When Inspectors General attack

The Obama administration has got a little problem on its hand and its because the man pictured won’t take a firing and a smearing of his faculties by the administration as a subtle hint that they want him gone.

Recall Walpin was the Inspector General for the Corporation for National and Community Service which runs the AmeriCorps program. Last year, Walpin launched an investigation into the misuse of Americorps funds by Sacramento mayor and Obama supporter, Kevin Johnson. The investigation resulted in Johnson being suspended from receiving anymore AmeriCorps funding and being directed to give back about half of the nearly $850,000, his community group, St. Hope, received.

Walpin raised objections to what he felt was too lenient of a settlement and went justifiably ballistic when Johnson was unsuspended, alleging favoritism on behalf of the Obama administration towards Johnson. Walpin was subsequently fired by the administration this past spring who publicly questioned Walpin’s mental faculties on the way out the door. (archived posts on L'affaire Walpin, here)

Well, the old man hasn’t backed down an inch and now he wants his old job back.

Walpin, who was fired by President Barack Obama last summer amid controversy over his probe of Johnson, revealed Tuesday that he also had been cleared of overstepping his authority in the matter.

The letter from the Integrity Committee of the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency is dated Oct. 19 and indicates the probe against him has been closed.

"After carefully considering the allegations described in the complaint together with your response, the IC determined that the response sufficiently and satisfactorily addressed the matter and that further inquiry or an investigation regarding the matter was not warranted," committee Chairman Kevin L. Perkins wrote.

Now, he said, he wants his job back.

"It certainly is a vindication that I and my office – and it was mainly my office, the career staff – acted properly in connection with the investigation into St. HOPE," Walpin said.

"It takes away any basis belatedly set forth by the White House as a reason for my termination," he added.

Not that there is an ice cube’s chance in hell that he gets his job back but the Walpin case reminds us of the need for dedicated public servants who are the taxpayers’ watchdogs and who are increasingly finding themselves pitted against the growing power and number of czars who seem to multiply within this administration in a freakishly asexual amoeba-splitting manner.

Team O can probably thank a 10.2 % unemployment rate that this story of politicizing an entity like the Inspectors General doesn’t get more play.

H/T: Hot Air