You're Fired

In 2008, on the heels of the US Attorney's firing "scandal", the Democrats on Capital Hill put together legislation to add further protections to the Inspector Generals corps as these federal employees are supposed to be more insulated from the political winds of change than US Attorneys (who serve at the pleasure of the President) are. That Legislation, the Inspector General Reform Act of 2008, was sponsored by Senator Claire McKaskill and one of the 11 co-sponsors was none other than then Senator Barack Obama! The bill (which has not made it out of committee in the House) was designed to:

• Require Congressional notification on the removal of an inspector general;
• Expand the reporting requirements for IG budget requests;
• Require IGs to have their own legal counsel;
• Establish an IG Council;
• Provide IGs with some additional investigative, law enforcement, and personnel
  authorities and require additional reports by IGs and the Government Accountability
  Office (GAO).

Another requirement of the bill was:

(Sec. 3) Requires the President, the heads of designated federal entities, the Librarian of Congress, the Capitol Police Board, and the Public Printer to communicate to Congress in writing the reasons for removing or transferring an IG no later than 30 days before such removal or transfer.

However, since this bill was not passed out of the House, the law that applies to Mr. Walpin's firing is the Inspector General Act of 1978. One of the provisions of that law is that when an IG is removed from office or transferred that the head of the federal entity doing that (in this case that would be the head of the Executive Branch - ie President Obama) must notify both Houses of Congress - something President Obama has not done according to Sen. McKaskill!

“The White House has failed to follow the proper procedure in notifying Congress as to the removal of the Inspector General for the Corporation for National and Community Service,” McCaskill said. “The legislation which was passed last year requires that the president give a reason for the removal.”

McCaskill, a key Obama ally, said that the president’s stated reason for the termination, “Loss of confidence’ is not a sufficient reason.”

Another provision of the existing law is that the President must give the Inspectors General 30 day advance notice of their firing - something else this President did not not considering he gave Mr. Walpin 1 hour to resign or be fired. Only after Walpin refused to resign did this President decide to follow the law and tell Congress of his intent to fire the IG - but by then the die had been cast and it was too late for the President to abide by the intent of the law.

Regardless of whether you are applying the existing law, or the amendments to that law that then Senator Obama co-sponsored, it is clear that PRESIDENT Obama broke the intent of the law in his firing of Gerald Walpin. This is in no way akin to President Bush's wholesale firing of US Attorney's - a faux scandal created by the left-o-sphere to discredit President Bush. This is a real and legit scandal and something that the media and Congress need to bring light to. However, I suspect that will not happen with this President. It will be swept under the rug by a besotted media and a hyper-partisan congress.

So much for the "politics of change" that we were promised.