You Can Take the Girl Out of the Chicago Machine But You Can't Take the Chicago Machine Out of the Girl: FLOTUS Role in WalpinGate?

Hmmm.

Congressional investigators looking into the abrupt firing of AmeriCorps inspector general Gerald Walpin have discovered that the head of AmeriCorps met with a top aide to First Lady Michelle Obama the day before Walpin was removed.

According to Republican investigators, Alan Solomont, then the chairman of the Corporation for National and Community Service, which oversees AmeriCorps, had denied meeting with Jackie Norris, at the time the First Lady's chief of staff. But recently-released White House visitor logs show that Solomont met with Norris on June 9 of this year (as well as on two earlier occasions). President Obama fired Walpin on June 10 after an intense dispute over Walpin's aggressive investigation of misuse of AmeriCorps money by Obama political ally Kevin Johnson, the mayor of Sacramento, California.

After being presented with the visitor logs, investigators say, Solomont explained that he met with Norris to discuss Corporation business but did not discuss the Walpin matter. When pressed, Solomont said he might have made an offhand comment, or a mention in passing, about the Walpin affair, but that he and Norris did not have a discussion about it.

What?

There's a line in Glengarry Glen Ross when Ed Harris is pitching the idea of burglarizing the office to an alarmed Alan Arkin.

Alan Arkin asks, worried, "Are we discussing this?"

Harris replies, "No, we're not discussing this, we're just talking about it."

Or something like that.

posted by Ace at 02:56 PM

| Access Comments