By Cernig
From the AP's breaking news ticker at the Guardian (an invaluable resource):
The embattled State Department Inspector General, who has been accused of impeding a Justice Department investigation of Blackwater Worldwide, announced his resignation Friday, saying a poisonous political atmosphere in Washington deters people from careers in public service.
Howard Krongard told President Bush in a letter that he would quit effective Jan. 15. He released a brief public statement that said recent congressional testimony and correspondence gives ample documentation of the reasons for his departure. He listed, in Washington-style bullet points, the dates of his previous statements dealing with conflict-of-interest and other allegations.
``I have nothing further to say at this time,'' he wrote.
Krongard has said he never stood in the way of the Blackwater probe, and he and his lawyer have said he did not know that his brother was a Blackwater adviser. A letter from his lawyer, who has called the situation ``he-said, he-said,'' is one of the documents Krongard lists in his statement.
In his letter to Bush, a frustrated Krongard pointed to what he called structural problems with the way the State Department inspector job is set up.
``Of even greater concern to me is the grave threat to public service posed by the current rancor and distrust,'' in Washington, Krongard said. How many maggoty apples does it take before you call the whole barrel rotten?
TPMmuckraker notes that Krongard proudly wrote in his resignation letter to Bush of setting up the Howard J. Krongard Scholars in the Nation's Service at Princeton University. Just what we need, more maggots with a highly developed sense of entitlement and poorly developed ethics in public service. |
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