Scooped by Michelle Malkin!

I was drifting off to sleep about 6 a.m. this morning when Michelle Malkin came on "Fox & Friends" to discuss her latest column about how security is being undermined at Amtrak -- a story that relates directly to the IG-Gate story I've been following

"Doggone it! She scooped me!" I said, perhaps a bit more emphatically.

There was an Amtrak IG angle that I'd been meaning to follow up on, fill in a few more details. But now, scooped by Malkin, I figured I needed to go with what I already had:

Remember Fred Wiederhold, the Amtrak inspector general who retired abruptly in June? He was replaced by "interim" IG Lorraine Green, the head of human resources who has spent 12 years in management of the taxpayer-subsidized rail service -- and will return to management when her IG stint concludes.
"What kind of independence is that?" one Capitol Hill source said of Green's anomalous position as temporary head of the IG office.
In her "interim" role, Green has reportedly hired three consultants to prepare a report about the Amtrak IG's office. According to someone familiar with the contract, each of the consultants is paid $140 per hour, and limited to a maximum of $75,000 each for three months of work, due to conclude at the end of this month . . .

There's more, so read the whole thing. This is how competitive reporting works, see? Malkin gets a scoop and, if I don't come back with something quick, I look like a shmuck. So now the onus is on Byron York, Ed O'Keefe and Jake Tapper to play catch-up. They'll get their scoops, and then I'll have to go wear out the shoe-leather on Capitol Hill again.