important when making intellectual arguments, oh wait…never mind.
Jenn D – So you correct bello’s spelling (which isn’t actually grammar, but I digress) without addressing the point? As if the spelling errors somehow negate the point? Again, love the arrogance. Please keep doing what you are doing.
Parable~ Ummm you are in for at least 4, so pace yourself. Also, you don’t know anything about me, I have been on the “other side”…trust me, although I am a Charlie Crist, Collin Powell, Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins, Arnold Schwartz. kind of person…and you know how the GOP feels about people like me…”we must be cleansed out of the party, so that it just gets down to the hard core”…So away I go…good luck without any moderates…fantastic strategy for building the GOP.
Greg Sargent does not conceive his job as speaking truth to power. He is, rather, doing his duty an official, government-sanctioned blogger.
Good boy, Greg. Enjoy a milkbone.
Shorter Sargent: Politically-motivated firings of career government employees are bad… only when someone “on the right” does it.
Otherwise, there’s nothing to see here, move along.
Dear flounder,
I have not yet read the decision you cited yet, but here’s the holding:
“A plaintiff bringing an ADEA disparate-treatment claim must prove, by a preponderance of the evidence, that age was the ‘but-for’ cause of the challenged adverse employment action. The burden of persuasion does not shift to the employer to show that it would have taken the action regardless of age, even when a plaintiff has produced some evidence that age was one motivating factor in that decision.”
The requirement to prove but-for causation is pretty common in civil litigation, so I don’t see how this is fatal for a plaintiff with a solid case (nor do I see how this will killer a greater number of cases at the Motion to Dismiss or Motion for Summary Judgment stage.) But maybe you litigate in this area, and you know something I don’t know.
Jenn D -I could not care less about rebuilding the GOP. You are deluded to believe there is any real difference between the R’s or D’s. Hell, the incident we are all commenting on pretty much proves that point, no?
The other side I refer to are We the People. There is a **** storm brewing that all you have to do is look, and you will see. These people are not our rulers. They never were. They were supposed to represent us, and they have done a horrible job. They will be getting fired. Pay attention. It’s coming.
Yeah, Obama will be there for 4, but the Congress will not. Wait for it. 2010 is going to make 1994 looks pale by comparison.
It looks like Obama’s not only our first black president, but our first black Nixon. Quite the honor. Now if we can just impeach him before he becomes the first black Mussolini. Time’s running out on that one.
Sorry, of course I meant “look”. No need to call the grammar police.
I see no one mention that the legislation that protects these various IGs was a celebrated highlight of Senator Obama’s brief career. And of course he flat ignores it re Americorps which was using taxpayer money to get an NBA star, Obama fundraiser and now featherbedded Democrat hack, car washes of sufficient thoroughness. I understand that the leftwingers here will not find this a compelling issue. If we have learned anything in these early bright days of Hopey Change, Democrats don’t pay taxes. Of course the hyper-inflation Barry has arranged for us is, at least, a tax that taxes all. Finally the costs of socialism will reach into the pockets of Obama’s core supporters; the parasites.
It looks like legal groups on the right may be lining up to help his cause, just as they did with alleged victims of Clinton-era scandals.
Do you mean alleged victims such as the alleged Billy Dale of the alleged White House Travel Office, who allegedly was fired without cause and allegedly had his reputation slimed by the alleged Clintons and their alleged cronies?
When will this post be updated to reflect McCaskill’s recent sentiments regarding the legality?
McCaskill: Reasons For Firing IG Are “Well Founded”
http://is.gd/15C7E
‘we go back and forth with plenty of substanitive points…’ Hey, Jen darling, that would be “substantive” to an educated person. People who live in government subsidised housing shouldn’t correct the spelling of people who buy and own their own homes.
It seems that McCaskill has bowed to pressure from the left. It seems the reason is unfounded smear.
>> Update: I’m taking a lot of grief for using the
>> phrase “on the right,”
As long as you were just as diligent to specify “on the left” when talking about people criticizing former Pres. Bush, I don’t see a problem.
I’ll leave it to your own conscience to decide if that was so.
Is the author willing to concede that an action can be moral/immoral or ethical/unethical independently of the people complaining about it?
It seems to be incredibly simplistic thinking to dismiss a complaint because you do not like the complainer. It this not the epitome of the logical fallacy of ad hominen: replying to an argument or factual claim by attacking or appealing to a characteristic or belief of the person making the argument or claim, rather than by addressing the substance of the argument or producing evidence against the claim.
Hmmm…Walpin is a registered Democrat!!
Imagine that!
I agree that right is pretty unified on the importance of the Walpin firing. What strikes me about your emphasis, however, is the implication that the issue does not concern the left. The list of things that the left used to care about, but now dismisses, seems to be getting longer by the day.
The Obama fan club forgot to mention that Obama suck-up, Claire McCaskill, asked for the Senate investigation- How do you blame the looney right on that call?
Wow – so much hate on the left. Whats up with that?
I thought those on the left were all for “whistleblowers?” The hypocrisy and intellectual dishonesty by people like Mr. Sargent is truly stunning!
OBAMA….amateur actor who reads what others tell him….talentless otherwise…not smart in fact dumb….no experience and bush league amatuer…..4 months and wanting a new president
obama is a loser
btw to jen and her likes………….good luck without me and people like me who are now and will more likely not participate in this farce by not paying taxes to support losers like you…..make less so as not to support you and your legion of leeches….we shrug, you lose
i will come back to America when America values me
Cross-thread night; all trolls admitted free.
The Messsiah has really stepped in it the mask is slipping.
All the collectivists who screech “we won” may need a new refrain after 2010 much less 2012. Barry is a one-termer and he knows it that’s why there’s such a rush to get things done before people can react – pure Alinsky.
A note about Obama and politicians in general); Just because you are on his side doesn’t mean he is on your side. The word for today is chauvinism.
Jenn D doesn’t get it. Bang on about the “25% who self-identify as Republicans” all you want as if that’s significant. You need to worry your little head about the 35+% who now self-identify as Independents. Not to mention the self-identifying Democrats who really don’t share the ideology of the core of the moonbat left.
The remnants of the GOP will never vote with you, and the growing number of Independents have determined that Obama is definitely “on the nose”.
Do the math. Roll on Nov 2010.
Jenn D | June 18th, 2009 at 06:21 pm
“bello~ Unethical, not inethical; and Behavior, not behaviour; good grammar skills are important when making intellectual arguments, oh wait…never mind.”
“Inethical” may well simply by a typo, being as how the “i” is next to the “u” on the kayboard.
And “behavior” is spelled “behaviour” in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, and other places. (Though in those countries they would write it is “spelt”, not spelled.) How do you know the poster is not from one of those countries?
Or do you assume that the English language stops at the US border?
I don’t think you’re the one to be determining the standards for making “intellectual arguments”.
oops . . . my typo this time. Keyboard, not kayboard.
Hello, conservatrolls? I have a concept for you to digest. Ready, set, go – firing inspector general /= unethical behavior. They’re human beings. Sometimes they turn out to be… incompetent! They can, in fact, perform their jobs badly! Just as stated in the explicit reason for the firing! In further news, investigating a Democrat /= getting fired for that reason! For more information, try reading Ajax’s comment, it’s the third one on here! He investigated the guy, ran way outside the IG lane trying to force his prosecution, a Bush appointee found his charges groundless and a bunch of Republicans in his own institution decided he gave an incompetent performance. Now, is this just a “smoke screen” from a bunch of “Obama stooges” appointed by Bush? Am I making the whole thing up? Was the guy Waldin embarrassed himself trying to screw completely innocent? I don’t know, but you definitely have no idea.
What you lunatics are missing is some sort of logical cause and effect. This fourth-string nobody IG is being fired by Obama to “protect” a donor who has already been cleared of all wrongdoing by Bush appointees? Do you know how many Democratic donors there are in the country? Can anyone explain why such dramatic endeavors would be wasted on this poor schmuck?
Do any of you, in short, know how to think? Or is this simply a game where you hit your buzzer and shout “Mussolini” when someone puts a certain combination of words (”IG fired!” ” X Sarah Palin!” ” Z Fairness Doctrine”) on a webpage?
The author and most commenters here are enemies of law and liberty. Who gives a damn about which side is carrying the water on this issue. The fact is the Executive of the USA brazenly broke a law he AUTHORED for God’s sake. He doesn’t give a flying f about the law. He’s an authoritarian ******* and thug. Michelle’s dad was a Daley ward boss and BO has learned well from the Daley machine’s example.
What the hell has happened to liberal philosophy and self-government? Are you guys all just partisan, brown-nosing hacks?
What ever happened to liberal philosophy! This should be investigated! Officials should not be able to help out their buddies get away from charges and such.
If these allegations are true, this is not democracy, this is not social good. This is corruption and bad government.
If its false, then this man should be mocked, but people have a right to know! I say launch the investigation!
more of obamba building his power ! now go away you stupid taxpayer the gov knows best how to spend your money even if it is washing a has been’s car. how is that hope and change working out for ya ? no worries lefty your day is comming.
JenD is obviously intellectually dishonest. 40% of Americans call themselves “Conservatives” while only 21% call themselves “liberals.” This will be a one term president. Let’s just hope he doesn’t do much more damage.
http://www.gallup.com/poll/120857/conservatives-single-largest-ideological-group.aspx
This is a simple story of Democrat corruption and back scratching. You support my campaign and I’ll fire your investigator while we both roll in taxpayer money along with our friends. Same thing as Republicans. Both parties are controlled by crooks.
Heh, the left was for whistleblowers before they were against them. The hypocrisy is glaring as usual.
I find it interesting that all the attacks on Walpin are against him as a person, and not actually against the work he did.
I mean, the mayor and corporation that he was investigating *agreed to repay hundreds of thousands of dollars of the grant in question*! Walpin did not get things wrong; they are angry that he got things right.
If he is not competent, why don’t they point out the errors in his report? Why did they agree to repay the money?
This is so clearly a case of smearing the man because you don’t like the conclusion he came to. If it’s the wrong conclusion, explain why. Simply, no?
Wow, Ajax the Greater believes everything he sees or reads from ABC, or the All Obama Channel.
Yep, those military reserve records of George Bush’s weren’t faked or anything and the New York Times isn’t biased at all.
Ajax the Greater, I got some beachfront property for you in Afghanistan, let me know if you are interested.
As an aside, “Ajax the Greater”? Wow, delusions of grandeur there, eh pal. I bet you just itch for a moment when you can sound smart and use your public school education in the Classics.
How come Obama can break the law left and right (no pun intended) and you people don’t bat an eye, but everything Bush did was illegal.
Nothing but a bunch of whiny childlike creatures.
The anti-American, liberal, socialist “whatevers” always go for the character assassination, since none of them have character anyways, nor would even know what it is.
Wait wait, hahaha! I have to jump in here with “Jenn D” and her grammar, or is that spelling, corrections of Parable.
Jenn D, we do have a name for you in the GOP, it’s called RINO. We don’t need you “moderates”, we need conservatives and Americans. Just change your party, cause all the GOPers you mentioned are not true conservatives anyways.
As for your “grammar” corrections. You my friend are just…nevermind, I’ll be somewhat nice.
The other poster was right, that is not grammar, it is spelling. And “behaviour” is a correct spelling also. Every heard of England, the UK? You know, that horrible place where Tony Blair came from, remember, it was on ABC or CBS once I am sure. Big red buses? Ring a bell?
And I thought us conservatives were the boorish, untraveled swine here?