The Strange Firing of Gerald Walpin

Take a good look at the guy in the photo. It may be the last time you ever hear of him.

His name is Gerald Walpin, and his job was to ferret out waste and corruption in a formerly small wing of the federal bureaucracy. His title: Inspector General.

But President Obama has "fired" him, or is in the process thereof, depending upon which hour of the day you hear someone giving the details.

Why?

If you could believe the Obama Excuse Machine, Mr. Walpin is just too old to cut the mustard anymore. He apparently appeared "unsteady" at a committee meeting, someone claimed.

Or alternately you could believe the Obama Excuse Machine, which initially said he was removed after he refused to resign, since the President wanted him to "move on."

Tomorrow, you can believe the Obama Excuse Machine for some other reason.

Or you could believe that Inspector General Walpin found and acted on serious misuse of funds going to a personal friend of The Obama, one former NBA player named Kevin Johnson, who, if you follow the reports, apparently ran through $1 million in taxpayer funds getting car washes and meddling in San Francisco-area school board elections.

Then Inspector Walpin had the audacity to hope that he could that he could investigate the wrongful disbursement of $80 million to the City University of New York, which apparently upset some more disciples of the Anointed Leader of the Once Free World.

At first the story got little traction, but then someone, a Democrat who wrote the bill that former U.S. Senator Barack Obama co-sponsored, complained that the president had violated the very terms of that same bill which protects Inspectors General from presidential tampering.

This is truly the most transparently crooked-looking presidential administration in recent history. I guess that's what they meant by transparency, right?

Way back when ethics mattered to people, a man named Elliot Richardson became a hero because as attorney general he refused to fire a special federal prosecutor named Archibald Cox, who was looking into various allegations against Nixon administration officials. This was the seminal event, known as the Saturday Night Massacre, that marked the beginning of the end of Nixon's presidency.

But that case was about national integrity in high office. Walpin's firing is only about $81 million buckaroos, and the integrity of the president.

Today's Wall Street Journal has some details, and you can find more HERE and HERE, if such things interest you.

Ethics: White House: 'Bar' Highest Ever?

As previously noted, Tom Daschle ceased his efforts to appointive office today in the uproar over tax problems. In other news, Nancy Killefer withdrew her name as potential White House "performance chief" after it became known that she, too, had ... tax problems! New Treasury Secretary Matthew Geithner was confirmed despite having had ... tax problems.

I complimented Pres. Obama for his "no lobbyist" rules. Since that post, he has had several known (and registered) lobbyists join his team with special waivers. The waivers clause wasn't discussed in his initial press conference but apparently it's pretty damn handy.

So today White House press secretary Robert Gibbs was asked about all this stuff.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Despite the tax problems faced by high-level nominees, and the exceptions made to the no-lobbyists pledge, President Barack Obama's spokesman is defending the administration's ethical standards.

Robert Gibbs told reporters Tuesday, "The bar that we set is the highest that any administration in the country has ever set."

No doubt. No doubt. But the key to a good ethics program, Mr. Gibbs, is not setting a high bar. It's knowing whether you're striving to go over it or under it. I'm not sure you guys know which side to be on.

And that's really the most important part.

Alternative explanation: Somewhere in the White House they have installed a wet bar on a pedestal that is higher than any previous wet bar. Perhaps this is what Gibbs meant.