You know, when people say that we really have gotten “change” since President Obama took over, I always laugh and call them names. Well, not really. But I do laugh. I do note that President Obama is maintaining a perfect “C” average. He is never really doing the right thing, never doing anything entirely wrong, and is still getting by on looks, rhetoric and speeches when he should be burying the Republican Party with answers, solutions, programs, and achievements.
I have noticed that, if you happen to point out that one of his friends is a corrupt individual, they will cut you to pieces and destroy you—shades of Karl Rove—and they will get away with it because we have little or no functioning or working media anymore:
A GOP congressional report accuses the White House of doing favors for Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, a former NBA star and prominent ally of President Barack Obama.
The report was spearheaded by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, and Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), the ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.
The investigation also found evidence that D.C. schools chief Michelle Rhee handled “damage control” after allegations surfaced of sexual misconduct against Johnson, her now-fiancé. The probe was launched after an AmeriCorps inspector general, Gerald Walpin, was abruptly fired in June by White House lawyer Norm Eisen. Walpin, who was appointed to his position during the Bush administration, was pursuing allegations that Johnson misused some of the $800,000 in federal AmeriCorps money provided to St. Hope Academy, a nonprofit school he headed for several years.Among the accusations: AmeriCorps-paid volunteers ran personal errands for Johnson, washed his car and engaged in political activities. Walpin’s firing caused an uproar, with his defenders arguing that his removal was politically motivated and that Walpin was an effective watchdog who blew the whistle on the president’s friends and pet causes.
You have to be fair and cite the fact that Republicans in Congress acquiesced to far too much of what Rove did in their name, and you have to accept the criticism that they are without credibility on this issue. As I pointed out when Walpin was fired, they destroyed the man, personally and professionally:
When you hear Mr. Walpin’s side, you come away with a different view:
“Anybody who’s heard me speaking more than I’m used to speaking on radio and TV in recent days, obviously under great pressure from what happened would clearly know that I know what I’m saying and what I’m doing and I’m not incoherent,” Walpin told POLITICO. “There’s nothing confusing about malfeasance and there’s nothing confusing about what appears to be the fact that they terminated me because I was doing my job because the White House wanted to protect people who proclaim they are friends of the White House.”
Walpin said he did recall a board meeting where he became frustrated over “constant interruption…consistently breaking up my organization.”
Asked about the May 20 session, Walpin said, “It’s certainly possible at that meeting I had a bug and was tired. I can’t remember right now…All I can say is this is a weak reed to now be relying on.”
Walpin said he worked full-time in the Washington office for his first two years as inspector general and only began “teleworking” from New York after members of his staff convinced him to withdraw a resignation he tendered in January. He said he ran his plan to telecommute by the corporation’s acting CEO and general counsel, who had no objections.
“This is an afterthought,” Walpin said. “The problem isn’t that I’m not there. The problem is that I’m too much there.”
Walpin has alleged in recent interviews that his removal appeared to be in retaliation two reports he recently produced. One faulted a political supporter of Obama who is now mayor of Sacramento, Kevin Johnson, for misuse of federal Americorps personnel. Another criticized Americorps grants for participants in a City College of New York teacher training program.
Another man destroyed to protect a friend of the President. I wish it were not so, but this is commonplace in American politics. It is not new.
What is new is that many people seem to think President Obama is an annointed saint, sent to save us all. No, he’s just a President. They do things like this. They send their minions out to destroy lowly Poindexters and bureaucrats because of political expediency.
When Republicans do it, it is wrong. When Democrats do it, it is wrong. The only thing that changes is which side of the aisle that the mindless defenders will come from. We are inherently polarized, and reality and facts don’t seem to count for anything anymore. Change the “D” to an “R” and you see all kinds of righteous indignation replacing carefully parsed justifications. It’s merely intellectual dishonesty at work, all of it driven by a bloodlust for holding onto power.
So, what is Mr. Johnson, the former basketball star, accused of doing:
During the course of Walpin’s investigation into Johnson’s activities, according to the Grassley-Issa report, Walpin’s team received complaints that Johnson made inappropriate advances toward three young woman involved in the St. Hope program and that Johnson offered at least one of those young women hush money. In one particularly incendiary passage in the report, one of the girls who had accused Johnson of inappropriately touching her said she told federal agents that he offered to pay her $1,000 a month to keep quiet. Johnson’s spokesman vehemently denied the reports charges. “There is absolutely no merit to these politically-motivated allegations,” said Steven Maviglio. “They are categorically false. It is sad and unfortunate that the right-wing minority in Congress is playing politics with rehashed allegations that have been dismissed by professional prosecutors, the Republican U.S. Attorney, and federal officials at AmeriCorps from both political parties.”
And Ms. Rhee is accused of:
When the complaints of sexual misconduct were first made, Rhee was a member of the board of St. Hope. A former St. Hope employee told Walpin’s investigators that Rhee “learned of the allegations and played the role of fixer, doing ‘damage control,’” the report states.
A spokeswoman for the chancellor’s office dismissed the allegations in the report as old news that never amounted to criminal charges against Johnson.
“Chancellor Rhee is mentioned in one paragraph of the 62-page Joint Staff Report,” said Jennifer Calloway. “It rehashes old allegations that have long since been dismissed and deemed meritless by local and federal law enforcement officials, including the Sacramento Police Department and the U.S. Attorney.”
Senator Grassley’s report goes on to say:
The report accuses the White House Counsel’s Office of withholding information from Congress and misleading investigators after Grassley and Issa questioned Obama’s methods and motives for removing Walpin. It also provides new details about the role several other Obama allies played in Walpin’s firing. The then-chairman of the CNCS, a division of AmeriCorps that Walpin was investigating, is Alan Solomant, a prominent Democratic fundraiser and Obama supporter who spoke with Eisen in the White House parking lot hours after hearing Walpin’s objections to a settlement of the St. Hope matter. Solomant shared his concern that Walpin was no longer fit for the job based on his alleged inability to answer questions during the day’s board meeting, the report found.
Eisen has claimed that the president’s decision to remove Walpin was the result of a thorough review of his performance and fitness to continue serving as an inspector general. He also has said that Walpin’s firing was unanimously supported by the CNCS board.
I have to say, firing ANY inspector general is going to bring in charges of favoritism, pandering, corruption or whatever else you can throw in there—sodomy and grandstanding also come to mind. You simply cannot just go and fire an IG without expecting some sort of recrimination. The problem here is, Walpin got dangerously close to an Obama confidante, and Chicago-style politics kicked in. Sorry, kids. That won’t play everywhere you try it.
Read the Hansard Transcript Here
