RUSH: The inspector general of AmeriCorps has been fired. The inspector general… There are inspector generals for every federal agency, and they are not political, and they are there to investigate any malfeasance, any fraud, waste, theft, what have you. And they are not subject to — theoretically they are not subject to — political pressure. Firing one is a big deal. Firing an inspector general is a
The inspector general for AmeriCorps who has been fired is Gerald Walpin, and he was investigating Kevin Johnson’s St. Hope Academy. ‘[Walpin] found that Johnson, a former all-star point guard for the Phoenix Suns, had used AmeriCorps grants to pay volunteers to engage in school-board political activities, run personal errands for Johnson and even wash his car.’ This is from the Associated Press. ‘In April, the U.S. attorney for the region declined to file any criminal charges in the matter and also criticized Walpin’s investigation. … But at the same time Kevin Johnson and the St. Hope Academy agreed to pay back about half of the $850,000 it had received from AmeriCorps,’ and Byron York, at the WashingtonExaminer.com, sums it up very simply and very understandably. ‘The bottom line is that the AmeriCorps IG accused a prominent Obama supporter of misusing AmeriCorps grant money.
‘After an investigation, the prominent Obama supporter had to pay back more than $400,000 of that grant money. And Obama fired the AmeriCorps IG. It’s political cronyism. Kevin Johnson obviously is a big supporter of Barack Obama. I have attended the St. Hope Academy. I’ve been one of their fundraisers back in the days when Kevin was playing for the Phoenix Suns. They were in town to play the Kings. I was out there visiting Coach Westphal — who, by the way, has just been hired by the Kings as their head coach. So congratulations, my buddy, Paul Westphal, getting back in the NBA. I bought a Ronnie Lott New York Jets jersey at the auction at the St. Hope Academy. Kevin’s doing great work with this thing. He always has. But this inspector general digs all this up, the US attorney says, ‘Nah, I’m not going to file charges.’
They fire the inspector general, the inspector general says there’s been misuse of $850,000 of AmeriCorps grant money and Kevin Johnson gives half of it back and they still fire the IG! This is big. This is political cronyism, power and so forth. This is exactly the way you would expect somebody like Obama to behave. It’s just… I don’t know. It’s just more corruption, and it’s sanctioning of it and it’s protection of donors and so forth and so on. Look at Republican presidents. Alberto Gonzales fired a couple US attorneys. Bill Clinton fired 93 and nobody said a word about it. Alberto Gonzales fired five or eight and they still want Karl Rove up to testify about it, the Democrats do, trying to make big hay out of it. I’m telling you firing an IG, because they’re not political, it is a much bigger deal than replacing United States attorneys.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: By the way, folks, I left out a key bit of information when telling you about Obama firing the AmeriCorps inspector general in a dispute over malfeasance at the St. Hope Academy in Sacramento, California. Now, remember, the inspector Gerald Walpin found abuse, found misuse of funds — $850,000 worth of grant money that was misused — by the St. Hope Foundation in Sacramento, California. The US attorney in that region declined the case, didn’t want to file charges. But the St. Hope Foundation gave back $400,000, almost half of it — and the IG, the inspector general was fired.
‘Senator Chuck Grassley is urging the [Obama] administration to follow the letter and spirit of the law, which [Obama] co-sponsored as legislation as a US senator in 2007, regarding the dismissal of the Inspector General … Grassley said it looks like the White House is today modifying its stance and saying that last night’s ultimatum started the 30-day notification clock. ‘Either way, it looks like the letter and spirit of the law Congress passed last year to try to safeguard the independence of Inspectors General from the heavy hand of the executive branch that it’s supposed to oversee might have been circumvented,’ he said.’ It’s a 30-day cooling-off period. When you’re going to fire somebody, you got 30 days to look at and so forth. They did it overnight. The Obama administration did it overnight, broke the law firing the AmeriCorps IG. In addition to everything else that’s wrong with this story, that’s the icing on the cake.