Is Claire Playing The "Moderate" Again?

Claire McCaskill has been in the news again, this time for what is being termed as a surprising rebuke of the Obama administration for firing Inspector General Gerald Walpin.  Walpin has been tasked with looking into Americorps specifically the mayor of Sacramento, Kevin Johnson, and his misuse of federal dollars to do things like wash his car.

Johnson is a big supporter of Obama, but then again, so is Senator McCaskill, who is even referred to as a "key ally."  McCaskill sent a letter to the Administration, stating that the reasons given for Walpin's firing were not sufficient.  This was hailed as a maverick senator from the state of Missouri bucking the liberal establishment, proving once again how she's not like those crazed liberals - she's a moderate Missourian.

It was a good story while it lasted.

In response to a Tweet from Dave Catanese:

@clairecmc Does the WH letter re: IG firing answer your concerns about the legality?

 Claire had these three tweets in response.

Prior to letter delivered yesterday the WH had not followed the right procedure under the law. That letter did follow the law's requiremnts.
about 10 hours ago from web

Strong substantive reasons stated for the IG Walpin's removal yesterday. Request for invest into his conduct came from R appointed US atty.
about 10 hours ago from web

@davecatanese The letter from the White House late yesterday is certainly compliance with the law as to reason for removal.

This matters because Senator McCaskill wrote the bill, and Barack Obama was a co-sponsor, that required the White House to follow a set of rules in firing Inspector Generals.  So in these tweets, McCaskill goes from brave defender of the law and our taxmoney to an Al Gore Like, "the letter is certainly compliance with the law."

Gateway Pundit has the lowdown on this, including the remarks from the White House that Walpin was "confused and disoriented," followed by complaints about his telecommuting and finally with vague complaints about not getting along with others and finally not being truthful.  Note they lead with he's crazy, then complain about him not being in the office, then come up with other non-specific reasons.

Senator McCaskill got a lot of good press from the Post-Dispatch about her role as an auditor, and working with IG's, but less than 24 hours later, she's backing off and saying that this was a paperwork matter, and she was not rebuking the White House for covering for a supporter with allegations of corruption.  They just didn't write a stern enough letter.

I have stronger words I choose not to use, but this is another example of Senator McCaskill pretending to be independent.  She will use this episode to claim she's stood up to Obama in 2012.