Quote of the day: Bye-bye, Cookie! Things just won't be the same at the State Dept.! Good luck with the I.G. thing in Amman, and say hi to Buzzy!

"Although his tenure has been defined by a myriad of poor decisions, Inspector General Howard Krongard is finally demonstrating sound judgment through his decision to step down," said Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md. [right], who raised the issue of Krongard's brother during the hearing.
--from the AP account of the resignation of Howard "Cookie" Krongard as State Department inspector general (if you don't remember "the hearing" that involved Cookie's brother, see below)

From India Howie has already noted the resignation as State Department inspector general of Howard "Cookie" Krongard. Even by the humble investigative standards of the Bush regime ("Investigatin'? We don't do no stinkin' investigatin'!"), Cookie--the State's I.G. since 2005--was an underachiever. By the time this fall when un- or under-investigated scandals, in particular in the Middle East, started exploding all over poor Sec'y Condi Rice's face, it began to appear that this Cookie might soon be crumbling.

People in the State Department who had to deal with Cookie complained that he was "abrasive," and while abrasive can be a good thing in an investigator, somehow we don't think a Bush-regime inspector general is likely to have been that kind of abrasive. The people who complained about Cookie's abrasiveness also complained that he didn't understand his duties as I.G.

So now we won't have Cookie to kick around anymore. At least as of Jan. 15. Admirers of the job he's done rooting out departmental corruption in the Middle East will be happy to know that he's staying on to complete the establishment of a new I.G. bureau in Amman, Jordan--to forge ahead with the job he, er, doesn't seem to have been doing so much.

Back in September, ABC News's Justin Rood reported:

The State Department's chief internal watchdog has "partisan political ties," which have led him to improperly interfere with his office's work and obscure fraud allegations and security issues which might embarrass the White House, according to allegations received by a House Democratic chairman.

Some subordinates believe that State Inspector General Howard Krongard's "foremost mission" is "to support the Bush administration," wrote Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., chair of the Government Reform and Oversight Committee, in a letter to Krongard released Thursday.

On a more personal note, we hope Cookie will have time to patch things up with his brother Buzzy, from whom he is said to be estranged. If you've got the DVD of Great Moments in Congressional Committee Hearings, you've probably already memorized that exchange-for-the-ages when Cookie first denied that his brother Buzzy was affiliated with Blackwater, then during a break spoke to him by phone, and had to tell the committee that gosh, oops, it was true! (Buzzy insisted that Cookie knew all along. He nevertheless quit his position on the Blackwater advisory board.)

Pressed to account for the, er, discrepancy, Cookie explained, "I'm not my brother's keeper." Boys, boys, can't we all get along? Kick back, have a few beers, and think about all those hilarious Blackwater shenanigans.

#