The Washington Examiner posted an article today by Byron York on the ongoing saga of the firing of Inspector General Gerald Walpin. Inspectors General are supposed to be non-political and cannot be fired without cause or without a thirty-day notice to Congress. Currently, Congress is asking to see White House documents related to this firing, and President Obama is claiming executive privilege for those documents.
"For its part, the White House is hinting broadly that it might invoke executive privilege to keep documents from Congress. "Your questions seek information about the White House's internal decision-making process," Craig wrote to Sen. Charles Grassley on June 30. "These questions implicate core executive branch confidentiality interests." At another point, Craig pledged to cooperate "to the fullest extent possible consistent with constitutional and statutory obligations."
"The message, apparently, is for GOP investigators to back off. But that hasn't happened. In his letter to the White House, (Representative Darrell) Issa is still trying to get information. "The White House's willingness to provide the facts" about the Walpin firing, wrote Issa, "will go a long way to demonstrate the president is committed to running the most transparent White House in history.""
Most of the press seems to be ignoring this story, but the law has been broken--the rules for firing an Inspector General have not been followed. The message being sent to all Inspectors General is "be careful what you investigate or what you find". This is not the way a democracy is supposed to operate.
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