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WASHINGTON (AP) -- NASA's top watchdog routinely tipped off department officials to internal investigations and quashed a report related to the Columbia shuttle explosion to avoid embarrassing the agency, investigators say.

Cronyism? In Bush appointees? Nah, never heard of such a thing.

NASA administrator Michael Griffin has proposed sending Cobb to leadership training and requiring that he meet regularly with department officials on how to improve, but that is not enough, said Integrity Committee Chairman James Burrus.

''All members of the committee believe that disciplinary action, up to and including removal, could be appropriate,'' he said in a previously unreleased report that also accused Cobb of abusing authority to create an ''abusive work environment.''

If there's one thing that American's can count on it's that our president appoints like-minded individuals into to posts that demand accountability.

Internal e-mails and documents made available Thursday paint a picture of Cobb as an IG more concerned with preserving cozy relationships than maintaining independence in the agency he is charged with overseeing.

Of course it means that honesty and integrity aren't exactly qualities that are in demand are they, but then again people like that would hardly fit into the current administration now would they...?

Only President Bush can dismiss Cobb, a former White House aide and 1986 law graduate whom Bush selected as NASA's IG in 2002. The White House has said it is satisfied with NASA's plans to require leadership training for Cobb, who once was an adviser on ethics to then-White House counsel Alberto Gonzales, now the attorney general.