President Barack Obama tried late last week to quietly fire an inspector general who had investigated a close political ally, a move that prompted attention from several media sources anyway. Obama terminated Gerald Walpin, inspector general of the Corporation for National and Community Service, which runs the AmeriCorps program, after Walpin launched an investigation last year that involved Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, a former NBA player who had founded a community group called St. HOPE Academy. Walpin’s audit of St. HOPE, which sought to find out how the organization had spent $847,673 in grant funds from AmeriCorps, came in the...