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June 19, 2009

Can we call it Walpin-gate yet?

Topics: Political News and commentaries

As The Washington Times suggested yesterday (EDITORIAL: A witness to Walpin-gate), the Walpin firing is getting more interesting and the term "Walpin-gate" is being used to describe the events. Now there's evidence of a cover-up inside one of the targets of Walpin's investigation that led to his immediate firing by Obama:

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- The FBI has opened an investigation into allegations that a board member at Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson's nonprofit St. HOPE organization deleted e-mails during a federal investigation.

Lauren Horwood with the U.S. attorney's office in Sacramento told KCRA 3 that the investigation was started last month, after accusations from St. HOPE's former executive director Rick Maya.

A previous federal investigation into misused funds at St. HOPE came to an end in April when the nonprofit organization and Johnson agreed to a settlement. Maya wrote in his resignation letter that it was during that investigation that the e-mails were deleted.

The FBI probes comes at the same time that members of Congress have started to raise questions about the recent dismissal of the inspector general who led the previous investigation of misused federal funds at St. HOPE.

And the St. Hope controversy isn't the only problem Walpin found:

[...] That controversy in Sacramento remains a big part of this story. But another, bigger controversy, this one involving a program at the City University of New York (CUNY), has been largely overlooked. It is worth noting that Mr. Walpin issued his report on Mayor Johnson back on May 6 without losing his job. In contrast, the president forced Mr. Walpin out within a week of his June 4 report on substantial waste at the New York program.

Why would the administration be so sensitive to long-running waste at CUNY? Consider whose ox was gored.

[...] The board chairman is Alan Solomont, a longtime top Democratic donor who bundled more than $800,000 combined for the Obama presidential campaign and Inauguration. He had been a Democratic appointee on the AmeriCorps board since 2000 before Mr. Obama elevated him to chairman.

"Solomont has been very, very hostile to the IG's office," Mr. Walpin said. "It hadn't been like that [before the new administration]."

Mr. Obama effectively shot the messenger with last week's IG firing. Mr. Walpin has embarrassed two of the president's supporters, Mr. Johnson and Mr. Solomont. Apparently that is cause for dismissal in this administration - even for a nonpartisan public official of unquestioned integrity.

Federal inspectors general were created to be free from political interference. Many of them serve through the terms of several presidents regardless of party affiliation. Their entire job is to root out fraud, abuse and waste of the very sort Mr. Walpin, to his credit, identified at CUNY.

The law governing inspectors general mandates that a president can remove them only after stating a cause for the dismissal. Mr. Obama has offered no substantive reason for firing Mr. Walpin.

The timing and circumstances of Halpin's firing, the allegations of obstruction of justice, the alleged involvement of the president, his wife, and their supporters, and the firings of 3 other IGs by the Obama administration, are pointing to the need of a Patrick Fitzgerald to come into play.

We are indeed approaching the appropriate label of Walpin-gate for Michelle and Barack Obama's obstruction of justice.

What is happening to our government? At the risk of sounding a bit overly critical, did the American people vote for debt beyond what generations won't be able to pay for and the destruction of the value of the dollar, a huge expansion of government, Chicago-style/Saul Alinsky-type politics, a weakening of our national defense, a socialist - headed toward a Marxist state, and now the firing of IGs whenever they get to close to exposing Democrat's corruption? Surely, this is not the kind of hope and change voters expected, is it?

Related: Walpin....gate?

Posted by Richard at June 19, 2009 6:05 AM

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• Can we call it Walpin-gate yet? - Jun 19, 2009