Actually, when you look at this passage about the Gerald Walpin situation something else should be highlighted.  It’s the little things that are revealing about this administration:

In one exchange, according to the GOP aide, the White House lawyers explained that inspector general Walpin was not working well with the board of the Corporation for National and Community Service, which oversees AmeriCorps, and the administration believed that IGs should work well with the leadership of their agencies. Eisen said he knew that removing Walpin might be seen as an action that would raise questions. “But [Eisen] said that what they did in trying to fix the situation was an act of political courage — and ‘political courage’ is the phrase they used,” says the aide.

(Bolding mine; via Transterrestrial Musings)

The last time I checked, the goal of an Inspector General was “be a revolving son-of-a-[expletive deleted] on wheels.” Not “play well with others.”  And that should explicitly include leadership; there’s a reason why the saying “A fish rots from the head” exists in our culture. Admittedly, everyone knows that Norman Eisen was just making something up on short notice when he said that, but I do find this instinctive desire to have the government and its watchdogs in close accord to be quite interesting.

Guess I have to go read this book after all.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to Moe Lane.