OK, it sounds like Chuck Grassley isn’t satisfied with the White House’s explanation for why it fired the AmeriCorps inspector general.
White House ethics lawyer Norm Eisen met personally with the Iowa GOP senator and his staff yesterday morning, to go over the reasons for the firing of the IG, Bush appointee Gerald Walpin. Eisen had first detailed those reasons in a letter to Congress sent Tuesday night.
But in a new letter sent last night to Eisen’s boss, White House counsel Greg Craig, Grassley writes that in that meeting, Eisen “refused to answer several direct questions posed to him about the representations made in his letter.”
Grassley went on to lay out a new list of questions, essentially asking for a step-by-step walk-through of how the decision to fire Walpin was made. For instance, he wants Craig to tell him in writing:
Specifically, which CNCS Board members came forward with concerns about Mr. Walpin’s ability to serve as the Inspector General?
And:
Which witnesses were interviewed in the course of Mr. Eisen’s review?
And:
What efforts were made during Mr. Eisen’s review to obtain both sides of the story or to afford the Office of Inspector General an opportunity to be heard?
As we noted yesterday, Sen. Claire McCaskill, the Missouri Democrat who had earlier raised concerns that the White House hadn’t explained to Congress its reasons for the firing, indicated yesterday that, in light of the White House’s letter, she’s now largely satisfied.
Grassley, not so much. On to the next round…