Remember the hue and cry that went up when President Bush fired some U.S. attorneys in 2006? Oh, the left was beside itself about how eeeevil it was that Bush was to fire so many U.S. Attorneys… even though he had the authority to do so. Charges that the firings were made for “political reasons” were thrown about and Congressional Democrats clamored for new laws and the head of Bush’s Attorney General on a pike.
Well, last night, clearly for political reasons, Barack Obama tried to fire AmeriCorps inspector general, Gerald Walpin. Not only is it for strictly political reasons (Short take: “the AmeriCorps IG accuses prominent Obama supporter of misusing AmeriCorps grant money. Prominent Obama supporter has to pay back more than $400,000 of that grant money. Obama fires AmeriCorps IG.”) but Obama does not have the authority to summarily dismiss an IG as he tried to do last night.
Will the left ring the claxon clang of how illegitimate the president’s actions are this time? Should we hold our breath?
Last night, Obama’s office sent a terse note to IG Walpin stating that he had one hour to resign or he’d be fired. Walpin alerted Congress and asked what he should do because he knew that his position wasn’t solely at the discretion of the president. He knew that he answered to both the president and Congress.
So, what is this Inspector General position, how does it work? To answer that we go to Byron York’s piece in the Washington Examiner.
Inspectors General are part of every federal department. They are given the responsibility of independently investigating allegations of waste, fraud, and corruption in the government, without fear of interference by political appointees or the White House. Last year Congress passed the Inspectors General Reform Act, which added new protections for IGs, including a measure requiring the president to give Congress 30 days prior notice before dismissing an IG. The president must also give Congress an explanation of why the action is needed. Then-Sen. Barack Obama was one of the co-sponsors of the Act.
Notice that York reports that Obama is supposed to give a 30 day notice to Congress before an IG is removed? Yet, last night in what should be seen as an entirely arrogant move, Obama tried to fire an IG not with 30 days notice, but one hours notice!
According to York, it has also been pretty much assured that this firing was for political purposes, too.
More information now, from the Associated Press. The White House is going ahead with firing Walpin. The firing apparently stems from Walpin’s investigation of a non-profit group, St. HOPE Academy, run by Kevin Johnson, the former NBA star who is now mayor of Sacramento, California (and a big Obama supporter). “[Walpin] found that Johnson, a former all-star point guard for the Phoenix Suns, had used AmeriCorps grants to pay volunteers to engage in school-board political activities, run personal errands for Johnson and even wash his car,” the AP reports. In April, the U.S. attorney declined to file any criminal charges in the matter and criticized Walpin’s investigation. But at the same time Johnson and St. HOPE agreed to repay about half of the $850,000 it had received from AmeriCorps.
Bottom line: The AmeriCorps IG accuses prominent Obama supporter of misusing AmeriCorps grant money. Prominent Obama supporter has to pay back more than $400,000 of that grant money. Obama fires AmeriCorps IG.
Here is some more background on the misuse of AmeriCorps funds that York was referring to.
Obama is perpetrating a purely illicit action by trying to fire this IG without following the rules and without consulting with Congress. In fact this is worse than Bush’s firings of the U.S. attorneys in 2006 because in that case, Bush at least had the authority to do so — whether it was a good political move or not. Here, it seems Obama clearly does not have such authority.
I’d say that this is a supremely arrogant move on Obama’s part. Will he be called on it?
(It should also be noted that both Carter and Clinton fired many U.S. attorneys in their day. Clinton fired all of his at one time during his tenure in the White House.)
Steve Maley
KnightsofMalta
Americorps is the program he just expanded too nt
mom2oneson (Diary) Friday, June 12th at 10:06AM EST (link)I Got a Hunch This Could Be Big
Swamp_Yankee (Diary) Friday, June 12th at 10:15AM EST (link)Behind the “moderate” and “pragmatic” facade of his administration, the neo-marxists brownshirts are doing their dirty. I always thought Americorp and its expansion was a prime target for infultration. These groups, like ACORN, hide behind some noble mission statement and services. What the Americoprs will be is a free ride for inner-city Obama supporters who will use union-like intidiation tactics to consolidate Obama’s base.
But it's sooooo different!
Duke Friday, June 12th at 10:18AM EST (link)G.W. Bush was the devil. Whatever he did was for evil and political purpose.
Barrack Hussien Obama, aka “Barry Soetoro,” is the messiah. Whatever he does in unquestionable and for “the good of us all.”
How DARE you question what the news media have described as a “god!”
It’s not about a purge. It’s about an insurrection.
LOL
Warner Todd Huston (Diary) Friday, June 12th at 10:25AM EST (link)Yeah. Naughty WTH.
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Be sure and Visit my Home blog Publius’ Forum. It’s what’s happening NOW!
DEFUND ACORN NOW
bobojake (Diary) Friday, June 12th at 10:32AM EST (link)Its time for the media to hold obama, the Senators and Congressman that passed ARRA(America Rape and Reaping Act) in the middle of the night without reading it accountable. obama redi and peloski are just as guilty as Kevin Johnson, the former NBA star who is now mayor of Sacramento, California (and a big Obama supporter). “[Walpin] found that Johnson, a former all-star point guard for the Phoenix Suns, had used AmeriCorps grants to pay volunteers to engage in school-board political activities, run personal errands for Johnson and even wash his car,” the AP reports waqs for misuse of TAXPAYER MONEY.
Reid, peloski, schummmmmmmmmmmmmer, peloski, dodd, and the rest of the Senators and Congressman that voted and passed ARRA should RESIGN immediately unless they can prove they were coerced by obama thugs or Democrats leadership to vote for ARRA.
Never going to happen
Karina (Diary) Friday, June 12th at 10:56AM EST (link)Did you read your first sentence?
“It’s time for the media…accountable.”
LMAO Nope, sorry.
Why needs IGs when you have czars running everything?
bk (Diary) Friday, June 12th at 10:38AM EST (link)Obama is bypassing Congress left and right.
How long before discussion of facts that describe a ==>Dictator<== in action, are seen as 'hate speech'???
USNJIMRET (Diary) Friday, June 12th at 10:47AM EST (link)When the Dictator in Chief can ignore a ‘law’ he Co-Sponsored and, I presume, voted for…….yet another example that the “Rule of Law” is barely breathing, if at all.
Investigating non profits is a bigger offense than treason for Democrats
Joliphant (Diary) Friday, June 12th at 10:48AM EST (link)I mean treason just hurts the country as a whole, exposing non-profits as slush funds for democrats puts their existence at stake.
I mean do the people actually expect them to live on their government salaries ?
“Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it.”
-Thomas Paine: The American Crisis, No. 4, 1777
Stupid Republicans feed the hand that bites them.
Achance (Diary) Friday, June 12th at 11:12AM EST (link)Every Republican officeholder should review all of his/her government’s grants and contracts to both for profit and non-profit contractors and grantees. They’d find a vast web of Democrat front organizations, often run by the very Democrats that they just defeated, living off their government. If a Republican loses an election, he, or at least all his staffers, goes back to selling real estate or cars or something; a Democrat hardly breaks stride on the way to a job with some government contractor, a non-profit, or with a university.
The Stupid Party brought a lot of this on itself with our love affair for “privatization.” The typical Republican is so anti-government that they think anything is better done by a contractor. When the Ds saw that the privatization iniatiatives had traction, they jumped in and started up what has now become virtually a shadow government of Democrat front companies providing government funded services.
Any time a government employee goes to some seminar, the odds are almost certain that the company putting on that seminar is Democrat controlled and fully understands that some percentage of its take from the seminar had best find its way to the Party. In Democrat controlled governments, this process is effectively used as a way to launder money directly from the government into Democrat Party hands. Hahvud’s Interest Based Bargaining is perhaps the most callous example. To make collective bargaining between a Democrat government and its unions look like something other than the charade it really is, they’ve invented this elaborate process of training and “identifying interests” that basically just gives the union bargaining team a lot of paid time off and funnels money to the IBB “trainers” who are themselves nothing more than Democrat operatives. It’s nice work if you can get it, however.
In Vino Veritas
more right than you know
molybdanthan (Diary) Friday, June 12th at 11:54AM EST (link)I think this is a worthy discussion. Grants, foundations, non-profits, and think tanks all seem rife with fellow travelers. And they’re all affecting policy, and guiding legislation, no matter who’s in charge at a particular time.
y'all should read this about privatization nt
mom2oneson (Diary) Friday, June 12th at 12:57PM EST (link)Not necessarily. Like ethics charges, it depends on
The_Gadfly (Diary) Friday, June 12th at 1:03PM EST (link)whether or not your organization supports their policies. Note that I didn’t say “is Republican.”
I use to help run a completely non-partisan non-profit. We did play nice with some ambassadors because part of the function of our cultural education group was to bring in people from certain countries for some of our activities. Ambassadors tend to like those sorts of things and that tends to get you higher caliber visitors. We did not however explicitly play nice with local politicians, not that we were explicitly ugly to the politicians either – just completely hands off except as it related to specific issues that affected our ability to run events, and even then it was strictly non-partisan. But they decided we needed to be investigated for avoiding taxes anyway. I think the organization managed to prove they weren’t subject to the taxes, but I left the organization about the time the state government was trying to collect the money. Something about a budget shortfall or some such nonsense.
Dream on, People.
wolfgang Friday, June 12th at 10:52AM EST (link)The media so desperately wantsThe OBAMBI to succeed they will deliberately ignore this little indiscretion. After all if they let Dealergate slide by without a whimper, preferring instead to heap scorn on the right with the Tiller murder and the Bush and Fox News Hater who commited the Holocaust Museum murder, why should they turn their attention to this minor news tidbit. They did not throw their underwear, bearing the logos of ABC, CBS, CNN, NBC, and the NYT and the WaPo, onto the stage at the Greek Temple in Denver for no reason at all.
Each little encroachment made by THE ONE’s administration, like the proposed banning of eighty per cent of the nation’s pocket knives, the Sonia Sotomayer nomination, Eric Holder’s dismissal of the Black Panther voter intimidation charges, ever so slightly, incrementally constricts the noose around the neck of personal liberty and individual freedoms, that by the time the rest of the popualtion becomes aware of just how despicable this Presidency is, We The People will be unable to do anything about it.
“When they came for the Jews, I said nothing.
When they came for the Gypsies I still said nothing.
Then they came for the Catholics and I still said nothing.
Then they came for me.”
Remember, that’s how easy it was. Germany was the best educated, ,most advanced, most culturally refined nation on the European Continent in 1933. It couldn’t happen there, but it did.
Yes, the media want The Big 0 to suceed, but
The_Gadfly (Diary) Friday, June 12th at 2:44PM EST (link)Having never really studied military tactics, he doesn’t seem to understand the depth of the problems with Blue on Blue fire. Some of the people he’s burning with the Chrysler and GM deals are serious supporters of the Dem party, although not necessarily supporters of him. They’re ramming the bankruptcy through, but I think they are lighting a fuse that will ultimately lead to their downfall. The Washington Times had an article about a couple of dealers her in The People’s Republic of Maryland who are getting burned, notably Fitzgerald, who owns just about 1 of each type of car dealership out there. Never bought a car from him, but he’s got enough pull that at least two Maryland Congress critters are paying attention to him. One of those just happens to be Steny Hoyer.
Now that doesn’t mean the MSM is going to follow the IG scandal. But it doesn’t mean we can’t keep turning up the heat on the MSM either.
ACORN needs a way to pay its "volunteers,"
Achance (Diary) Friday, June 12th at 10:57AM EST (link)and Americorps is the perfect vehicle. Can’t let some IG stand in the way of Comrade Obama getting his paid private army. Just another step in the plan. Invest in precious metals.
In Vino Veritas
These stories can't shock anymore
peg_c (Diary) Friday, June 12th at 11:54AM EST (link)This thug administration is counting on us becoming just numbed to this kind of garbage to the point where we don’t even care anymore. They are stealing us blind and running roughshod over all liberties and laws here. At some point either we all lose the ability to care, or we all lose the ability to care that we’re on the list of enemies and we rise up and revolt.
I keep hearing from Rush that everyone is afraid to say what they really think of Obama. I’m not afraid! I think he’s the ultimate menace and danger to America. Something has got to give or break.
Government cannot be the solution when government is the problem.
Drudge has latched onto this story
Bill S (Diary) Friday, June 12th at 12:37PM EST (link)Obama fires inspector general who investigated crony…
‘Some decisions being made by First Lady Michelle Obama’…
Suspicious…
This is sweet…
“It’s such a fine line between stupid, and clever.” – David St. Hubbins
DoDIG is a very important position, they are supposed to be protected against retaliation..
DONTREADONME (Diary) Friday, June 12th at 12:41PM EST (link)The IGs in the exective branch departments are supposed to conduct investigations without fear or pressure from the executives. Having pressure forced down on the IGs by the executives compromises the inestigation and leads to more fraud and waste in the Governmnet.
If you are read this diary or are listening to Rush today, he is spot on with his assessment of the repercussions of this firing.
It is more thugocracy at work
Jack_Savage (Diary) Friday, June 12th at 12:51PM EST (link)And no one has the guts to call it what it is.
No doubt...
DONTREADONME (Diary) Friday, June 12th at 12:54PM EST (link)but these actions are getting brazen and more illegal, and still no ones gunning for that pulitzer.