Obama Administration Under Siege From 3 Huge Scandals: Here’s Why It Could All Come Crashing Down
In just one week, President Barack
Obama’s political machine has switched from endless campaign to survival
mode. And for the first time in Obama’s presidency, the damage to his
regime may be permanent.
Three revelations have come together like an avalanche. First, there was a Benghazi hearing
that proved beyond any reasonable doubt that this administration is
feckless, dishonest, and cravenly politicized. But in its aftermath on
Friday, an executive branch information dump dropped another bombshell:
the IRS does indeed target and intimidate conservative groups.
This appalling admission from a senior
IRS official was obviously meant to slide into the news cycle and
dissipate over the weekend. This unseemly public relations gambit has
become a hallmark of the Obama approach to all issues, regardless of
their importance to the nation. Deny or delay, spin and win.
And, to the discredit of our electorate, it has worked—until perhaps now.
As the country was still reeling from
the gut-wrenching testimony of three Benghazi whistleblowers and the IRS
mea culpa, yet another log was thrown onto the bonfire of the Obama
administration’s credibility. Yesterday the Associated Press broke a
news story that Obama’s Justice Department collected phone data on dozens of AP reporters as part of a national security leak investigation.
Such sweeping intrusion upon a news
organization’s privacy—exposing all its sources and chilling all speech
in the process—makes a mockery of the Constitution’s guarantee of not
“abridging the freedom of speech.” We can now add the First Amendment to
the butcher’s bill of Obama administration overreach and nascent
autocracy.
These three scandals have encircled the
Obama administration. They threaten to turn the President’s second term
into an ongoing partisan dogfight as the GOP pushes for answers that
could trigger investigations, resignations—yes, possibly even
impeachment, depending on what is found.
Here’s a brief rundown of the current debacles facing Obama:
1) IRS as a Political Weapon
The IRS singled out and harassed
conservative political groups, including during the election year of
2012. The mere mention of the IRS understandably sends a jolt of anxiety
through most Americans, so the implications of this conduct for Tea
Party and other conservative groups are obvious. This was the worst kind
of dirty politics, and an affront to even the most basic trust in
government.
While the IRS admitted this egregious
conduct, already there have been lies peddled about the depth and scope
of this malfeasance. At first we were told that the breaches were
limited to low-level civil servants in a few field offices. But that was
also false, as we now know Washington DC-based IRS officials were
involved too.
The familiar script from Obama and his
phalanx of public relations protectors in the White House—that the IRS
abuses are not political, and only those who want answers have any
political motivations—sounds increasingly obtuse, and pathetic. All the
obfuscation on these issues come from the same direction, and benefit
the same side of the political aisle.
And ultimately, incompetence and
ignorance are poor excuses for a chief executive. The president can only
claim he didn’t know what his agencies were up to so many times before
someone asks the President that all important question– what would you
say, you do here?
2) Frontal Assault on the First Amendment
If a free press is the foundation upon
which representative government is built, the Obama administration has
allowed the Department of Justice to take a sledgehammer to it. The
wholesale investigation of a major news outlet like the Associated Press
undermines the intent and spirit of laws meant to promote the discourse
necessary for democracy.
And this sets a very dangerous
precedent. Unknown to much of the public, there is no special exception
for the media to publish classified government information, nor are
there hard-and-fast statutory constraints on calling members of the
press to divulge their sources under pressure of subpoena. If Obama’s
DOJ can do this once, there is no reason they can’t make it standard
operating procedure. That would mean bye-bye, fourth estate.
Until now, the federal government has
been generally aware of the tension that exists between national
security and the First Amendment. Not this administration. Leakers, at
least the ones not authorized from the White House itself, are punished
severely.
At this early stage, it seems likely
the Obama administration recognized that, despite its loud proclamations
of outrage, no arrests have been made over the string of national
security leaks over the past two years. In order to make it look like
they take all leaks seriously, and to send a message to any prospective
whistleblowers, Obama officials probably decided to go all in after one
unauthorized leaker without the benefit of White House connections. That
frenzied effort may have led to the unprecedented, secret seizure of
Associated Press records.
3) Benghazi Lies Laid Bare
While the audacity of
hyper-partisanship from Obama is jarring, it’s not shocking. So much
about this administration, and for so long, has been venal, petty, and
undignified. The most recent iteration of the Benghazi hearings
solidified those feelings and left even the most ardent administration
supporter defending the indefensible. But many questions remain:
Who made up the story about the
YouTube video? Was Hillary Clinton incapable of calling her own
employees to find out what happened? Where was President Obama during
the 8-hour attack? What is being done to bring the attackers to justice?
These are just some of the unknowns that require continued
investigation despite the administration’s efforts at stonewalling.
It’s impossible to tell at this point
what the consequences of these scandals will be for the Obama
administration. To be sure, more information on the IRS targeting, DOJ
snooping on journalists, and Benghazi is certain to come out. And while
it will be damning overall, we can’t yet tell whether the sum total will
be an ironclad implication of President Obama or his cabinet.
But if this administration can get
away with using federal agencies to stifle political dissent, harassing
and spying on journalists, and lying about the origins, actions, and
aftermath of a terrorist attack, America is no longer worthy of the
Constitution left to us by the Founders.
It’s time for answers and accountability. The dignity and future of the Republic hangs in the balance.
No comments:
Post a Comment