Republican "leadership" at it's finest!

[Gimpy]

If this daughter of the Chief Justice (who led the charge to "select" Gee-Dubya) were a democrat instead of republican there would ALREADY be a "special prosecutor" and she would already be indicted for her unlawful conduct!!-------Oh no, it SURELY is not a case of "undue" influence, is it? Yeah, RIGHT!

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Report Calls Health Department Inspector General a Poor Manager
By ROBERT PEAR


ASHINGTON, June 5 ? In two years as inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services, Janet Rehnquist undermined the independence of the office, showed poor judgment and created "an atmosphere of anxiety and distrust," Congressional investigators say in a new report to be issued this month.

Ms. Rehnquist rejected the findings, which come from a draft report by the General Accounting Office, a nonpartisan investigative arm of Congress. The report, she said, "consists largely of opinions, speculation, hearsay and predetermined conclusions not supported by the weight of the evidence."

Moreover, she said in an interview, the productivity of the inspector general's office improved during her tenure.

Ms. Rehnquist, the daughter of Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, was appointed by President Bush in August 2001 and stepped down on Sunday, after Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, and other members of Congress complained about her management of the office.

The main job of the inspector general is to ferret out fraud and abuse in Medicare and Medicaid, the giant health programs on which the federal government spends more than $400 billion a year. The accounting office said Ms. Rehnquist appeared to be "unduly influenced" by the officials who run those programs.

The report by the accounting office appears to substantiate some of the concerns of Mr. Grassley and other lawmakers.

For example, it says, Ms. Rehnquist apparently bypassed Civil Service procedures in selecting an individual for a top Civil Service position, in possible violation of federal law.

In addition, the report says, Ms. Rehnquist obtained a gun and kept it in her office for a short time even though her authority to possess a firearm was unclear.

The report says Ms. Rehnquist inappropriately obtained credentials that identified her as a law enforcement officer ? a supervisory special agent authorized to carry firearms and make arrests.

Ms. Rehnquist said she needed the credentials so she could enter secure locations in the event of a terrorist attack.

The Justice Department declined to prosecute Ms. Rehnquist for "any possible violations of criminal statutes regarding the possession of a firearm or law enforcement credentials," the report says. But the accounting office said she "exhibited serious lapses in judgment."

Ms. Rehnquist said, "The whole gun incident was a tempest in a teapot."

Several months after taking office, Ms. Rehnquist shook up the staff of her agency and replaced many senior managers, including four deputies with decades of experience. The abrupt personnel changes created "a widespread perception of unfairness" and may have damaged the effectiveness of her agency, the report says.

More than 50 federal agencies have inspectors general. The one at the Department of Health and Human Services has the biggest operation, with 1,600 employees and 85 field offices, and had been viewed as a model for other agencies.

The accounting office said Ms. Rehnquist's actions created doubts about her independence in several cases:

?She delayed an audit at the request of Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida while he was running for re-election last year. The audit eventually found that Florida had overcharged the federal government for the cost of state employees working on federal programs. Ms. Rehnquist said the delay was not related to the election.

?The inspector general sought quick settlement of a case against York Hospital in York, Pa., after three Republican members of Congress urged her to settle it quickly. The hospital paid $270,000 even though government lawyers had estimated its potential liability at $726,000. Ms. Rehnquist said that the government's case was "very weak" and that Medicare's actual loss was less than $200,000.

?Ms. Rehnquist intervened in a dispute over Medicare payment policy after a friend asked her for help. The friend was a lawyer representing two groups of doctors who break up kidney stones with a procedure known as lithotripsy. Ms. Rehnquist's actions "created the impression that she was more interested in helping a friend" than in performing the duties of her office.

?Ms. Rehnquist allowed Medicare officials to delay a "controversial report" that said health maintenance organizations had overcharged the Medicare program. She said the delay reflected her desire for accuracy, not a lack of independence.

The accounting office investigated several trips on which Ms. Rehnquist combined official business with personal activities. "Large blocks of time could not always be accounted for," it said. For example, on an eight-day trip to San Francisco and Phoenix, the only official activities that could be documented were two half-hour speeches.

In some cases, the report said, Ms. Rehnquist included office colleagues in her personal activities, creating "a perception that the business reasons for these trips were a pretext and that the trips were planned solely for nonbusiness purposes."

Ms. Rehnquist said "there were always legitimate business reasons" for her travel. She denied that any trips had been planned around personal events.

In addition, the accounting office found that the amount of money recovered from people accused of filing false claims declined by 47 percent, to $518.7 million in 2002 from $974 million in 2000, even though federal spending on Medicare and Medicaid rose 20 percent in those years.

Despite the decline, Ms. Rehnquist said her office had been "tough on fraud" and aggressively pursued abusive health care providers.

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Yeah, RIGHT!

[1IDVET]

This reeks of a NY Times story.

[blues clues]

her next job will be to the high court when her daddy retires.
razz

[Gimpy]

"REEKS" of --- is the TRUTH!!