Pirate's Cove

I highly doubt whether anyone will obtain information linking Obama to either the IRS or phone records scandal. Say what you will about his “governance” style, but the man is able to keep his hands clean. Surely no emails, phone records, or paper records will link him, nor will anyone say “yup, Obama (or one of his advisors) ordered this”. What Obama does is create an atmosphere as the Executive Branch head of underlings doing what they want and thinking that it is A-OK to do things like target political opponents and go on fishing expeditions with press phone records

(Washington Post) The firestorm buffeting the Internal Revenue Service intensified Friday as lawmakers began what they promised would be an extensive effort to learn whether there was any political motivation or White House involvement in the agency’s recently acknowledged misdeeds.

Fueling those concerns, J. Russell George, the Treasury Department’s top tax watchdog, said Friday he had informed top Treasury officials starting last spring (June, to be exact) about problems related to the special attention the agency was paying some conservative organizations seeking tax-exempt status. George said he shared the information with the Treasury’s general counsel in June and with Deputy Treasury Secretary Neal S. Wolin “shortly thereafter.”

Such a timeline could be significant, as Republicans have been trying to establish how early the Obama administration learned about the agency’s conduct, which officials were informed and whether the coming 2012 presidential election affected their response.

Did the general counsel not inform the head of Treasury, Tim “Turbo Tax” Geithner? If not, why? This would certainly have risen to the level where the the agency head would Need To Know. Or, has Obama created an atmosphere where department heads are left out of the loop? In a private organization, something this bad would rise further so that measures could be taken. In the Obama admin, it seems that there was little to no oversight and that appointed officials wanted no part in doing their duties.

(Fox News) Devereaux is among a group of activists, being represented by the American Center for Law and Justice, who are preparing to sue the federal government for the practice of targeting Tea Party groups. ACLJ Executive Director Jordan Sekulow told FoxNews.com he’ll likely file the civil suits next Wednesday or Thursday on behalf of more than a dozen Tea Party groups who say they were singled out by the IRS and had their tax-exempt status severely delayed or denied altogether.

Good for them. Many, if not most, of these groups are still waiting for the tax exempt status, after dealing with all the shenanigans and un-Constitutional machinations from the IRS. And, let’s not forget that many were worried if they stood up for the targeted groups, they themselves would be targeted. This is the atmosphere that Obama has created with his constant demonization and targeting of political enemies (to O, they appear to be enemies, not opponents). We can see that the apparent coordination behind the targeting makes the notion that this was just a few low level IRS employees engaging in wrong-doing laughable.

Over to the AP phone records issue

(Fox News) Americans were in danger.

That was the chief argument Attorney General Eric Holder tried to make this week for why Justice Department officials seized two months’ worth of phone records of reporters and editors at The Associated Press.

But the AP has strongly refuted from the start claims that it put the country in danger. The accusation that the news organization risked national security isn’t sitting so well with other journalists and lawmakers who have started pushing back on the claims.

Obama officials discussed the incident the day after the AP report was published. John Brennan, the White House counter terrorism adviser at the time, went on Good Morning America and announced that Americans were never in danger from the Al Qaeda plot. And the AP, along with other media outlets, are not happy with the notion that sources may clam up if they are worried that the US Government will retaliate with operations such as grabbing phone records as a fishing expedition.

But, we know Liberals are worried when they start making silly pronouncements, such as Excitable Dana Milbank, who seems more concerned with Republicans making dire pronouncements about Obama than about this obvious chilling of 1st Amendment Rights

At the end of a truly dismal week in his presidency, President Obama remains lucky in one crucial category: his opposition.

It has been only a few days since two administration scandals — the IRS harassment of conservative groups and the Justice Department’s seizure of Associated Press phone records — dropped into the Republicans’ lap. But instead of turning public outrage to their advantage, Republicans have already begun overreaching, turning legitimate areas of inquiry into just some more partisan food fights.

He lists several Republicans who have said mean things about Obama, such as

Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Tex.) referred to Obama as “a tyrannical despot” and said: “This is the way a tyrannical government comes into being and perpetuates itself.”

Of course, Milbank forgets to tell us why this is wrong. He’s just doing his job as a little Obamazombie to protect Obama. But, hey, I remember a time when the press, both reporters and opinion writers, failed to have a problem with Democrats accusing the president of making/letting 9/11 happen, wishing that Operation Iraqi Freedom would fail, calling the president a loser, talking of impeachment, whining about the Downing Street Papers, accusing the president of “rushing to war”, accusing him of failing to protect the country, and so many other bits. Where was Milbank then?

Democrats also do not like when issues are turned political when Democrats are in the target scope. They can dish it out but they can’t take it.

Crossed at Right Wing News and Stop The ACLU.

Read: Saturday Obama Scandals »