Henry II’s supposed lament – “who will rid me of this turbulent priest?” – led a loyal knight to bury his sword in Thomas Beckett’s head, thus conveniently removing the Archbishop of Canterbury as a thorn in the side of the English king. A scene reminiscent of that infamous martyrdom occurred in the White House late last week, as one of President Obama’s senior aides gave the AmeriCorps inspector-general an offer he supposedly could not refuse – resign within an hour or be fired. Fortunately, in the contemporary edition, the intended victim, IG Gerald Walpin, refused to go quietly despite threats from the assailant, Norman Eisen, special counsel to the president for ethics and government reform. Eisen was last seen defending a proposed White House rule depriving the First Amendment rights of “anyone else seeking to influence the process” of economic stimulus grant awards. The proposed rule would enable Obama and company to dole out stimulus pork behind closed doors, away from prying eyes.
The White House plan – first reported by The Examiner’s Byron York – blew up when Walpin not only refused to resign, but mounted a stout public defense of his investigation of waste and mismanagement of an $850,000 AmeriCorps grant to St. Hope, a non-profit founded by Sacramento Mayor and former NBA star Kevin Johnson. Johnson is also a high-profile Obama political supporter and a friend of First Lady Michelle Obama. Walpin reminded Eisen that the law required a president to give Congress 30-day notice of his intent to remove an IG and a detailed justification for the removal. This is to prevent presidential politics from interfering with the independence and integrity of IGs, whose sole job is to ferret out waste, fraud and corruption in federal spending. Walpin was appointed by President George W. Bush and confirmed by Congress in 2007. He is a veteran New York securities lawyer who directed high-profile case during a five-year tenure as Chief of Prosecutions for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. In short, Walpin is no wall flower.
President Obama’s options here are circumscribed by the Inspector-Generals Reform Act of 2007, which was co-sponsored by Sen. Barack Obama. The IGs are appointed by presidents but do not serve at the Chief Executive’s pleasure as do other presidential appointees. The AmeriCorps case illustrates why IG independence must be zealously protected. Walpin found that Johnson used AmeriCorps funds for personal and political benefit. Johnson was not charged but half the grant money was returned under an agreement with the government. The key issue now is whether Congress will permit this latest illustration of what The Examiner’s Michael Barone calls Obama’s “gangster government.”
