EDITORIAL: White House inspector general stonewalling--Sen. Grassley gets the brush-off

The Washington Times ^ | November 10, 2009 | Editorial

[jazusamo]

When it comes to discussing controversial issues, the Obama administration's idea of dialogue is a curiously one-way affair.

According to an Oct. 26 administration court filing, a lawsuit by fired AmeriCorps Inspector General Gerald Walpin should be dismissed without a trial because the White House already has participated in the "political dialogue" with Congress required by the statute governing IG dismissals. It's odd, then, that the administration continues stonewalling Sen. Charles E. Grassley, Iowa Republican, long a champion of independent IGs.

On June 10, the Obama administration fired Mr. Walpin, without explanation, just after he filed two reports alleging White House allies had misused Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) grants. That's not the way things are supposed to work. The law creating the IGs requires the president to give Congress 30 days' notice and an explanation before an IG gets fired. In this case, though, the president didn't explain, escalating the controversy.

Meanwhile, President Obama nominated CNCS Chairman Alan Solomont, a big campaign donor, to be ambassador to Spain. Mr. Grassley, unhappy with the administration's repeated lack of responsiveness to his requests for documents about the controversy, put a hold on the Solomont nomination. The administration finally budged a little, providing several hundred pages of documents - but redacting or withholding a number of other documents, in part or in whole, without providing legally required explanations for the redactions.

[Achilles Heel]

The firing wasn’t justified and they don’t care.

[DavidFarrar]

Well, well, well; apparently, us “birthers” aren’t the only ones getting stonewalled.

Wecome to the club.

ex animo
daviodfarrar