Posted on 06/18/2009 11:54:03 AM PDT by MaestroLC
A top White House lawyer called the firing of AmeriCorps inspector general Gerald Walpin an act of "political courage," according to House Republican aides who were in a meeting with the lawyer Wednesday.
Norman Eisen, who is the White House Special Counsel to the President for Ethics and Government Reform, met with staffers for Rep. Darrell Issa, the ranking Republican on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on Wednesday. Eisen, along with another White House staffer who accompanied him, "wanted to talk broadly about inspectors general," says a GOP aide familiar with what went on at the meeting. "When we pressed them on specific questions and documents, they said they weren't prepared to give us information on that."
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.
Republicans, along with a few Democrats, have been concerned about the White House's methods in removing Walpin. The law requires the president to give Congress 30 days' notice, plus the cause for the firing of an inspector general. In Walpin's case, the White House called Walpin out of the blue, gave him one hour either to resign or be fired, and only later notified Congress, and then without giving any cause for its action. Only later, after a lone Democrat, Sen. Claire McCaskill, said the White House "failed to follow the proper procedure" and
I’m afraid he ‘s going to be like Clinton’s Billy Dale: the outrage ignored by the media.
Senator questions firing of 3 inspectors general (More Obama coverups)
Chicago Trib | 6/18/09 | Tom Hamburger
Posted on 06/18/2009 7:17:18 AM PDT by pissant
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2274384/posts
see IG Walpin’s Report and tell me who has the courage.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2274725/posts
He graduated from Brown University in 1985 and, like Obama, took three years off to work as a community organizer before going to Harvard Law School, where he met Obama.(3) After graduating from law school, Eisen took a job in Washington with Zuckerman Spaeder, a large, national law firm. He worked there for the next 17 years, handling white-collar and Congressional investigations for the firm and eventually becoming a partner.(4)
He spent much of his career serving as outside counsel to government clients, and he co-founded Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW).(5) Eisen and Louis Mayberg approached Melanie Sloan in 2003 about starting the progressive government watchdog group, but he did not run the day-to-day operations.(6)
‘Working well with AmeriCorps’ requires more than just a blind eye.
The longer they play out this game...the more likely that massive cuts will come to AmeriCorps once a shift in the house or senate occurs (2010 elections). This is the one thing you should never do...if you care about your budget...is to do something this stupid and gain public attention. The sad thing is that seventy percent of what AmeriCorps does...might be worth the money. But the rest of this is fluff-money, and corrupting a bunch of political figures.
Pretty good description. Either Obama is very skillful at this tactic, or the people are very gullible, or both.
You didn’t just hear about it, it is fact.
“political courage” translation “we don;t give a damn what anyone thinks, we are in power now. You can’t stop us”
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