L. Jean Lewis named DoD Inspector General's Chief of Staff

[VolcanoJen]

Anyone care to discuss this interesting development? She's had the job for a year, but we're just now hwearing about it.

Just when you started to miss Whitewater, here's the goods on L. Jean Lewis, the RTCer, FriendOfStarr, and Whitewater whistle-blower, and her comfy new job, as Chief of Staff in the Inspector General's Office over at the DoD.

Ever wondered what the role of the DoD Inspector General's Office is?

Newsweek explains it:

http://www.msnbc.com/news/966344.asp

With 1,240 employees and a budget of $160 million, this office is the largest of its kind in the government. It investigates fraud and audits Pentagon contracts, including the billions of dollars being awarded in Iraq to companies like Halliburton and Bechtel.

As an investigator for the now defunct Resolution Trust Corp. in 1993, Lewis drafted a criminal referral alleging illegal Whitewater dealings that eventually became the basis for Ken Starr’s probe. Republicans praised Lewis as a whistle-blower; Democrats blasted her as a partisan.

More analysis from Gene Lyons:

http://moose-and-squirrel.com/GeneLyons/GeneLyons.html

What’s more—and this is where the story diverges into pure farcethere’s not much chance that Pentagon investigators ever will. Newsweek reports that none other than L. Jean Lewis, the preposterous GOP heroine of congressional Whitewater hearings, has been named chief of staff of the Defense Department’s inspector-general, an agency with 1,240 employees and a $160 million budget whose task is auditing Pentagon contracts for waste and fraud. It’s a $118,000-a-year job for a woman who once proposed peddling "Presidential BITCH" T-shirts and coffee mugs mocking Hillary Clinton out of her government office at the nowdefunct Resolution Trust Corp.

<snip>

When last seen publicly, Lewis was being half-carried out of a 1995 Senate hearing after fainting when Democratic senators began to question her about a letter by Little Rock’s Republican U.S. attorney, Charles Banks, refusing to initiate a September 1992 investigation of Bill and Hillary Clinton’s Whitewater dealings for which she’d presented no credible evidence.

And the Daily Howler puts it all together in this handy wrap-up:

http://www.dailyhowler.com/dh091903.shtml

The question is obvious: Will the press discuss Lewis’ bizarre history with her ascension to this position? Or is the corps so far in the bag that even this remarkable event will be ignored? Lewis is a crackpot and clown. But then, many in the press may say, “Hail to thee, kindred spirit.”

[jonnyblitz]

1. oh yeah !!! I remember that bitc...errrr....woman.

:puke: :puke: :puke:

[grasswire]

2. she's a real freeper, too

she posts at freerepublic.com. Pretty defensive about her past, too.

[jonnyblitz]

5. I am trying to remember which book I read that discussed her thoroughly

I think it was either Joe Conason's book "The Hunting of the President"..or Susan MacDougal's book..damn..but anyways she sounds like a real piece of work. I remember seeing her on tv during those times too. I guess she is getting rewarded for her efforts now. I am sure she feels right at home at Free Republic andis probably considered a heroine.

[jiacinto]

7. She's been mentioned in both books

Richard Iorio has also been mentioned.

[InkAddict]

3. Is that R. Jean like

Jean, Jean, roses are red or like:

Jean (Valjean) - French felon turned noble

And what's with these "I don't like my first name" folks?

Or perhaps it's the trangendered version of of R. Douglas (Scot {cheap}Braveheart) Lewis?

SEASONAL SPOOKINESS!

[leetrisck]

4. This administration is full of Clinton haters

that were involved in some manner with testifying, investigating, etc. in Whitewater, but this is the lowest of the low and the fact that it was kept quiet tells us a lot - Poindexter was on the job for TIA for months before the public knew. Lewis was one of the biggest liars - saw her the day she did her testifying. Bush is paying back all his old buddies for trying to destroy the Clinton presidency.

[TacticalPeek]

6. "Bush is paying back"?

Shrub doesn't even know what day it is without asking the powers-that-be who run our country. (Into the ground.)

[leetrisck]

8. True - but they

are all getting jobs in the present administration - either from daddy or those around the present bush.