Posted on 05/16/2013 5:20:23 PM PDT by forty_years
President Obama is already trying to sweep another one of his scandals under the rug, the IRS debacle, in which that agency "used inappropriate criteria that identified for review tea party and other organizations applying for tax-exempt status based upon their names or policy positions." This is a huge scandal, with many major ramifications for free speech and other aspects of our constitutional rights. The President stood before the American people for "a mere four minutes" yesterday and fired the acting director of the IRS, a guy who already had decided to step down before the scandal broke, and who is by some accounts "well respected at the agency" and "a very smart, capable guy." After another of Obama's scandals, his betrayal of the Associated Press, one would think the media would see right through the President's obvious attempt to find a quick scapegoat for the IRS debacle. But the Washington Post is already seemingly defending the President. So let's start with Obama's attack on the free press:
... In a letter of protest to Attorney General Eric Holder, [AP President and CEO Gary] Pruitt said obtaining more than two months of AP phone records on 20 separate telephone lines without prior notice was a "massive and unprecedented intrusion" into news-gathering operations. ...
... "The Justice Department's seizure of the Associated Press' phone records is Nixonian," said Danielle Brian, executive director of the Project on Government Oversight, a group that advocates on behalf of whistleblowers. "The American public deserves a full accounting of why and how this could happen." ...
Rightly righteous indignation from the CEO of one of the world's largest media organizations, the Associated Press (AP) -- and from various free speech supporters. Shouldn't our press be up in arms, very vocal in condemning a "'massive and unprecedented intrusion' into news-gathering operations," extremely skeptical about the Obama administration's public statements, and assiduously investigating Obama's every move. But not the Washington Post (WP), another "pillar" of our free press.
The WP seemed to editorialize in a news story about the IRS debacle:
... In a brief but fiery evening statement in the East Room of the White House, Obama labeled the IRS's actions "inexcusable." ...
The administration also took the extraordinary step of releasing a letter from Treasury Secretary Jack Lew in which he demanded that Miller resign in order "to restore public trust and confidence in the IRS."
The forceful response underscored just how damaging the IRS scandal and the other issues could become for a second-term president trying to secure an ambitious array of legislative achievements. ...
"Brief but fiery?" Four minutes to do nothing:
President Barack Obama spent a mere four minutes Wednesday addressing an Inspector General's report that concluded the IRS inappropriately targeted conservative and Tea Party groups.
Obama did not take any questions from reporters; he said he would at a press conference on Thursday. He announced the resignation of an acting IRS Commissioner, Steven Miller, who told colleagues that he was already slated to leave the agency in June. ...
"Extraordinary step?" Miller had planned to resign before the scandal hit the headlines. He's just a scapegoat:
... On Wednesday, the president requested and received the resignation of Acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller -- but that is not enough. The executive branch has been aware of this scandal for nearly two years and now, only as a result of massive public pressure, the administration has found a scapegoat. ...
Miller's plan's to leave the IRS before the crap hit the fan is not just a rumor:
... The comments were the latest effort by the White House to tamp down the controversy.
After his press conference, Obama announced the appointment of White House budget official Daniel Werfel as the next acting IRS commissioner. This comes after Obama announced Wednesday that acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller would resign -- though Miller was apparently set to step down anyway.
An official close to Miller told Fox News, shortly after Obama's brief announcement, that the IRS chief was "set to resign the position of acting commission as of early June." He was planning to leave the IRS entirely a "couple of months later, regardless of the current controversy," the source said. ...
"Forceful response?" Rather a pathetic "effort by the White House to tamp down the controversy." Where's the evidence and due process showing that Acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller did anything? Maybe he was involved, maybe he wasn't. The bottom line is that firing him amounts to nothing more than a sound byte:
... Marcus Owens, who headed the tax-exempt organizations division at the IRS from 1990 to 1999, said Miller, a 25-year career employee, was well respected at the agency.
"Steve was a very smart, capable guy," said Owens, a member of the firm Caplin & Drysdale. ...
Using loaded adjectives like "fiery," "extraordinary," and "forceful" to describe a president doing absolutely nothing substantial to amend for his very egregious betrayal of the American peoples' trust is downright pathetic. The WP is doing the dirty work of helping a petty tyrant with CYA.
Obama's not going to get away from all his scandals with sound bytes. We're seeing the decomposition of a corrupt, aristocratic regime not befitting the honor of leading the American people. For Obama's misdeeds, heads need to role, people need to be fired, and people need to go to jail -- but only the truly responsible, the ones giving the orders, the top dogs who betrayed the American people.
I won’t see ammo on the shelves for years after this recent performance by The W0n.
This WP article is ridiculous. How can they sit there and churn this kind of crap out? Are they so starry-eyed about Obama? Will they be ecstatic when he destroys the U.S. and they lose their jobs?
Barack Obama is the Marion Barry of Presidential politics.
Where are the Woodward’s and Bernstein’s of today?
Where are the Woodward's and Bernstein's of today?
There seems to be a vacuum in the press, in academia, in govt, in science, etc. -- maybe because the Left has made such inroads into education and academia, and have instilled so many people with the entitlement/socialist mindset.
Ironic, isn’t it, the home of Ben Bradlee, and Woodward and Bernstein being totally incurious about the Obama White House.
It’s the Limbaugh Theorem on display.
Barack Obama is the Marion Barry of Presidential politics.
God, let’s hope not, that dude did prison time, then got re-elected as mayor.
The man is obviously trying to set himself up in some sort of authoritarian position.
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