Scandals abound! There are many, some of them are real, others are fictitious, all of them are worth addressing. In the spirit of the good, the bad, and the ugly, which of the crises in government are legitimate, and which are just political?
Let's get the fluff out of the way first, we'll call this the good, because even though the event itself was tragic, the aftermath has been a witch hunt. I'm talking of course about the attacks in Benghazi, Libya that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans. This attack was tragic, but in the hearings that have followed it, we have been led to believe there was some kind of cover up that would have saved American lives. Senator Lindsay Graham even said it was a scandal akin to Watergate. Rather, it seems, that it's nothing more than a chance for Darrell Issa to look snarky on national television. Former Defense Secretary Robert gates called the idea that we could have scrambled jets or special forces to react in time to save American lives a "cartoonish impression of military capability." We now know that the "talking points" were redacted and for a few days we thought the deaths were the result of a spontaneous uprising in reaction to a video - not a far fetched belief given that such protests were happening simultaneously next door in Egypt. The correction was quickly made, there wasn't really a lie or a cover-up, but there is an ongoing witch hunt. Republicans want to flay President Obama and undermine Hilary Clinton three and a half years before the next presidential election. This is political theater, and given our collective memory-span, probably ineffective political theater.
If the Benghazi "scandal" is dismissible, the others are not. The bad and the ugly are just that, bad and ugly. First to the bad. The bad scandal is the IRS singling out conservative groups for increased scrutiny when applying for tax-exempt status. There is one thing that needs to be clarified here, the problem with this increased scrutiny is that it was targeted, not that it was applied. Groups that receive this particular type of tax-exempt status are supposed to be involved in social welfare activities. The vast majority of them, whether tilting towards the right or the left, simply are not. These groups get around this by purchasing "issue" advertising, rather than advertising that explicitly endorses a candidate, but this is a farce. These are political groups. The IRS SHOULD be scrutinizing them closely. But they should be scrutinizing the liberal-leaning ones as well. As deplorable as the tea party is, they have every right to be heard, and in fact, it is better that they are heard; the way to exorcise bad ideas is not to censor them but to expose them. The louder the tea party trumpets, the more people they'll scare away. The IRS needs to examine these applications universally, not based on their political stripes.
This segues perfectly in the ugly scandal, the confiscation of the records of AP journalists. This is by far the worst of the three episodes. Despite the fact that our national press is lackluster and often hitched to one or another of our political parties (think Fox and MSNBC), a free press is imperative for the continuation of our democracy. We must allow journalists to do their work without impediments, especially when they are exposing flaws and corruption within government! A free press helps keep government honest, and we all know that our government - regardless of who is running it - struggles with honesty. It is imperative that we protect freedom of the press, and it is imperative we determine what happened here, why, and make sure it doesn't happen again. A state controlled media will lead us all to believe that dear leader once shot an 18 on a round of golf or that the infidels will perish at the gate.
All three of these crises have created a few weeks of turmoil for the president and Democrats, and much of it is well deserved. Times like these highlight more than ever the need for a legitimate opposition party that can hold Democrats accountable while acknowledging which of these things were systematic flaws and which are political coercion. For example, there is a high degree of irony in the very people who slashed the State Department's defense budget condemning the president for attacks on a consulate they are largely responsible for not defending. Conversely, it is troubling that - whether he knew or not (and it is far more troubling if he did) - that the government under Obama is censoring and tracking opponents and the press.
The real problem here is that all politicians have become just that, politicians. Policy has taken a backseat to theatrics. Republicans want to bash the president and Hilary Clinton, and while I hope he was ignorant of the whole ordeal, it is possible that President Obama used the power of his office to curtail opposition and get re-elected. This emphasis on winning rather than bettering our country has led both parties to enmesh themselves in stunts better suited for daytime television than for the serious work of government. That issue is at the root of these and other political scandals, and that is what truly matters most.
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