Kundra Is Back

Jillian Bandes | March 18, 2009 9:55 AM

So did Vivek Kundra take a week long leave of absence because of his past record of theft, because his former subordinate was charged with bribery, or because of something else we don't know about? Nick Shapiro, a White House spokesman, gave an explanation that really doesn't do it for me:

Mr. Kundra has been informed that he is neither a subject nor a target of the investigation, and has been reinstated.

That's in reference to the bribery charges, but where's the mention of the theft? And why did Kundra feel compelled to take a week off? The New York Times said it was because "Mr. Kundra felt his reputation had come under a cloud," but if he had previously disclosed the theft, and if he wasn't connected to the bribery, what's there to feel cloudy about? More importantly, why did he get reinstated yesterday? There's utterly no rhyme or reason to any of it.