May 14, 2013

With the IRS scandal dropped on top of the Benghazi hearings, you may have lost track of the 3rd scandal that broke last week.

Do you even remember what it is? It sneaked out in the thick smoke of 2 other scandals, so maybe it got away unnoticed.

57 comments:

Nonapod said...

I thought the 3rd scandal was the DOJ wiretaping Associated Press reporters. Damn, it's hard to keep up with all these scandals.

Ann Althouse said...

@Nonapod That's this week. I was talking last week.

New week, new list of scandals.

The question is: What remains visible and what has escaped in the chaos?

AustinRoth said...

Of course it is illegal. But why should that matter?

TosaGuy said...

I see that you didn't contribute to the common good.

Hope you like your IRS audit.

I Have Misplaced My Pants said...

Would be nice if anyone other than journalists and politics-watchers cared about any of this.

J said...

1.Benghazi. 2. IRS.3.AP phone records.4.Sebelius. and and and.....

TosaGuy said...

I see that you didn't contribute to the common good.

I am sorry to tell you that you just missed the quota for ACA waivers.

TosaGuy said...

I see that you didn't contribute to the common good.

We decided to go with someone else for this government contract.

Anonymous said...

Soliciting funds from companies that your regulate, how can that be wrong?

Pastafarian said...

They're dumping all of these out there now, right after the election, so that low-information voters will consider it all ancient history by the 2014 midterms.

I'm sure glad I never voted for Obama. I'd feel really stupid and embarrassed right about now.

Oh, wait -- we don't know that McCain would have been any better. He might have had all of these scandals we're now talking about, plus all of the dozens of others that we're no longer talking about, like Fast and Furious, Solyndra, and on and on. Uh huh.

TosaGuy said...

I see that you didn't contribute to the common good.

Your employee health plan jussstttt missed meeting our requirements and you have to now pay a fine. We are sorry.

Matt Sablan said...

Man, journalists are always late to the party.

gerry said...

There's also this, but I'm not sure how leggy it is.

Anonymous said...

Oh, the continuing EPA scandal just got worse. Remember the leaders were using fake emails and external private emails to conduct agency business? Well, it was just revealed that the EPA was favoring liberal/progressive organizations by reducing or eliminating fees while not according the same privilege to conservative groups.

Anonymous said...

gerry, you beat me to the punch!

Shanna said...

and and and.....

There is something today about EPA fees being skipped for left wing groups...

Shanna said...

Damn ya'll are fast.

TosaGuy said...

So you didn't contribute to the common good.

Sorry, but we at OSHA cannot abide that your safety railings are painted Canary Yellow instead of Yellow.

furious_a said...

A. Mainstream press snaps out of its Obama-worship trance, notices the rotten-egg Chicago stench, grabs its notepads and pencils and finally follows its nose to some Pulitzer-worthy stuff.

...or...

B. Administration message-managers initiate Mother of All Document Dumps to overwhelm any inquiring press and Republican committeeman minds and to induce MEGO (My Eyes Glaze Over) TADI (They All Do It) in the low-information subgroup of the voting public that matters to them.

"Obama approval polls haven't budged" posted someone yesterday. The "cynic" in me says that the calculated risk in (B) above will pay off for the Administration.

buwaya said...

I suspect that someone/someones are dumping all the outstanding and likely (as in those that are known to have been already been blown, as all these have) scandals now, in order to have them processed by the press and public opinion well before the next election. And all at once too, to reduce their individual impact. Call me a cynic, but I smell method behind this.

buwaya said...

I suspect that someone/someones are dumping all the outstanding and likely (as in those that are known to have been already been blown, as all these have) scandals now, in order to have them processed by the press and public opinion well before the next election. And all at once too, to reduce their individual impact. Call me a cynic, but I smell method behind this.

Tank said...

Pigford is not a scandal?

Mogget said...

Need to add the EPA, which seems to have developed the same tilt-response that the IRS tapped into.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

I remenber you mentoned it. But i guess it had not hatched yet.

JAL said...

Are you kidding?

The DoJ collecting a gazillion phone calls and info over 2 months on the AP and its reporters and folks like that. A secret warrant was issued. It is believed Obama (through his BFF Eric Holder) is looking for the source of some info that was published in May 2012.

Did I get it?

Now .. if they would go after the IRS employee who photocopied / PDFed a confidential document a pro-traditional marriage group filed with the IRS but discovered was published on Huffington Post a while back. And nail the Huff Po people for receiving stolen, private information.

Naaahhh. No big whoop. Evil people need to be exposed.

Of all forms of power, moral power may be the most seductive and corrupting. James Taranto, WSJ, 5/14/13

furious_a said...

There is something today about EPA fees being skipped for left wing groups...

...there was also something earlier about eateries in Nancy Pelosi's district receiving 20% of at-the-time ACA waivers.

Since the Supreme Court upheld the Obamacare insurance mandate as a tax, and since Article 1, Sect 9 says "No Capitation, or other direct, Tax shall be laid, unless in Proportion to the Census or enumeration herein before directed to be taken.", aren't waivers of any kind under the ACA illegal?

furious_a said...

Pigford is not a scandal?

Pigford happened a long time ago. What difference does it make now?

Aridog said...

Althouse said ...

The question is: What remains visible and what has escaped in the chaos?

Agree that scandal lists are weekly now. What's been missed so far, in my opinion, is a thorough investigation and interrogation of Tom Donilon and John Brennan regarding their activities in and on behalf of the White House.

I'd also like to see Chairman JCS Gen. Martin Dempsey brought back before a Congressional committee, under subpoena, and grilled about what guided him to telephone Terry Jones in Florida and notify Reuters of the call and content ... which was the video meme? He made the call literally as the Annex was under siege and he already knew Ambassador Stevens was dead.

Molly said...

In case you hadn't noticed: What all of these scandals have in common is that they are use of federal resources to influence an election. That is what makes these similar to Watergate -- where Nixon attempted to cover up the involvement of his campaign in the DNC break-in, because he feared that if that became known before the 72 election, it would reduce Nixon's chances of victory. It's not a defense to say, "Obama would have won anyway," (as I think Ploufe said).

Fr Martin Fox said...

http://youtu.be/LAf0QnLFS7Q

Molly said...

In case you hadn't noticed: What all of these scandals have in common is that they are use of federal resources to influence an election. That is what makes these similar to Watergate -- where Nixon attempted to cover up the involvement of his campaign in the DNC break-in, because he feared that if that became known before the 72 election, it would reduce Nixon's chances of victory. It's not a defense to say, "Obama would have won anyway," (as I think Ploufe said).

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

There is a play in football call wild cat.

Fr Martin Fox said...

Sorry, that didn't work the way I thought it would.

That's just a link to Emperor Palpatine: "Everything is proceeding as I have foreseen."

This is exactly what I expected would happen to Obama in the second term--only worse. And I think it will get worse.

cubanbob said...

These scandals are the tip of the iceberg. The momentum towards a slew of special prosecutions is coming. This won't go away before the 2014 elections or the 2016 election. The democrats are going to have their own Watergate and its going to make Nixon look like a choir boy. Obama won't be impeached let alone removed or forced to resign by the republicans. They are too smart for that. Instead there will be a death of a thousand cuts for the democrats. And the democrats know this which is why they are in full panic mode. The real fear for the democrats is the IRS scandals. They know that this is opening to get rid of the tax exempt provisions and that terrifies them since so much of their elite base is dependent on being tax exempt. If Obama gets pushed to resign the push will come from democrats trying to save themselves in the hope of by getting him out of the way they can stop the bleeding. It's still way too early to project this far out but this is starting to look like the summer of 73.

Oso Negro said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Oso Negro said...

The EPA? Well, let me channel Rosie Perez - "Fuck those fucking fucks!" In the past five years, we have had one of the greatest increases in domestic oil and gas production since the industry started with those bastards working against us every step of the way.

buwaya said...

Pigford is another scandal in which previously withheld information was released the week before.

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/04/26/NYTimes-Confirms-Massive-Fraud-at-USDA-in-Pigford-Settlements-Breitbart-Vindicated

This all is coordinated.

furious_a said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

All these scandals are likely criminal behavior, but if they were to be prosecuted, The Department of Holder would have to do the prosecuting.

So, What Difference, At This Point, Would It Make?

Ignorance is Bliss said...

...you may have lost track of the 3rd scandal that broke last week.

My son getting arrested for smoking pot in the high school bathroom?

furious_a said...

He made the call literally as the Annex was under siege and he already knew Ambassador Stevens was dead.

I'd like to see brought out under subpoena the commo logs between the annex and whomever was in control of the assets (Spectre, drone, Strike Eagle) for which Woods and/or Doherty exposed themselves on the annex roof when they lit up the jihadi mortar crews with that targeting laser.

It strains credulity that veteran SEALs would expose themselves to counter-fire by activating a targeting laser unless someone in control of an on-station asset was directing them real-time to do so.

buwaya said...

Can Congress even call an independent counsel/special prosecutor anymore ? And can Republicans do so without cooperation by the Senate and the Justice Department ?

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

What difference does it make? Democrats are above the law.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

What difference does it make?
Most mainstream media outlets are run straight through Obama's White House.

Journalism is a joke in this country.

Aridog said...

buwaya said...

Call me a cynic, but I smell method behind this.

Me, too. General Dempsey phoning up a pseudo-religious right wing nut case to advance the administration narrative just reeks of contrivance. He did have predecessors, in Secretary Gates and General Petraeus, who also rang up Jones to advance a narrative.

Does Jones [the guy on the left in the photo, with a gun on his hip] look like a principle Joint chiefs of Staff or White House contact?

BTW...Jones had to be told to put his sidearm in his car before proceeding toward a High School here ... happily it did nbot discharge accidentally in the process like it did a year before at Fox-2 News.

edutcher said...

Seems like we could have a whole Administration impeached.

Repeat after me, "Good morning, President Romney".

Pastafarian said...

They're dumping all of these out there now, right after the election, so that low-information voters will consider it all ancient history by the 2014 midterms.

One big problem with that is that low info voters don't come out for mid-terms.

Also, the devastating full economic effects of ObamaTax will have begun to have been felt by then.

I don't know who said this was all to cover something worse, but it's sure gotten out of control.

Molly said...

In case you hadn't noticed: What all of these scandals have in common is that they are use of federal resources to influence an election. That is what makes these similar to Watergate -- where Nixon attempted to cover up the involvement of his campaign in the DNC break-in, because he feared that if that became known before the 72 election, it would reduce Nixon's chances of victory. It's not a defense to say, "Obama would have won anyway," (as I think Ploufe said).

Ah, but would he have? Couple all these with all the vote fraud and it's pretty obvious the Choom Gang was very afraid that they were going down.

As Morris noted, no POTUS with these number ever was re-elected.

n.n said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Fritz said...

So the multiple scandals are the emergence of the cicadas; timed to overwhelm the predatory press with sheer numbers?

JAL said...


Sebelius
leaning on the healthcare industry to fund Obamacare (or whatever the heck it was she was doing).

JAL said...

And someone above is right -- it is only going to unravel and get more messy.

Hagar said...

Furious,
Pigford is still happening - and still growing.

cubanbob said...

Since the Supreme Court upheld the Obamacare insurance mandate as a tax, and since Article 1, Sect 9 says "No Capitation, or other direct, Tax shall be laid, unless in Proportion to the Census or enumeration herein before directed to be taken.", aren't waivers of any kind under the ACA illegal?


Interesting observation. Has any court ruled as to what type of tax it is? I wonder if Ann will comment on this.

Leland said...

New week, new list of scandals.

So last week, 3 scandals (but wait Benghazi didn't break last week). But this week, its just Tuesday and we are already up to 2: AP wire tap and EPA cronyism. Is the third, the FDA investigation of Lance Armstrong? It's a scandal, but I think Jay Carney can rest that one out.

Oh yeah, Pigford...

cubanbob said...

In case you hadn't noticed: What all of these scandals have in common is that they are use of federal resources to influence an election. That is what makes these similar to Watergate -- where Nixon attempted to cover up the involvement of his campaign in the DNC break-in, because he feared that if that became known before the 72 election, it would reduce Nixon's chances of victory. It's not a defense to say, "Obama would have won anyway," (as I think Ploufe said).

Nixon had a plausible reason above his re-election for the break in. They were looking for Bill Ayers type individuals who might have been involved with the DNC. And they were right about it. There was a legitimate national security reason involved. Obama has no such excuse with respects to the IRS being politicized. However he might have one with respects to the AP reporters leaking operational details.

PianoLessons said...

My take: The IRS scandal was leaked by Obama team becuase in the end, the fall guy will be Bush appointee Shulman, Head of IRS from March 2008 to November 11,2012.

The AP scandal was released by IRS low level Cincinnati bureaucrat to inflate Obama's "War on Terror" because monitoring press leaks were about a bomb on a plane.

Both were purposefully leaked to deflect from Benghazi - the scandal that was all about winning an election, lying about a video triggering a terror attack, failing to send help in a 7 hour firefight - and thinking Americans are so stupid they think 2+2=5.

gerry said...

A NEW CONGRESSIONAL PROBE!

I love it. The HHS chief calls outfits she regulates and asks them to donate to non-profits who will help her get her job done. She implicitly has Obamalamadingdong's ear, so every hit for money has an automatic wink-wink-if-you-know-what's-good-for-you-and-your-ready-to-be-IRS-tax-audited-business implication.

The Chicago Way - damage insurance incorporated.

Andrew T. said...

Nonapod said: I thought the 3rd scandal was the DOJ wiretaping Associated Press reporters.

Not to minimize the issue, but merely to clarify, the DOJ did not tap the phones of AP reporters. The DOJ obtained the AP's call records, so they could determine who the reporters talked to over the phone.