Inspector Clouseau Squared

"Bloch has yet to announce a single case where he has ordered an investigation into the employee's charges", PEER charges. The organization says, "in not one of these cases did Bloch's office affirmatively represent a whistleblower to obtain relief before the civil service court system", called the Merit Systems Protection Board.

The OPM Inspector General’s investigation is the third probe into Bloch’s operation. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) and a U.S. Senate subcommittee both conducted investigations into mass dismissal of hundreds of whistleblower cases, and Bloch’s targeting of gay employees for removal while refusing to investigate cases involving discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

What’s the take-away from this bizarre mutual investigation society? It’s clear that Bloch was just another of the President’s misguided appointments. He totally failed to fulfill the mission of his agency. If that was all, maybe we’d just be having another “Heckuva Job, Brownie” moment and Bloch would have disappeared back into the mediocracy, joining a long line of Bushies who have failed to do their jobs.

But Bloch apparently refused to go quietly. Instead, he launched his own investigation of the investigators. There is no other way to explain this move than political blackmail. Scott Bloch was threatening to expose questionable – perhaps illegal -- White House conduct to force them to back off its investigation of him.

Clearly, he needs to go – and the sooner the better.

But shouldn’t someone else be continuing the investigation of the White House he started. Who? The Attorney General? Not likely. And so far, Congressional Democrats have been stonewalled by claims of executive privilege.

Don’t look for this contretemps to become a big issue in the presidential campaign – it’s too far down in the weeds, and doesn’t lend itself to a bumper sticker.

Chances are it will end only with a Democratic victory in November. In which case, the investigations, the subpoenas, the Congressional hearings will, like the old soldier, simply fade away.  

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