WASHINGTON, DC - APRIL 16: Jeff Neely, regional commissioner for the General Services Administration's Public Buildings Service Pacific Rim Region takes the 5th Amendment and refuses to testify before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on Capitol Hill April 16, 2012 in Washington, DC. Neely was was in charge of a 2010 Las Vegas convention for 300 people where the agency spent about $823,000. (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)
We’ve all got our panties up in a bunch over the waste of tax dollars by the General Services Administration in a lavish Las Vegas conference, and it has started to result in resignations. That’s only over wasted tax payer money, though. In the Department of Justice’s failed “Fast and Furious” operation, guns went over the border to Mexican drug lords and killed a US agent. Why aren’t we seeing resignations there?
Booze, Bikes, and Bust at Tax Payer Expense in Las Vegas
GSA chief Martha Johnson acknowledged a “significant misstep,” and admitted that taxpayer dollars were “squandered” during the October 2010 training conference in Las Vegas. Among the items on the tab paid for by the government were a reception billed at $31,208, $6,300 in “commemorative coin sets,” $3,200 for a “mind reader,” and a stunning $75,000 for a training exercise to build a bicycle.
That’s right. $75,000 to build a bicycle. I hope that bicycle is made of solid gold.
The outrage, which was spelled out all over the faces of indigent congressmen yesterday on Capitol Hill, has resulted in the resignation of the chief of GSA and two aides (one of which billed nearly $2,000 to their room during the conference).
As if it might calm the tempest, Jeff Neely, the guy who organized the debacle conference, sat silent as congressman after congressman grilled him during an oversight hearing. Blame it on the fifth amendment:
Jeff Neely, the GSA official who organized a lavish 2010 conference for the agency, sat motionless–save for several eyebrow raises–as ranking House Oversight Committee chairman Elijah Cummings (D-M.D.) accused him, a regional commissioner, and his wife of having “used taxpayer funds to bankroll a lavish lifestyle.” The grilling occurred in front of a national audience at the first of at least four hearings this week on the conference scandal.
And when it came time for Neely to apologize or defend himself, he only uttered one phrase.
What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.
“Mr. Chairman, on the advice of my counsel, I respectfully decline to answer based upon my Fifth Amendment constitutional privileges,” Neely repeatedly responded Monday
Nice. Nothing says “I respect the American tax payer and the oversight responsibility of Congress” like refusing to testify.
When asked by Rep. Jason Chaffetz why they all received bonuses when there was a pay freeze, GSA official Martha Johnson, who has resigned over the Vegas splurge, found herself in the crosshairs:
“The senior executives were entitled to bonuses under our — we’re entitled to bonuses. I don’t believe the pay freeze affected those bonuses,” Johnson responded.
Rep. Chaffetz chewed out Johnson for using the word “entitled” to justify the bonuses senior GSA officials received during the so-called “pay freeze” under President Obama’s watch. Johnson attempted to take it back but that did not stop Chaffetz from lambasting her.
“Oh, I think you did mean entitled. I think that is the fundamental problem that America gets and that government doesn’t get. There are a lot of good federal employees that work hard. They’re patriotic and they’re frugal with their money. But when you see this widespread abuse of money and then you, as the former administrator, says, ‘Well, they’re entitled to it.’ That’s where there is frustration just steaming out of our ears,” Chaffetz said.
“It is totally unacceptable and for the President of the United States to look the American people in the eye and say, ‘Well we have a pay freeze in place,’ while you’re getting bonuses and going on trips is totally unacceptable,” Chaffetz finished.
Catch video of the exchange here.
In any case, resignations are happening, and perhaps more will follow.
Et, tu, Fast and Furious?
Meanwhile, remember Operation: Fast and Furious? The ATF operation involved the systematic transfer of as many as 2,000 firearms from the United States federal government to the hands of Mexican drug cartels and resulted in the death of ATF agent Brian Terry in December 2010 by one of those guns has yet to result in the resignation of the main official responsible.
Namely, we’re talking about Attorney General Eric Holder who’s agency ran the operation and who has yet to fire anyone for the fiasco. To date, his resignation has been called for by one hundred twenty-four congressmen, three senators, two governors, and one presidential candidate (obviously, not Barack Obama…the other one). Even the Director of the ATF, Kenneth Melson, was only reassigned.
Interestingly, there are signs that the White House is blocking Congress’ investigation into Fast and Furious. Utah’s Rep. Jason Chaffetz has told reporters that former NSA staffer Kevin O’Reilly’s “personal attorney indicated that he’s more than willing to talk to the committee, on the record, under oath.” However, “[i]t is only the White House and the White House Counsel that is saying they will not make him available.”
In other words, they won’t let the witness testify.
What’s the lesson? You can endanger Americans, put guns into the hands of Mexican drug lords, and allow American agents to die, and still keep your job, but you can’t waste tax dollars.
Both are wrong, and both are messed up. Worse, guys like Jeff Neely are blowing off responsibility while Eric Holder is playing a game of dodge and weave. Perhaps, the worst aspect is what it says about President Obama. Neither of these people would stay in office if the President did not continue to offer them his full support.
Yet in office they still remain…
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Related articles
- What Happens in Vegas, Stays In Vegas: GSA Official Invokes Right To Remain Silent in Congressional Hearing (jonathanturley.org)
- GSA Official Pleads the Fifth in Conference Scandal (theepochtimes.com)
- GSA chief tight-lipped over loose pocketbook (ajc.com)
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If Obama requested their resignation, they he would connect himself to the events in question. By the circuitous logic of inside the Beltway, if he doesn’t connect himself to the “events”, he remains somehow untainted.
I hope the public is smarter than that, but OTOH, I’m not so sure.
Yeah. I think it’s going to take a lot of events and scandals to add up to the final judgement on the part of the public that perhaps the buck should stop somewhere. I doubt we’ll have a Watergate type event that we can point to, but a sum of all the parts might demonstrate how lacking this administration is in keeping the public trust.