At today's hearing into the IRS targeting of conservative groups, another major revelation came in the testimony of Russell George of the Inspector General's office. Mr. George stated under oath that on June 4, 2012, he told the General Counsel of the Department of the Treasury of the investigation and "shortly thereafter" he also told Neal Wolin, the Deputy Secretary of the Treasury.
As you may know, president Obama has claimed that he had no knowledge of the matter until last Friday when he heard about on the news. Earlier reports disclosed that the Counsel to the President was told about all this three week earlier. It is hard to believe that upon hearing such potentially damaging news, the White House Counsel decided not to tell anyone about it. Indeed, such silence would probably consititute professional malpractice by the president's lawyer. Nevertheless, that notice to the White House Counsel was, until today, the earliest date in a time line concerning when the administration outside the IRS had knowledge. That is no longer the case. We now have testimony that one of the highest ranking members of the Obama administration was told about this about one year ago and fully five months before the election. Indeed, the administration was told months before even the IRS claims that the harrassment of the conservative groups actually ended. Are we now to believe that the Deputy Secretary heard news that could have derailed the entire Obama re-election campaign but he told no one? Are we to believe that David Plouffe and David Axelrod did not get a heads up that this bombshell was coming? Are we to take on faith that no one in the White House itself got any warning? It is the most ridiculous and preposterous idea in the world!
It will probably take a bit longer until the link to the White House comes out, BUT IT WILL. Day after day, this mess is just going to get bigger. The president and his people are being revealed for who they really are.
So what will this mean moving forward? It is hardly likely that Obama will be impeached. Before that could happen, we would need to see proof that he was involved personally in directing the IRS actions or, at a minimum, that he had full knowledge about what was transpiring and made a conscious decision to let it continue. Certainly Benghazi will not bring down Obama. At most he was AWOL during the crisis. That may be negligence, but negligence is not grounds for impeachment. Obama did mislead the country repeatedly about Benghazi, but again, such actions are not grounds for impeachment; he was not under oath. So, I say again, what will this mean moving forward?
Basically, the impact of these scandals should be twofold: 1) the political capital of the White House has been depleted. Obama has been revealed as a) a liar, b) an incompetent, c) a disinterested and passive bystander, d) a man without belief in the basic principles of this country, and e) possibly delusional. His credibility is shot and it will be nearly impossible for him to get it back. There are too many Americans who are just going to tune Obama out completely over the next four years. This will mean that any chance Obama had to get his "agenda" through Congress was just greatly reduced. (I am sorry to use the word "agenda" and Obama in the same sentence since the president seems to have no real agenda other than to campaign and campaign.) 2) The second major consequence of these scandals is that the Democrats will be demoralized and the Republicans and independents energized. We can see this already just by looking at the TV ratings. The entire audience of liberals has disappeared from the cable news networks. They are in hiding. Meanwhile, the conservatives are furious about being targeted and they all want to do something about it. There is still a long time until the 2014 elections, but the possibility of yet another wave election like 2010 is growing.
Hopefully, steps will be taken to get the truth out on Benghazi, to correct the abuses of the IRS, to punish the perpetrators of these outrages, to correct the inadequate security at America's embassies, and all the rest. No matter what, however, these scandals are not going away any time soon.
As you may know, president Obama has claimed that he had no knowledge of the matter until last Friday when he heard about on the news. Earlier reports disclosed that the Counsel to the President was told about all this three week earlier. It is hard to believe that upon hearing such potentially damaging news, the White House Counsel decided not to tell anyone about it. Indeed, such silence would probably consititute professional malpractice by the president's lawyer. Nevertheless, that notice to the White House Counsel was, until today, the earliest date in a time line concerning when the administration outside the IRS had knowledge. That is no longer the case. We now have testimony that one of the highest ranking members of the Obama administration was told about this about one year ago and fully five months before the election. Indeed, the administration was told months before even the IRS claims that the harrassment of the conservative groups actually ended. Are we now to believe that the Deputy Secretary heard news that could have derailed the entire Obama re-election campaign but he told no one? Are we to believe that David Plouffe and David Axelrod did not get a heads up that this bombshell was coming? Are we to take on faith that no one in the White House itself got any warning? It is the most ridiculous and preposterous idea in the world!
It will probably take a bit longer until the link to the White House comes out, BUT IT WILL. Day after day, this mess is just going to get bigger. The president and his people are being revealed for who they really are.
So what will this mean moving forward? It is hardly likely that Obama will be impeached. Before that could happen, we would need to see proof that he was involved personally in directing the IRS actions or, at a minimum, that he had full knowledge about what was transpiring and made a conscious decision to let it continue. Certainly Benghazi will not bring down Obama. At most he was AWOL during the crisis. That may be negligence, but negligence is not grounds for impeachment. Obama did mislead the country repeatedly about Benghazi, but again, such actions are not grounds for impeachment; he was not under oath. So, I say again, what will this mean moving forward?
Basically, the impact of these scandals should be twofold: 1) the political capital of the White House has been depleted. Obama has been revealed as a) a liar, b) an incompetent, c) a disinterested and passive bystander, d) a man without belief in the basic principles of this country, and e) possibly delusional. His credibility is shot and it will be nearly impossible for him to get it back. There are too many Americans who are just going to tune Obama out completely over the next four years. This will mean that any chance Obama had to get his "agenda" through Congress was just greatly reduced. (I am sorry to use the word "agenda" and Obama in the same sentence since the president seems to have no real agenda other than to campaign and campaign.) 2) The second major consequence of these scandals is that the Democrats will be demoralized and the Republicans and independents energized. We can see this already just by looking at the TV ratings. The entire audience of liberals has disappeared from the cable news networks. They are in hiding. Meanwhile, the conservatives are furious about being targeted and they all want to do something about it. There is still a long time until the 2014 elections, but the possibility of yet another wave election like 2010 is growing.
Hopefully, steps will be taken to get the truth out on Benghazi, to correct the abuses of the IRS, to punish the perpetrators of these outrages, to correct the inadequate security at America's embassies, and all the rest. No matter what, however, these scandals are not going away any time soon.
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