Obama ousts AmeriCorps' IG who investigated friend

[chatnoir]

Source: Associated Press

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama says he has lost confidence in the inspector general who investigates AmeriCorps and other national service programs and has told Congress he is removing him from the position.

Obama's move follows an investigation by IG Gerald Walpin finding misuse of federal grants by a nonprofit education group led by Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, who is an Obama supporter and former NBA basketball star.

Walpin was criticized by the acting U.S. attorney in Sacramento for the way he handled the investigation of Johnson and St. HOPE Academy, a nonprofit group that received hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal grants from the Corporation for National and Community Service, which runs the AmeriCorps program.

St. HOPE Academy ended up repaying more than $400,000 in government funds.



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090612/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_national_service_inspector_general

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Searched and did not find this story posted already. Apologies if a dupe.

[bluestateguy]

1. In other words, he was exercising his constitutional authority

Namely to appoint the people of his choice to government offices (with a few exceptions, and this was not one of them).

[gimmie_gimmie]

5. I thought

IG's were supposed to be non-partisan.

[tabasco]

11. That's the reason the AWOL Bush ass licker got fired.

Try to keep up.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

13. This decision was supported by the top Republican and Democrat on the board.

Alan Solomont, a Democrat and the board chairman of the government-run corporation, and Stephen Goldsmith, a Republican and the board's vice chair, said they strongly endorsed Obama's decision.

[No Elephants]

17. More than that, investigation of Walpin was inititated under Dummya's administration.

[razorman]

12. That was the same excuse the Rethugs used when Bush fired the AGs.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

14. This guy was under fire for a bad investigation and his removal had bipartisan support.

"In August 2008, Walpin referred the matter to the local U.S. attorney's office, which said the watchdog's conclusions seemed overstated and did not accurately reflect all the information gathered in the investigation.

"We also highlighted numerous questions and further investigation they needed to conduct, including the fact that they had not done an audit to establish how much AmeriCorps money was actually misspent," Acting U.S. Attorney Lawrence Brown said in an April 29 letter to the federal counsel of inspectors general."

"Alan Solomont, a Democrat and the board chairman of the government-run corporation, and Stephen Goldsmith, a Republican and the board's vice chair, said they strongly endorsed Obama's decision"

[No Elephants]

18. No. The Bush AGs got fired for various reasons. The most outspoken of them,

Iglesias, claimed he had been fired for NOT filing trumped up charges against a Democrat just to try to make a Democrat lose an election. In other words, Iglesias claimed Bush/Gonzalez had fired him for doing the correct thing around an election.

Walpin not only DID start a sloppy case against Democratic candidate Johnson before an election, but also publicized it, to the point that even Republican Brown found it necessary to announce publicly that Johnson was not going to be charged with anything. In other words, looks as though Walpin got fired for doing the wrong thing around an election.


So, this is not at all the same as what Bush got criticized for.

[No Elephants]

16. Obama had a lot more reason than that. You may want to look at Replies 8 and 15.

[jody]

2. Looks like more of the same old presidential BS and I had HOPE for CHANGE, n/t

[angstlessk]

3. bull crap...read the article...he was a political hack just like all boosh's appointees

Johnson was a 'supporter' of Obama as was 98% of all blacks, so now if ANY black is found guilty they are a 'friend' of Obama's? cut me some slack here...even the republican on the board was in support of his dismissal...READ THE ARTICLE!

[jody]

6. Looks like I pulled your chain and you flushed. ROFL n/t

[No Elephants]

19. Self Delete

[tridim]

4. .

:rofl:

[Vinnie From Indy]

7. Gee, Rush Limbaugh was pounding on the same angle today!

The OP is a load of CRAP. The title is over the top BS.

[groundloop]

8. More information from the article....

In August 2008, Walpin referred the matter to the local U.S. attorney's office, which said the IG's conclusions seemed overstated and did not accurately reflect all the information gathered in the investigation.

"We also highlighted numerous questions and further investigation they needed to conduct, including the fact that they had not done an audit to establish how much AmeriCorps money was actually misspent," Acting U.S. Attorney Lawrence Brown said in an April 29 letter to the federal counsel of inspectors general.

Walpin's office made repeated public comments just before the Sacramento mayoral election, prompting the U.S. attorney's office to inform the media that it did not intend to file any criminal charges.

Edited to add:

Agree with previous post, I call BS on the articles title.

[chatnoir]

9. More info from ABC News

President Obama Fires Controversial Inspector General

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/06/president-obama-fires-controversial-inspector-general-.html

Walpin had been criticized for the way he handled an investigation into Kevin Johnson, former point guard of the Phoenix Suns, who was elected Mayor of Sacramento last November and is an ally of the president’s.

Johnson helped found a community group called St. HOPE Academy, and Walpin investigated how $847,673 in grant funds from AmeriCorps, a division of the Corporation for National and Community Service, were used by St. HOPE.
...

In April of this year, the new Acting Attorney General, Lawrence Brown, settled the case, requiring St. HOPE Academy to pay $423,836.50 -- $72,836.50 of which would be paid personally by Mayor Johnson. Walpin complained that he had not been consulted on the settlement.

What I'm not getting is why Brown was asked to personally repay 72K? :shrug:

And yes, the AP usually does a bang up job of over-the-top titles.

[No Elephants]

20. Johnson was asked to pay funds personally, not Brown. Brown was working for Bush. Johnson

was asked because money that St. Hope received as a grant (for its own use) ALLEGEDLY went to Johnson's own use, for political purposes and even for things like washing his car. Johnson claimed tha St. Hope just had bad bookkeeping. (Same defense often used when campaign money gets used for the candidate's personal stuff.)

In the end, though, this was a settlement, so it's unlikely that anyone admitted guilt or innocence. Since Johnson was running for office while Walpin's was busy publicizing the claims against him, Johnson was probably more than happy to settle as quickly as possible.

[GDAEx2]

10. Misleading Subject Line

Nowhere in the article does it mention that KJ is anything more than an Obama supporter, certainly not a friend.
Holy Cheese and Crackers!

:eyes:

[No Elephants]

15. As so often occurs in its coverage of Democrats, AP is deceptive, based just on its own story.

First, this guy got out of law school in 1955, when, typically, he would have been 25-26 years old So, this guy may have been about 77 when Bush first appointed him, which in itself raises eyebrows.


Second, buried in the story is that investigation into Walpin's performance was completed by Brown in 2008, when Brown wrote the the Integrity Committee. This was not anything Obama inititated.


Third, sounds as though Walpin did a lousy job, ncluding overstaing claims aginst Johnson and his not for profit, not accurately reflecting all the info gathered during the investigation, not performing any audit to see how much was actually misspent and making public remarks prior to the Sacramento ELECTION that should not have made, requiring Brown to state publicly that no charges against Johnson were going to be filed. This was all found in April 2008 letter, again, by Dummya's Acting U.S. Attorney Lawrence Brown.

From the OP: Kevin Hiestand, chairman of the board of St. HOPE Academy, said in a statement it was "about time" Walpin was removed. "Mr. Walpin's allegations were meritless and clearly motivated by matters beyond an honest assessment of our program," he said.


Fourth, If Obama wanted to help Johnson it would be a lot safer for Obama just to give Johnson the $75K and not risk committing perjury when providing Congress with info about Walpin's firing, as required by law. (And, as we all know, a President can be impeached for perjury.)



I criticize Obama whenever I feel it is warranted. This is not one of those times.

AP News (Fournier) is a Rove-serving POS and so is this article. The end.