- Byron York had an important column about the AmeriCorps situation that explained a lot of the "why" behind the firing of Walpin. Basically, AmeriCorps wanted to make sure Sacramento got its share of "stimulus" money. Walpin was angry that the board went behind his back to reach a settlement with Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson. When Walpin threatened to blow the whistle, they got the White House to ax him;
- Nancy Lewis of Youth Today had some important background on the Walpin firing;
- Hans Bader had a column connecting the Walpin firing to the "political correctness" factor in the stimulus plan;
- The Wall Street Journal had an editorial saying IGs "do nothing to curb federal spending" and mostly create "pseudo-scandals." This drew a response from Michael Smallberg of the Project On Government Oversight; and
- Alan Gray of Newsblaze had a column, "Will Joe Lieberman Wilt?" In other words, will Lieberman earn his "independent" stripes by holding hearings on IG-Gate, despite heavy pressure from Democrats to lay off.
One of the breaks I've caught in the past week is that many top D.C. journalists are already on vacation and won't return until after July 4. Also, the Iran controversy, the White House press conference Tuesday, the cap-and-trade push, and the Mark Sanford confession Wednesday seem to have distracted lots of the Washington press corps. So I scored an exclusive Thursday night while everybody else missed it. Heh.
Hit the tip jar, please.
So, is the Democratic Party strategy simply to ignore this until it goes away?
ReplyDeleteYeah, but they won't get away with it. They're trying to stay on offense with their legislative agenda, but with unemployment at or near 10% and rising, they're losing political capital every day. That's why the rush-rush on cap-and-trade and Obamacare. They want to enact these ill-conceived measures before individual members of Congress start to realize how profoundly unpopular the Democrat brand is becoming.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the kind words RSM [and the links to others].
ReplyDeleteBetter watch out or you'll be declared 'unmutual' by the Administration [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Change_of_Mind#Synopsis].
Quoted from and linked to at:
http://www.thecampofthesaints.com/2009.06.21_arch.html#1246025432725
and at:
http://www.thecampofthesaints.com/wwuam.html