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05.31.2009 0

Opening the Floodgates of “Walpin-Gate”

  • On: 06/25/2009 10:36:32
  • In: Barack Obama
  • By William Warren

    You can take the politician out of Chicago, but you can’t take Chicago out of the politician.

    And that, precisely, is what the Obama Administration has demonstrated with its handling of Gerald Walpin, the former inspector general for the Corporation for National and Community Service who was fired on June 10th.

    Mr. Walpin smelled something rotten—and Barack Obama decided to cut off his nose. In short, “never go against the family.”

    Serving as the lead federal investigator into financial abuses committed by Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, Mr. Walpin had been steadily unearthing a scandal that threatened both the reputation of AmeriCorps and Barack Obama—who recently signed legislation tripling the tainted national service program. As it were, Mr. Johnson had been misappropriating hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxpayer money for things such as “driving [Johnson] to personal appointments, washing his car, and running personal errands.”

    Also noteworthy is the fact that Mayor Johnson was an ardent Obama campaign supporter and is a personal family friend of Barack and Michelle Obama.

    The whole thing exploded when, at a recent meeting on May 20, Mr. Walpin strongly criticized the board of the Corporation for National and Community Service for reaching a settlement with Mr. Johnson that effectively let the corrupt mayor off the hook.

    A few days later, lo and behold, Mr. Walpin was summarily fired.

    Clearly devoid of justified reasons for the firing, the White House has begun to smear the name of Gerald Walpin, stooping so low as to question the ousted 77-year-old Inspector General’s mental state and competency. It is typical Chicago-style political thuggery at its most despicable.

    In a letter to the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, Norm Eisen, the Special Counsel to the President, charged that at the aforementioned contentious meeting, Mr. Walpin was:

    “confused, disoriented, unable to answer questions and exhibited other behavior that led the Board to question his capacity to serve.”

    Despite the Obama Administrations attempts to quietly squash an irritating political dissident and boost a corrupt, personal friend, the shameful personal jabs and smearing is not fooling anyone. It seems that the floodgates of “Walpin-Gate” have begun to open and the political hatchet-job is staying anything but quiet.

    The Hill reported yesterday that a bipartisan group of 145 current and former public officials—including former Clinton Administration officials, former Attorney General Michael Mukasey, and a number of U.S. Attorneys—have come racing to Mr. Walpin’s defense against Barack Obama’s allegations of the ousted Inspector General’s alleged senility. As the letter read:

    “We have known Gerald Walpin as a leading member of the New York bar for many years. Many of us have seen him and heard him speak, including at this month’s meeting of the Second Circuit Judicial Conference and last week’s meeting of the Board of the Federal Bar Council. We have never seen Mr. Walpin to be ‘confused, disoriented [or] unable to answer questions’.”

    The tide of anger regarding the politically and personally motivated firing is growing by the day. And it shows no signs of being drowned out by the chattering Main Stream Media and Mr. Obama’s other allies in Congress.

    Even more despicable than the actual firing, however, is the precedent such a politically-motivated firing establishes. How can the American people expect expect their public officials—investigators, attorneys, and all others—to do their job knowing they could be fired and/or personally smeared should their results displease the thuggish Obama Administration?

    It is a chilling forecast of what might be facing the nation if the Obama modus-operandi goes unchallenged.

    Perhaps once the floodgates of “Walpin-gate” have been fully opened, Washington can move towards cleansing itself of the Chicago-style politics that has polluted the current Administration and soiled the office of the President.

    William Warren is a Contributing Editor of ALG News Bureau.


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