I remember the day that Inspector General Walpin announced the charges against St. Hope Academy, and then Sacramento Mayoral Candidate Kevin Johnson.

Has President Obama has terminated an Inspector General over political loyalty?

I also remember the morning phone conversion I had with Johnson’s campaign spokesman Steve Maviglio, charging that Walpin was nothing more than a “Republican hack”…who was out to get Johnson, and that “Walpin needed to be exposed” as such.

Maviglio then asked me, “Hogue, have you seen his website, it is nothing but pure politics, he is a Republican operating under his own ideology.”

I called Maviglio on his campaign cell phone. I had been in contact with the campaign since Johnson announced his intentions. Early in the campaign I told Maviglio that I was supportive of Johnson’s run, he was a Democrat, but worthy of my support due to his great work with St. Hope and Sac High; and standing up against the teacher’s union over the previous 5-years. 

Allow me to be straight-forward here; Mayor Kevin Johnson is a friend, and a regular guest on my show. I have worked with him in the past against the CTA of California in establishing the Charter School called Sacramento High School; a high school that was set for closure until Johnson’s St. Hope Academy grabbed it and brought it back to life in the Capitol City. Kevin Johnson has done great things for his hometown, and he deserves the opportunity he has been given as Mayor of Sacramento.

That aside, I cannot forget the immediate reply the day I called and asked about the results of the federal investigation into St. Hope Academy and the misuse of federal dollars. From the first moment of my questioning, the reply was, “this is nothing more than a Republican Inspector out-of-control, in due time he’ll be exposed. Kevin has done nothing wrong, and if there are some mistakes – he will address them, but Walpin is playing politics with his position, and it has to be stopped.”

The campaign was targeting Walpin, as the IG had found over $850,000 misused. From the first call, it was always about Walpin, and his agenda. Now that he is fired, I am left wondering about President Obama’s motives, and his proof that Walpin was “not doing his job.

I find it peculiar that IG Walpin has been fired for finding evidence of misused federal dollars.

How does an inspector succeed, and then get terminated for doing so? The comment made by Maviglio during the mayoral campaign ring loud in my head today; Did President Obama fire an inspector general due to simply, political ideology? If so, this is against the law, and President Obama needs to be investigated.

Let’s start here; was there reason to fire IG Walprin?

Jimmy carter created the Inspectors general in 1979. President Carter and Congress established a 10-year term to avoid political intimidation. Now we have Obama firing Walpin “overnight”, and to many – without reason.

Folks, he did find Federal Grant Money being misused, and it was paid back (half, in a deal) by Mayor Kevin Johnson. This is an unexplained, undocumented and confusing termination – not to mention ‘illegal’; it cannot happen until a review and thirty days.

Was Kevin Johnson the reason for Walpin’s termination? Did Obama enact revenge upon Walpin because of his investigate of Mayor Kevin Johnson?

Maybe the media should start by asking President Jimmy Carter what he thinks? And then we can have an investigation into Walpin, as well as Obama, to see who is really manipulating their office with abusive, illegal, political powers.

Time for an investigation into the firing of Inspector General Walpin.

UPDATE… The Washington Examiner

Since January of this year, the office has been headed by an acting U.S. attorney, Lawrence Brown, a career prosecutor who took over after the departure of the previous, Bush-appointed U.S. attorney.  The office decided not to pursue criminal charges against Johnson, but also entered into settlement talks with Johnson and St. HOPE.  What resulted was, according to Walpin, highly unusual.

Settlement talks would normally cover the issue of whether Johnson would be required to give the misused federal funds back to the government.  But amid the frenzy surrounding the possible denial of federal stimulus funds, Brown wanted to negotiate not only some sort of repayment scheme but also an end to Johnson’s suspension.  Walpin learned about that during a March telephone conversation with Brown.  “He said he wanted to settle,” Walpin recalls, “and he said that lifting the suspension had to be part of it because that was the 800-pound gorilla in the way of a settlement.”

Walpin was adamantly opposed to a lifting of the suspension; after all, he had recommended that Johnson not only be suspended but be barred for receiving future federal funds.  Walpin says that after that, he was cut out of the settlement talks; Brown worked directly with top officials of the Corporation, who seemed eager to work out a deal in a case involving a high-profile Obama supporter and lots of stimulus money. 

NOTE: (The Corporation is now headed by Alan Solomont, a philanthropist and Democratic fundraiser appointed by President Obama.)