AMERICORPS SCANDAL:WHISTLEBLOWER SPEAKS

'BASELESS' CHARGES BY WHITE HOUSE:

"I am now the target of the most powerful man in this country, with an army of aides whose major responsibility today seems to be to attack me and get rid of me."
--Gerald Walpin, inspector general
fired by Obama administration

BLOG REACTION: MEMORANDUM, MOE LANE, PUNDIT & PUNDETTE, NEO-NEOCON, FAUSTA WERTZ, ANN ALTHOUSE, MONIQUE STUART, RED STATE, GATEWAY PUNDIT, VOLOKH CONSPIRACY, QUIN HILLYER, POWER LINE, OBI'S SISTER, HOT AIR, VELOCIMAN

MICHELLE MALKIN: "GOP Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa is pressing Obama for more details. Tough questions need to be asked of First Lady Michelle Obama, who has 'taken the lead' in selecting AmeriCorps’ managers . . . Mrs. Obama ran the AmeriCorps-funded non-profit Public Allies in Chicago from 1993-1996 and served on its national board until 2001 . . . Public Allies was found to have violated basic eligibility and compliance rules." . . . READ MORE

FBI PROBES COVER-UP CHARGE
SACRAMENTO BEE: The FBI's Sacramento division is investigating allegations of obstruction of justice, Acting U.S. Attorney Lawrence G. Brown confirmed . . . READ MORE

AMERICORPS: ACORN CONNECTION
MATTHEW VADUM: AmeriCorps has long been ripe for abuse. ACORN took advantage of the federal agency a decade ago . . . used government resources to promote legislation. A congressional report noted that there was "apparent cross-over funding between ACORN . . . and ACORN Housing Corp. (AHC), a non profit, AmeriCorps grantee" . . . READ MORE

WALL STREET P.M. 06.17.09:DOW OFF 3RD DAY STRAIGHT

DJIA: -7.49 CLOSE 8,497.18
S&P 500 -1.26 CLOSE 910.71
NASDAQ +11.88 CLOSE 1,808.06

TECH STOCKS SCORE GAIN;
FINANCIAL SECTOR SLIDES
CNN/MONEY: NASDAQ gained thanks to a tech rally, but the broader market meandered, with financials sliding after Standard & Poor's cut its outlook on 22 banks . . . READ MORE

'TIME FOR THE ECONOMIC DATA'
WALL STREET JOURNAL: Ryan Detrick, senior technical strategist at Schaeffer's Investment Research: "The market rally has told us 'the recession is ending' . . . Well, now it is time for the economic data to prove this or we could be set for a big fall" . . . READ MORE

OBAMA UNVEILS FINANCIAL PLAN
PRESIDENT OBAMA: "My administration is proposing a sweeping overhaul of the financial regulatory system, a transformation on a scale not seen since the reforms that followed the Great Depression . . . READ MORE

PLAN FACES FIGHT ON CAPITOL HILL
REUTERS: Democratic and Republican lawmakers found fault with at least some of the ideas put forward in the president's proposal . . . . The biggest sticking point may be the role of the Federal Reserve, the U.S. central bank. Obama envisions the Fed overseeing the largest financial firms . . . READ MORE

CONCERNS ABOUT BANK PROFITS
WALL STREET JOURNAL: Bank stocks have been under pressure the last few sessions as the White House has prepared to unveil its plan. Traders have been skeptical that the effort will strike the right balance between curbing excesses . . . while at the same time allowing companies to take aggressive steps to boost profits . . . READ MORE

CNBC: Richard Bove, banking analyst with Rochdale Securities: "These regulations are so sweeping, so comprehensive and so expensive there's no question about the fact that they will lower the profitability of the industry . . . As part of these regulations there's a demand to increase capital almost consistently, which lowers the leverage of the bank and lowers its potential profitability." . . . READ MORE

NO REFORM FOR FANNIE AND FREDDIE
CATO/MARK CALABRIA: Shockingly, the Obama plan makes no mention of those institutions at the very heart of the mortgage market meltdown -- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. . . . Any reform plan that leaves out Fannie and Freddie does not merit being taken seriously. . . . READ MORE

UNDOING REAGAN'S DE-REGULATION
TOWNHALL: The government would impose sweeping new "rules of the road" for the nation's battered financial system under an overhaul proposed Wednesday by President Barack Obama. . . . The changes would begin to reverse a determined campaign pressed in the 1980s by President Ronald Reagan to cut back on federal regulations. . . READ MORE

300 WORDS OR LESS: 06.17.09

Ensign's Disgrace

Scratch the name of Sen. John Ensign from the list of potential 2012 Republican presidential contenders.
That was David Weigel's reaction to the revelation that Ensign had conducted an adulterous affair with a campaign aide, and it's certainly an accurate assessment. In reporting Ensign's admission, The New York Times noted that the Nevada senator had recently visited Iowa, scene of the crucial first caucus, but if he was "testing the waters," it's now unlikely he'll be returning for a swim.
The blogosphere went ballistic at the big scoop -- first reported by the Washington Post's Chris Cillizza -- but Ensign's adultery apparently had not been very hush-hush. Shortly after the story went online, one conservative Twittered that the senator's affair "the worst-kept secret in Washington."
If initial press accounts are accurate, the Ensign marriage had been troubled for some time -- the Post noted that the senator took an unexplained two week "personal" leave in 2002. The senator says his affair lasted eight months, ending in August 2008, during a period when Ensign and his wife were reportedly separated (and while Ensign was chairman of the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee).
Here the story takes an especially ugly turn. The woman with whom the senator dallied was also married -- to one of Ensign's senate aides. And, at least according to the Politico, the woman's husband left the senator's staff in May 2008 with "a severance package" of unknown amount. Later, however, the cuckolded ex-staffer sought additional payment, a demand that reportedly caused Ensign to make his public admission.
Ensign had called Republican colleague Sen. Larry Craig a "disgrace" after Craig's 2007 airport restroom arrest.
If Craig was a "disgrace," what is Ensign?
-- RSM