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Tom: Well this is happening
all throughout the government currently. Rather than saying, like Bush
did, hey I won, we're doing things my way now, Obama is saying that
since he won, we're going to seek a consensus to all society that
gets as close as possible to the things he campaigned for. The White
House has been our advocate for whistleblower rights, but they won't
push it with agencies in the Executive Branch. At a certain point, the
prez is going to have to lead re: whistleblower rights because the current
law is a fraud that makes a trap out of all his promises to fight abuses
of secrecy. If he waits for the dark side of the bureaucracy to agree
that secrecy is a betrayal of the public trust, well we'll be waiting
for Godot.-
Rob: So we've got Obama trying
to make everyone happy and failing to keep his promises.-
Rob: Well believe me, we need
whistleblower protection. I spoke at a whistleblower meeting a few months
ago and got to meet some whistleblowers. These are people of conscience
who go to their boss and say something, then get the response that it
will be taken care of. Then it's not, so they go to the next level,
and it keeps getting ignored. Finally, they reach a point where they
have to tell the truth b/c it's being ignored. Am I saying that right,
Tom?-
Tom: Absolutely. Most of them
reach the point where they're scared to death b/c they know what's
going to happen to them, but they have to say something b/c they can't
live with themselves.-
Rob: And they have good reason
to be scared, because when whistleblowers go up against big agencies,
they become the enemy and the goal is to destroy their credibility,
reputation and make their lives miserable. So it's really essential
that there be a w.b. protection law, or else these organization will
do whatever they can to crush these people.-
Tom: Well the sad thing is,
the whistleblower law is a trap. Its main impact has been to identify
the people who are threats to the bureaucratic powers-that-be. Up to
a point, you can say Obama is trying to please everyone, but he needs
to do something. Now, this is the first president in 30 years who has
invited whistleblower advocates to the table and said to the bureaucracy,
hey, you have to satisfy these guys, too. Presidents Carter and Clinton
would invite us in after they'd made the decisions and they expected
us to thank them because what they did was good for us""but we didn't
have any voice in it. I think what Obama's trying to do is in good
faith and is very ambitious. But at a certain point, he did win the
election, and it's time for him to implement his policies.-
Rob: Now Tom, you're a lobbyist,
right?-
Tom: Yes, but I also do whatever
it takes for whistleblowers.-
Rob: I'm looking at the Obama
governemtn and I'm not seeing transparency. I'm concerned that the
people who's job it is to be the "bad cop" are working to protect
Obama's executive privileges, and I'm worried that they might be
happy about the way things are going.-
Tom: Well we don't have any
hesitation on blowing the whistle on politicians who betray the public
trust. I don't think it would be fair yet to say that the president
is acting in bad faith.-
Rob: Well it's never going
to be the president, it's going to be one of his junkyard dogs.-
Tom: That's the problem""the
president inherits this government of nearly 2 million people. I don't
know that I have a criticism of the approach that Obama is taking. It's
almost like he's engaged in this draining process to honor his campaign
commitments. When I complained about this, I complained pretty bitterly
to the White House people. They believe that if they get a consensus,
maybe these w.b. rights will finally take root. Maybe they're right,
but either way we need to do something quickly. Whistleblowers won't
defend the public if they can't defend themselves.-
Rob: So what you're saying
is that for the last 30 years, whistleblower protection laws have been
sort of a sham, and whistleblowers need the opportunity to appear before
a jury.-
Tom: You nailed it, Rob. When
whistleblowers get normal access to courts""which is what Obama campaigned
on specifically""then the WPA won't be a trap. But until that happens,
lawyers like us at GAP warn people against filing lawsuits to enforce
their rights. The current reality is that you can spend thousands of
dollars on a hearing, but the odds are 99% that you'll spend all this
money just in order the final nail will be hammered in your professional
coffin.-
Rob: It seems like you almost
have to be a little crazy to be a whistleblower.-
Tom: You're right, and they're
the ones that change the course of history, even if it means a lot of
risk for them.-
