The chairman of AmeriCorps, Alan Solomont, another supporter of President Obama, who bundled more than $800,000 for the president’s campaign and his inauguration, is also upset at Walpin. The IG recently issued another report critical of AmeriCorps’s largest grant program, which has sent $80 million to the City University of New York. The meeting at which the IG was supposedly “disoriented” was the one where he was chastising Solomont and the board of CNCS for not exercising proper oversight over AmeriCorps grants.

To review: Walpin discovered taxpayer funds being misused by a political supporter of the president, questioned the validity of another large program funded with AmeriCorps dollars, and criticized the oversight of the CNCS board, which is chaired by one of the president’s largest contributors. The president then, without a meaningful explanation or other justification, fired Walpin.

		Steyn: The Superbower Blase: A Medicaid Buy-Off Sanders: Blanche Lincoln’s Balancing Act Costa: Saturday Night Fever Miller: The Man Who Would Kill Lincoln Hibbs: Just Bite Her Already Goldberg: We Need Your Help Spruiell: Welcome to the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy Editors: End It, Don’t Amend It Goldberg: Palinophobes Hate First, Ask Questions Later Murdock: Medicare: A Glimpse of the Future? Krauthammer: Travesty in New York Charen: Holder’s True Motive Lowry: Barack Obama’s Chump Diplomacy Spakovsky: Criminalizing Health-Care Freedom Anderson: Roadmap to Victory

Under such circumstances, the summary termination of an IG appears to any reasonable observer to be political revenge at best — and possibly worse, if it’s intended to prevent further investigation, cover up wrongdoing, or signal other would-be investigators to watch their backs. As is true with the Justice Department’s unexplained dismissal of the suit it had won against the New Black Panther Party for voter intimidation in Philadelphia, the administration’s silence is telling.

If a conservative were in the White House, this story would receive front-page coverage, with commentators and congressmen alike arguing that the White House’s actions amount to an admission of highly unethical conduct. Somehow we don’t think this kind of behavior is the “change” in Washington that voters were expecting. But we remain hopeful that the mainstream media will finally wake up and start holding Obama accountable for some of his questionable actions.

— Hans A. von Spakovsky is a legal scholar at the Heritage Foundation and a former commissioner on the Federal Election Commission. Todd Gaziano is the director of the Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at the Heritage Foundation.

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