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A Flood of Scandals Engulfs Obama
The Week ^ | May 14, 2013 | Edward Morrisey

Posted on 05/14/2013 11:15:13 AM PDT by lbryce

From spinning Benghazi to politicizing the IRS to spying on the AP, a raft of embarrassing revelations is crippling the president

President Obama has had a tough week, and it's about to get a lot worse.

The past few days have seen a cascade of evidence that the administration not only feigned transparency, but may have covered up the politicization of the IRS and the response to the terrorist attack on the Benghazi consulate. Whistle-blowers on the Benghazi response moved that story back into the headlines, but not for long. Because on Friday, the IRS admitted that it had targeted conservative groups for aggressive investigations. And that wasn't even the worst of the scandals.

On top of everything, Obama's Department of Justice spied on the AP, and may have found a way to alienate a national press that had done its best to downplay any hint of corruption in this White House.

Let's start with the Benghazi attack and the issue of what the White House knew and when. This scandal has bubbled below the surface for the past few months, but the embarrassing shift more than a week after the attack from the fiction that the attack started as a demonstration over a YouTube video to a belated acknowledgment that it had been a planned terrorist attack — and that there had been no demonstration at all — had not been forgotten on Capitol Hill.

Three State Department career employees finally came forward to tell Congress last week that no one had even suggested to the State Department that a demonstration had taken place. Gregory Hicks, who was the deputy chief of mission in Libya, told the House Oversight panel that he personally briefed Hillary Clinton during the attack, and that no demonstration had taken place, and that the supposedly catalytic YouTube film about Mohammed was a "non-factor" on the ground. Hicks also said that his "jaw dropped" when he heard Susan Rice tell five different Sunday talk shows that the attack started with a spontaneous demonstration at the consulate, directly contradicting what Libya's president was telling U.S. news outlets at the same time.

Eric Nordstrom undercut the White House defense of relying on a rather soft scolding from its Accountability Review Board by accusing the panel of deliberately overlooking the role of senior State Department officials in ignoring a string of urgent requests for more security. That has also happened before, and resulted in attacks on American embassies in 1998. Who was in charge of security issues then? Why, the same man who holds the position today — Under Secretary for Management Patrick Kennedy, Nordstrom pointed out:


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Extended News; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: bho44; bhoscandals; dojphonescandal; obama; obamascandals; scandal; scandals
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To: Species8472

This is a very dangerous time for our country.


Yep. Personally I see the whole world as in a state similar to late August of 1939. Anything could happen. But it won’t happen exactly the same way.


21 posted on 05/14/2013 11:56:46 AM PDT by cuban leaf (Were doomed! Details at eleven.)
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To: saganite

What about Fast and Furious? Wasn’t that a scandal? That would make four. Sure there are others waiting to be discovered.


22 posted on 05/14/2013 11:57:41 AM PDT by luvbach1 (We are finished.)
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Comment #24 Removed by Moderator

To: F15Eagle; All


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25 posted on 05/14/2013 11:59:03 AM PDT by musicman (Until I see the REAL Long Form Vault BC, he's just "PRES__ENT" Obama = Without "ID")
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To: lbryce

DrudgeReport is starting to look as busy as it did during Monicagate.


26 posted on 05/14/2013 12:06:00 PM PDT by nascarnation (Baraq's economic policy: trickle up poverty)
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To: cuban leaf
He resigns. Biden becomes president. Hillary becomes vice president. And Biden chooses not to run in 2016. Leaves us in an interesting situation in 2016, don’t you think?

If Obama's going down, he'll take Hillary with him. He'll throw her under the bus in a desperate attempt to save himself. She'll be too damaged to get the VP spot. I think the Democrat that will benefit the most from this going into 2016 will be John Kerry.

27 posted on 05/14/2013 12:06:01 PM PDT by GreenHornet
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To: lbryce

And best of all, it’s only Tuesday.


28 posted on 05/14/2013 12:09:41 PM PDT by Eric in the Ozarks (NRA Life Member)
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To: GreenHornet
think the Democrat that will benefit the most from this going into 2016 will be John Kerry.

Nah, Kerry's reached his peak of his career, handing of Kabul to the Taliban.

The only one who benefits is Biden and his running mate. I put early money on Deval Patrick, Cory Booker, or that Castro fellow in San Antonio or his brother.

29 posted on 05/14/2013 12:09:43 PM PDT by NeoCaveman (DC, it's Versailles on the Potomac but without the food and culture)
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To: Scotswife

Exactly what I was thinking.


30 posted on 05/14/2013 12:11:07 PM PDT by lbryce (BHO:"Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds by way Oppenheiner at Trinity NM)
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Comment #31 Removed by Moderator

To: cuban leaf

Hillary is not Secretary of State, rather Jean Kerry.


32 posted on 05/14/2013 12:16:34 PM PDT by Chaguito
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To: GreenHornet

I wonder if Chris Christy is thinking of switching parties...

;-)


33 posted on 05/14/2013 12:16:58 PM PDT by cuban leaf (Were doomed! Details at eleven.)
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To: F15Eagle

I would say 1933-1938...


I used to say that. I’m thinking it may not be in the next week, but I doubt it will take more than the middle of next year, when we are heavy into the next election cycle and the rest of the world is melting down at a continuously faster pace.


34 posted on 05/14/2013 12:18:34 PM PDT by cuban leaf (Were doomed! Details at eleven.)
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To: lbryce

35 posted on 05/14/2013 12:23:17 PM PDT by Uncle Miltie (Mandatory BB Guns for 10 Year Old Boys would solve most of America's problems.)
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To: Uncle Miltie

I am sure Obama’s team is working hard to get a war to break out somewhere.


36 posted on 05/14/2013 12:41:48 PM PDT by Phillyred
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To: lbryce
How many "modified limited hangouts" will the Obama administration issue this week?

Let's keep count!

37 posted on 05/14/2013 12:53:07 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum (Islam is a religion of peace, and Moslems reserve the right to detonate anyone who says otherwise.)
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To: luvbach1
What about Fast and Furious? Wasn’t that a scandal? That would make four. Sure there are others waiting to be discovered.

Remind me again what was done with Fast and Furious and who resigned? Oh, wait, never mind. These new scandals will have the same result - Nothing.

38 posted on 05/14/2013 1:15:43 PM PDT by bgill (The problem is...no one is watching the Watch List!)
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To: lbryce

WHAT DOES IT MATTER???


39 posted on 05/14/2013 1:30:27 PM PDT by Teacher317 (Sometimes I've believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast)
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To: Young Werther

My guess, more to come.


40 posted on 05/14/2013 1:30:47 PM PDT by Forward the Light Brigade (Into the Jaws of H*ll)
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