

INGLE: Obama out of the loop

Recent crises worsened by administration's ineptness

5:17 PM, May 16, 2013  |  Comments
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It's not that President Obama has his hands in illegal activities that cause him trouble, it's more his hands-off approach until things reach the crisis stage that may sink his ship.

Besieged by criticism after the Benghazi attack last September, Obama was able to fend it off because Republicans overreached, making it look like a political witch hunt. Then came word that the Internal Revenue Service had singled out conservative groups requesting tax-exempt status. Next we learned Obama's Justice Department had obtained phone records of Associated Press reporters. The trio of controversies brought his presidency to crisis stage. And after a too-long waiting period, he got involved but blew it.

When press secretary Jay Carney went before the White House press corps, he did poorly. He contradicted himself. He kept saying "if" the IRS situation transpired, when the IRS itself already said it did. This was a guy representing an administration that saw its agenda circling the drain. Confidence died; even MSNBC's Chris Matthews lost that thrill going up his leg.

Carney bristled when a reporter asked about comparisons to Richard Nixon's scandal-plagued administration, and told him to check history. OK. Nixon had an "enemies list'' to be targeted by the IRS. Among the reasons cited in the Articles of Impeachment against Nixon was he tried "to obtain from the Internal Revenue Service, in violation of the constitutional rights of citizens, confidential information contained in income tax returns for purposes not authorized by law." He resigned before the full House took an impeachment vote.

Carney argued Obama knew nothing of the IRS activity. Perhaps, but that's the Obama defense on just about everything - the president learned it from news media. Jon Stewart quipped he probably found out about bin Laden's death from watching himself announce it on TV. Senior IRS officials knew of the agency's activity in 2011.

Carney told the press conference that as a senator, Obama favored a media shield to prevent the kind of thing his Justice Department did to the AP - as evidence of the president's First Amendment support.

NBC's Chuck Todd reminded Carney that in 2009, as president, Obama killed the legislation, even though at the time it likely would have easily passed through both chambers of Congress, which were then controlled by Democrats. The president insisted on a national security exemption, which effectively gutted it.

Officials can always claim, as they do in this case, that phone record mining and the secrecy surrounding it is about national security. Government secrecy is usually about hiding government incompetence.

Carl Bernstein, who along with Washington Post reporting colleague Bob Woodward, made Watergate synonymous with scandal and corruption, said the Obama Justice Department's subpoena of records in the name of finding national security leaks is part of a broader attempt to intimidate people who would talk to the news media.

"The object of this is to intimidate people who talk to reporters," he said. "This was an accident waiting to become a nuclear event, and now it's happened. There is no excuse for it whatsoever."

Obama's attorney general, Eric Holder, said that he recused himself from the national security leak probe that led to the phone records snooping. He said he therefore couldn't answer even simple questions about it, one of them being why he recused himself. That sounds like a premeditated move to cover his butt if all this blew up, which it did. He blamed the overboard snooping decision on a deputy. Holder neglected to say the AP held the story at the administration's request - but that wouldn't have served his interest.

And he neglected - or so he says - to tell the White House about his recusal, informing only his deputy - and not in writing, odd for a lawyer in his position. In reality, Holder exposed himself for what he is - an arrogant CYA artist. For his lack of candor and irrational answers, Obama should ask him to resign.

Of the three big problems facing Obama, the IRS has the potential to do the most damage, just as IRS conduct wound up being a part of the articles of impeachment against Nixon. No one really likes the IRS, but everyone has to deal with it. What people want is to be treated equally and fairly. There can't be one set of rules for conservatives and another for people on the other end of the spectrum. Holder, in a laughable attempt to look in charge, ordered a criminal investigation.

That would be an investigation by other people who work for Holder and the government. Does anyone in the Obama administration live in the real world? It's time to have a special independent prosecutor, or else this won't go away.

Obama realized he had to look like he was concerned, so he fired a fall guy, the acting IRS director, Steven Miller, who wasn't even director for most of the period involved. Moreover, he shut down the inappropriate activity when he learned of it. Obama hasn't bothered to nominate a director since he took office in 2009, which says something about how he really feels about the IRS as well as his lackluster approach to running government.

While there is no evidence that Obama was part of a criminal conspiracy like Nixon or even that a crime has occurred, this has hurt Democrats for 2014 and strengthened conservatives who say you can't trust government and that they were singled out.

Many unanswered questions remain. Congressional hearings will pursue the answers. Let's hope it doesn't turn into a circus of partisan politics.

If Obama wants to have a positive legacy, he'd better start finding out about what's happening in his administration before the news media and not take so long to fix problems.

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