"You better fix this Barack, and fast! I ain't givin' up my vacays!"
Posted on 05/21/2013 5:32:57 PM PDT by rickmichaels
Last week was deemed by various news outlets, including such White House-friendly outlets as The New York Times, Washington Post and ABC, as “Obama’s bad week.” U.S. President Barack Obama was bombarded by scandals — the death last September of four Americans in a terror attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya, the targeting of conservative groups by the U.S. tax department (the IRS) and the seizure of phone records from 20 Associated Press reporters.
Even Time magazine columnist Joe Klein — long a sycophantic Obama apologist — compared the White House’s behaviour on the IRS file as being on the “same page” as the Nixon White House and its infamous enemies list from the Watergate era.
Klein later walked back his charge. “I may have swung a bit too hard,” he wrote on his blog. Still, he originally wrote that, like Nixon, Obama had “violated one of the more sacred rules of (American) democracy” — never use the tax code to punish one’s opponents.
Yet as bad as last week was, this week could be worse.
On Monday, the White House was forced to admit “senior aides to President Barack Obama” had known weeks before the public did — but had said and done nothing — that the IRS was challenging the tax-exempt status of organizations with the words “tea party” or “patriot” in their names, or ones purporting to offer education on the original meanings of the U.S. constitution.
Until Monday, White House press secretary Jay Carney had insisted no one in the White House had known about the IRS allegations until roughly the same day the allegations were made public in mid-May. However, Monday it was revealed that several senior White House officials, including Obama’s Chief of Staff Denis McDonough, were informed last month, or perhaps even earlier.
The White House still maintains Obama was never told until two weeks ago. But who can believe that, now?
Also Monday, it was revealed that Obama’s Justice Department had singled out Fox News journalist James Rosen for special surveillance because of his reporting of leaked information from the State Department. The FBI, on behalf of the administration, claimed in court that Rosen was “at the very least … an aider, abettor and/or co-conspirator” in the leaks. The FBI then amassed a large portfolio on Rosen, including snooping on his personal e-mails.
The Rosen case was from 2009, meaning the Obama administration began acting kind of like the Nixon White House almost immediately after it came to office. From the start, it intended to spy on and bully anyone who stood in its way.
Regardless of what Joe Klein says now, the current White House’s behaviour is very much like the behaviour of Nixon and his closest aides from 1971 through his resignation in 1974 — the cover-ups, the lying, the abuse of power to intimidate opponents, even attempts to blackmail opponents into silence.
The main reason, for instance, that the Obama administration took AP reporters’ call diaries was not to “chill” reporters, but to intimidate sources within the administration and encourage them to keep their mouths shut.
Like Watergate, Obama’s scandals have begun pulling in important people, not just flunkies.
When that happens, crises are hard to control.
If last week was bad for Obama, this week may prove even worse.
lets hope so
is moochelle in heat
I have high hopes!
Make me wanna hurl.
No golf?
Sure starting to look like it.
We can always hope....
Scandals are usually wrapped around criminal behavior.
yeah huh
Joe Klein: When I see his facial “likeness,” it reminds me of my dog taking a dump!
Actually, I hope he has far worse weeks ahead
Had better be!
Watching Florida news media, you’d never know B. Hussein Obama was having a bad week.
>> is moochelle in heat
We’ll find out on Judgment Day. ;-)
Yeah our local news doesn’t even mention it.
If Obama isn’t involved (nobody told him what was going on) he has to be the most disillusioned man in the world.
LOL! Not sure how to respond :-)
Well, he could be waving from the bottom step of Marine Air Force One, so yes, I guess it could be worse.
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