President Obama promised the fundamental transformation of America. It is clear now that Obama has succeeded in at least one part of that task: he has fundamentally transformed the way that our government functions. The federal government has always been slow, wasteful and mostly non-responsive. That has not changed. No, what Obama has transformed is the idea that the government had to obey the law. Under Obama's leadership, our federal government has come to believe that the laws of the land are just suggestions which can be followed if they will not interfere with government activities, but otherwise can be ignored.
The latest indication of this attitude of being above the law came this morning when news broke that high officials all across the Obama administration are using secret email accounts under phony names to communicate with each other. That may not sound like much, but it is contrary to the requirements of federal law that all communications must be preserved and nearly all must be available to the public under the Freedom of Information Act. Think about it. If you were a White House official who wanted to direct the IRS to target conservatives, you would not want to send an email from an account with your name on it. Instead, you would send that email from your secret account to the secret account of the Secretary of the Treasury or the Commissioner of the IRS. That trail would be extremely hard for investigators to find some day.
Another indication of lawlessness comes right from the Department of Justice, which is supposedly in charge of enforcing, rather than ignoring the law. Federal law is clear that attorneys who make submissions to a federal court are required to speak the truth. Facts can be stretched; after all, we are dealing with attorneys. Facts cannot be falsified, however. But DOJ has proudly announced that just that was done with the specific approval of the Attorney General in the matter of the investigation of Fox News reporter, James Rosen. DOJ submitted papers in which the court was told, under oath, that Rosen had likely violated the Espionage Act, had potential criminal liability, and was likely to flee if he learned of the investigation. Therefore, DOJ continued, it had to get secret access to Rosen's email, phone records and the like to further the investigation. Meanwhile, DOJ tells us that it never had any intent to prosecute Rosen. So why would Rosen flee -- was it to avoid not being prosecuted?
Of course, the explanation from DOJ only came out because Eric Holder told Congress that he had never considered or even heard of a potential prosecution of a reporter. If that was untrue, then Holder is guilty of perjury. Obviously, what DOJ told the court, as described above, is potential prosecution of James Rosen, and Holder himself approved of the submission. Rather than correcting the record, however, Holder has DOJ providing the defense that the submission to the court was phony; there was no intent to prosecute Rosen. Either way, the DOJ is ignoring the law.
And how about Benghazi? Obama and his people lied to America for weeks by telling us that a youtube video was responsible for the death of the Ambassador and three others. Not true! We cannot even find out the most basic facts about what happened in Libya. We just get a stonewall.
Then, of course, there is the biggest bit of lawlessness of all: the IRS. Someone in Washington directed the IRS to start attacking conservative groups and individuals, Jewish groups that supported Israel, Chistian ministries that were pro-life, among others. Americans were targeted by their government simply because of their political beliefs. This is a violation of the most fundamental laws of our country. It is intolerable. And what is the response from the president? Obama tells us the he just did not know. His Chief of Staff in the White House, his attorney, members of his cabinet and the head of the IRS knew, but, hey, Obama did not know. That really is Obama's defense. I can't wait for the speech where he solemnly tells us "They kept me in the dark!"
These scandals keep getting worse and worse. More important, the scandal reveal a government that no longer responds to the law. Obama has brought into the government people who think that anything that advances their political agenda is allowed. Some can laugh and call it "the Chicago way", but it is not a laughing matter. America cannot survive as America if our basic freedoms are destroyed by political hacks who see things only in terms of how they will affect their careers. We have laws for a reason. It is time that those laws are enforced and the violators brought to justice.
The latest indication of this attitude of being above the law came this morning when news broke that high officials all across the Obama administration are using secret email accounts under phony names to communicate with each other. That may not sound like much, but it is contrary to the requirements of federal law that all communications must be preserved and nearly all must be available to the public under the Freedom of Information Act. Think about it. If you were a White House official who wanted to direct the IRS to target conservatives, you would not want to send an email from an account with your name on it. Instead, you would send that email from your secret account to the secret account of the Secretary of the Treasury or the Commissioner of the IRS. That trail would be extremely hard for investigators to find some day.
Another indication of lawlessness comes right from the Department of Justice, which is supposedly in charge of enforcing, rather than ignoring the law. Federal law is clear that attorneys who make submissions to a federal court are required to speak the truth. Facts can be stretched; after all, we are dealing with attorneys. Facts cannot be falsified, however. But DOJ has proudly announced that just that was done with the specific approval of the Attorney General in the matter of the investigation of Fox News reporter, James Rosen. DOJ submitted papers in which the court was told, under oath, that Rosen had likely violated the Espionage Act, had potential criminal liability, and was likely to flee if he learned of the investigation. Therefore, DOJ continued, it had to get secret access to Rosen's email, phone records and the like to further the investigation. Meanwhile, DOJ tells us that it never had any intent to prosecute Rosen. So why would Rosen flee -- was it to avoid not being prosecuted?
Of course, the explanation from DOJ only came out because Eric Holder told Congress that he had never considered or even heard of a potential prosecution of a reporter. If that was untrue, then Holder is guilty of perjury. Obviously, what DOJ told the court, as described above, is potential prosecution of James Rosen, and Holder himself approved of the submission. Rather than correcting the record, however, Holder has DOJ providing the defense that the submission to the court was phony; there was no intent to prosecute Rosen. Either way, the DOJ is ignoring the law.
And how about Benghazi? Obama and his people lied to America for weeks by telling us that a youtube video was responsible for the death of the Ambassador and three others. Not true! We cannot even find out the most basic facts about what happened in Libya. We just get a stonewall.
Then, of course, there is the biggest bit of lawlessness of all: the IRS. Someone in Washington directed the IRS to start attacking conservative groups and individuals, Jewish groups that supported Israel, Chistian ministries that were pro-life, among others. Americans were targeted by their government simply because of their political beliefs. This is a violation of the most fundamental laws of our country. It is intolerable. And what is the response from the president? Obama tells us the he just did not know. His Chief of Staff in the White House, his attorney, members of his cabinet and the head of the IRS knew, but, hey, Obama did not know. That really is Obama's defense. I can't wait for the speech where he solemnly tells us "They kept me in the dark!"
These scandals keep getting worse and worse. More important, the scandal reveal a government that no longer responds to the law. Obama has brought into the government people who think that anything that advances their political agenda is allowed. Some can laugh and call it "the Chicago way", but it is not a laughing matter. America cannot survive as America if our basic freedoms are destroyed by political hacks who see things only in terms of how they will affect their careers. We have laws for a reason. It is time that those laws are enforced and the violators brought to justice.
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