After being briefed today on President Obama’s firing last week of Gerald Walpin, Inspector General of the Corporation for National and Community Service, Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., said the president did not abide by the same law that he co-sponsored – and she wrote – about firing Inspectors General.
“The White House has failed to follow the proper procedure in notifying Congress as to the removal of the Inspector General for the Corporation for National and Community Service,” McCaskill said. “The legislation which was passed last year requires that the president give a reason for the removal.”
McCaskill, a key Obama ally, said that the president’s stated reason for the termination, “Loss of confidence’ is not a sufficient reason.”
In other Obama news it seems that rural Democrats are talking in terms of a revolt against Obama's agenda.
Angered by White House decisions on everything from greenhouse gases to car dealerships, congressional Democrats from rural districts are threatening to revolt against parts of President Barack Obama’s ambitious first-year agenda.
“They don’t get rural America,” said Rep. Dennis Cardoza, a Democrat who represents California’s agriculture-rich Central Valley. “They form their views of the world in large cities.”
Cardoza’s critique was aimed at Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency, but it echoes complaints rural-district Democrats have about a number of Obama administration decisions.
“I wouldn’t say it’s a complete strikeout, but they’ve just got a few more bases to it when it comes to the rural community,” said Louisiana Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu.
A rural revolt could hamper the administration’s ability to pass climate change and health care legislation before the August recess.
Morrissey at Hot Air summarizes concisely in one paragraph:
Now that Obama has opened the floodgates — and Treasury — to every sort of nationalization, Blue Dogs suddenly feel very, very vulnerable … and they should. Rural and exurban voters who depended on car dealerships, as an example, for industry and employment suddenly face the threat of localized depressions. Farmers now face the threat of insolvency due to restrictive agricultural policies under cap-and-trade. These same resources helped elect the Democrats in the first place, and even without counting the anger that disillusion creates in elections, those resources will not exist in 2010.
Obama wined them and dined them, then after being elected, flipped them off, counting on party leadership to keep them in line.
Not going to be that easy, when their political survival counts on their ability to keep their constituents happy, not Obama.
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