Wow! I guess Walpin wasn’t Obama’s only Inspector General firing

The Chicago Tribune reports that it isn’t just Walpin’s firing over which Senator Grassley wants some answers. Grassley, like others who aren’t slurping Obama, or bowing to him are begining to notice a pattern. According to Riehl World View, there as no fewer than three IG’s have recently been fired, all while investigating so-called sensitive issues. Michelle Malkin’s syndicated column yesterday has info on Walpin.

The dispute comes as Grassley, ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, is looking into the abrupt firings within the last week of two other inspectors general one of whom was fired by the White House and the other by the chair of the International Trade Commission.

Both inspectors general had investigated sensitive subjects at the time of their firings.

Grassley is now concerned about whether a pattern is emerging in which the independence of the government’s top watchdogs — whose jobs were authorized by Congress to look out for waste, fraud and abuse — is being put at risk.

One of the other IGs is Neil Barofsky, tasked with watching over the financial stimulus spending. The article raises questions as to whether or not the Obama administration is trying to stymie an investigation with dubious claims of attorney-client privilege.

He was appointed with fanfare as the public watchdog over the government’s multi-billion dollar bailout of the nation’s financial system. But now Neil Barofsky is embroiled in a dispute with the Obama administration that delayed one recent inquiry and sparked questions about his ability to freely investigate.

The disagreement stems from a claim by the Treasury Department that Barofsky is not entirely independent of the agency he is assigned to examine – a claim that has prompted a stern letter from a Republican senator warning that agency officials are encroaching on the integrity of an office created to protect taxpayers.

Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, sent the letter Wednesday to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner demanding information about a “dispute over certain Treasury documents” that he said were being “withheld” from Barofsky’s office on a “specious claim of attorney-client privilege.” More from Riehl World View:

The third instance involves an acting IG for the International Trade Commission, Judith Gwynne, who has been told her contract would not be renewed amid allegations that an ITC employee forcibly took documents from her possession. Just three hours after Grassley sent along his letter asking questions, she was told she’d be hitting the road in July when her contract is up. Well, well, well.

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June 18, 2009 · Filed Under General Politics


Comments

  • http://www.myspace.com/tankofduluth Dan Tank

    There is no longer an issue whether or not Obama is bipartisan, whether or not Obama will do the right things for our country, or whether or not Obama should be given the benefit of the doubt.

    He is destroying our county and the American people are letting him do it.

    All we can do now is vote this anti-american pathetic excuse for a president out of office along with all his buddies. I’m sick of this son of a “you know what” screwing up my country.

    Every week there is something new coming out of his manure hole. What’s next???? Nothing will surprise me.