Friday, May 10, 2013

Republicans (finally) Have a Real Scandal

After four years of desperately looking for a scandal to pin on the Obama Administration, the GOP appears to have just been handed the real deal. No, I am not talking about Benghazi. As scandals go that one is fairly garden variety. Basically it was the keystone cops running crisis management and then they tried to cover up their incompetence. Lots of knavery but I don't see anything criminal.

Not so today's announcement by the IRS that they targeted conservative political groups in 2010 and 2012 for special scrutiny. That's not just unethical, its illegal. And not just in the administrative sense. This could (big word there) be a major scandal involving the politically motivated use of one of the most powerful law enforcement agencies in the country against the opposition party.

That's bad news for Obama. Worse, I don't see anyway he can order an in house investigation that would not be stripped of all credibility from its inception. The best thing he could do, and frankly the only thing he should do, is to call up Speaker Boehner and Minority Leader McConnell and ask them for the name of someone he could appoint as an independent council with full prosecutorial authority and a mandate to go wherever the evidence takes him/her..

7 comments:

Nikolaus said...

I'm not sure I would agree, but then to each his own. From my perspective Watergate was more of a garden variety scandal. Before Watergate (and especially before current technological abilities) Kennedy & especially Johnson are rumored to have done worse. It's true that "Fast & Furious" fell flat. "Benghazi" is only now getting any traction...after securing Obama's reelection. All I can say about "IRSgate" is that it seems curious. Just as conservatives have been maligned by the biased press, conservative groups have complained about IRS treatment for at least several years. This announcement by the IRS seems to be out of the blue. Did I miss something (very possible)? Why now? The spin from Obama seems over done. Even the most convinced liberals must be tired of the Presidents lame attempts to drag Bush into things. If not they are more stupid than I think they are.

But back to the key issue: is this a scandal? Clearly scandals do not rise or fall on their own merits. They need to be consecrated by the MSM. The real question is whether "journalists" like Matthews, Maddow & Colbert are tired of turning tricks for their john. Do Dan Rather and Candi Crowley realize how they have debased themselves and their profession? If that happens, then we can look at facts and determine if there is a scandal.

lannes said...

do you think "scandals" MATTER to Romney's 47 percenters so long as they continue to receive their government handouts?

lannes said...

the Republicans don't have to look far...remember Congressman Weiner?are

Ochlophobist said...

Oh good grief -

http://www.forbes.com/sites/rickungar/2013/05/10/no-dirty-politics-in-irs-investigations-of-tea-party/

I, for one, think that the IRS should be mandated to spend more time accessing groups who openly agitate regarding the supposed evils of taxation. It seems a rather obvious thing to do.

lannes said...

here is someone who loves liberalism, loves taxes, and above all loves his can-do-no-wrong government.

Ochlophobist said...

Yeah, That's me.

Visibilium said...

Owen, dream on. Agitating about the evils of taxation is as American as NASCAR and corn liquor. Tax avoidance is baked into the Internal Revenue Code. Even the Alternative Minimum Tax, which was implemented to stick it to the high rollers, ends up giving a lower marginal rate to the highest of high rollers. At that income level, it pays to generate as much taxable wealth accretion as possible. As I'm writing this, I'm getting all tingly inside.