Yesterday on Morning Mika, er Morning Joe, Donny Douche Deutsch revealed the new liberal argument regarding the trifecta of scandals plaguing the Obama regime. The first part was Deutsch using the targeting of Tea Party groups to hammer Tea Party groups:
That’s when Deutsch used the story of the IRS demonizing tea party groups to further demonize tea party groups.
Basically what it is going to do, it’s going to force, in the primaries, to galvanize the Tea Party. You’re going to get more extremist candidates. They’ll lose in general election. Come general election time, if somebody voted against background checks for guns, if somebody is still doing the crazy, crazy, crazy social issues, I disagree with you.
Deutsch continued to make his case and wrote the IRS scandal off on “a few idiots” operating on their own. Even at a time when the White House is under pressure from three growing scandals–Benghazi, AP and IRS, we can still count on MSNBC to make the “crazy, extreme” tea partiers the real story.
But then he went on on how to sell the scandal package to America.
“I want to say something and pick up a little on Mike’s point. Stop selling evil and sell incompetence. It is very simple. These aren’t evil people. They’re incompetent. They’re over their head. Benghazi, AP, IRS, wrap it up in a red bow and say they have fallen and they can’t get up instead of painting the devil. The American people can accept that argument.”
Got it? They’re not evil, they’re stupid and incompetent.
The Obama State Run Media is now in full Obama Recovery Mode implementing that strategy.
Piers Morgan invited Jay Carney to disabuse America of the notion that there even are any scandals:
Carney’s answers summed up: There are no scandals.
“You’re concocting scandals that don’t exist,” Carney said, when show host Piers Morgan asked how the Obama administration would “restore the faith that some Americans have lost” in its transparency.
“Especially with regard to the Benghazi affair that was contrived by Republicans and, I think, has fallen apart largely this week,” Carney said.
Ezra Klein takes notes from Deutsch:
On Tuesday, it looked like we had three possible political scandals brewing. Two days later, with much more evidence available, it doesn’t look like any of them will pan out. There’ll be more hearings, and more bad press for the Obama administration, and more demands for documents. But — and this is a key qualification — absent more revelations, the scandals that could reach high don’t seem to include any real wrongdoing, whereas the ones that include real wrongdoing don’t reach high enough.
There was no early connection between Nixon and Watergate either, and Klein is anxious to suffocate this baby in its crib before its lungs fully expand.
Two of the idiots at Politico could no longer resist dragging Bush into this:
It took him a day or two to get started, but President Barack Obama this week signaled that he is going to follow the conventional Washington playbook for trying to tamp down scandal.
He has furrowed his brow, sacked an agency head, pledged transparency and cooperation with official inquiries and piously declared that no one is more troubled than him about any wrongdoing.
There’s no indication that Obama and his aides have paused to ponder the WWCD test: What Would Cheney Do?
Meanwhile, the IRS official running the “Tea Party Targeting” division of the IRS will be in charge of enforcing Obamacare:
The Internal Revenue Service official in charge of the tax-exempt organizations at the time when the unit targeted tea party groups now runs the IRS office responsible for the health care legislation.
Sarah Hall Ingram served as commissioner of the office responsible for tax-exempt organizations between 2009 and 2012. But Ingram has since left that part of the IRS and is now the director of the IRS’ Affordable Care Act office, the IRS confirmed to ABC News today.
This person has been awarded bonuses which grew as she targeted more and more conservative groups:
Sarah Hall Ingram, the IRS executive in charge of the tax exempt division in 2010 when it began targeting conservative Tea Party, evangelical and pro-Israel groups for harrassment, got more than $100,000 in bonuses between 2009 and 2012.
More recently, Ingram was promoted to serve as director of the tax agency’s Obamacare program office, a position that put her in charge of the vast expansion of the IRS’ regulatory power and staffing in connection with federal health care, ABC reported earlier today.
Ingram received a $7,000 bonus in 2009, according to data obtained by The Washington Examiner from the IRS, then a $34,440 bonus in 2010, $35,400 in 2011 and $26,550 last year, for a total of $103,390. Her annual salary went from $172,500 to $177,000 during the same period.
The IRS is going to be the muscle for Obamacare. Either way – evil or stupid- they’ve demonstrated themselves to be politically motivated and that’s dangerous. Byron York highlighted some of the possibilities:
The IRS will also decide who is, and who is not, eligible for Obamacare’s subsidies. The law authorizes the IRS to share confidential taxpayer information with the Department of Health and Human Services for the purpose of determining those subsidies. And since subsidies don’t just apply to a relatively small number of the nation’s poorest citizens — under the law, they can go to a family of four with a household income of nearly $90,000 — they will affect a huge segment of the population.
In addition, the IRS will keep track of even the smallest changes in Americans’ financial condition. Did you get a raise recently? You’ll need to notify the IRS; it might affect your subsidy status. Have your hours been reduced at work? Notify the IRS. Change jobs? Same.
Last August, IRS official Nina Olson testified before Congress on the changes Obamacare will bring to Americans’ dealings with the nation’s tax collector. “Do you believe that most Americans are going to update the IRS or state exchanges when they change jobs, get married, move states, whatever?” Michigan Republican Rep. Tim Walberg asked Olson.
The left’s desire to snuff these scandals early without a decent vetting makes all the more clear that such investigations are not only warranted, they are an absolute necessity.
ADDEND
I am not sure anyone should be comforted by the President, the Attorney General and the IRS being incompetent.
DrJohn has been a health care professional for more than 30 years. In addition to clinical practice he has done extensive research and has published widely with over 70 original articles and abstracts in the peer-reviewed literature. DrJohn is well known in his field and has lectured on every continent except for Antarctica. He has been married to the same wonderful lady for over 30 years and has three kids- two sons, both of whom are attorneys and one daughter on her way into the field of education.
DrJohn was brought up with the concept that one can do well if one is prepared to work hard but nothing in life is guaranteed.
Except for liberals being foolish.
At the presidential level, incompetence of that magnitude IS evil.
Hmmm. So we’ve heard from the left since early on in the 2000 voting cycle about those on the right being incompetent. They made that one of the unofficial “platforms” of the Gore/Bush campaign fight, that Bush was stupid and incompetent and therefore should not be voted in as president.
Fast track to 2013 where the occasions of “incompetence” are hitting fast and furiously on this administration, and what we hear from the peanut gallery of Obama worshipping acolytes, both in the media and out, are that we should just look past these little incidents, as they are clearly only an indication of incompetence, and not part of some concerted effort from the admin to circumvent the law or the people.
The amount of disconnect from that peanut gallery is staggering at times.
“Stop selling evil and sell incompetence. It is very simple. These aren’t evil people. They’re incompetent. They’re over their head.”
The no count piece of garbage in the White House, his Secretary of State and Secretary of Defense LEFT OUR PEOPLE TO DIE! They then lied about it! Nothing can change those fact. The Commander in Chief left our people to die? If one would want a definition put on the word EVIL, I would think “Obama and his minions left refused to come to the aid of our people to protect their sad sack political asses” certainly fits the bill. These people are evil and our country is going down the tubes because of it!
To go further on the IRS scandal, and the lefties around the country attempting to deflect the blame away from the top, here are a few items of interest to ponder. Connect the dots as you will.
-From the very inception of the TEA party movement, way back in early 2009, Obama has been castigating these people in a negative light using the presidential bully pulpit.
-During the 2012 election cycle, several top donors to a political action group supporting Mitt Romney, including Frank Vandersloot of Idaho, were blasted in pro-Obama messages, including the official Obama campaign website, resulting in an IRS targeting of THREE audits within FOUR months after being identified by Obama and his campaign for being “wealthy individuals” with a “less-than-reputable records” or as “having been on the wrong side of the law”.
-At the most recent Ohio State University commencement address, Obama himself “suggested” that the graduating students reject the voices telling of government overreach, or government grown too big, or any anti-progressive viewpoint of government in general. Obama practically made the case during this commencement address to those students of how those “voices” against government should be handled.
At nearly every turn during his presidency thus far, Obama has been directly involved in negative comments towards those groups and voices on the right, whether the fight was Obamacare, or raising taxes, or the federal budget talks, or the results of the disastrously corrupt and crony-capitalist Stimulus, Fast and Furious, Bhengazi, etc.
So, I ask you, WHO is to blame and WHO is responsible for the specific targeting done by the IRS?
@johngalt:
Barack Milhous Obama had this to say
A classic non-answer. He knew.
Unless you believe he gets all his information from cable.
They might be BOTH evil and incompetent, you know?
I recall a couple years ago calling the IRS to get walked through a complex issue.
Hubby called from his office on the same thing.
Two completely different answers….both COULD NOT be right!
Doing it wrong ends us up in prison or fined or both.
Sheesh!
And let them control your healthcare?
If you want that YOU are the idiot!
Although Obama is not the smartest man in the room stupidity is not an explanation of what we have experienced with this President for over four years. Even a broken and stopped clock is still right twice a day but Obama is consistently promoting, pushing or enacting policies, appointments and presidential directives that are detrimental to our economy, our defense capability, or our allies. After four years the nation is more divided and weaker in every way imaginable. To imagine that this is coincidental or just incompetence stretches credulity beyond imagination. The only explanation that fits this administration is not only are they evil but they are dedicated enemies of this country.
Oh, it gets better, boys and girls.
Some of my friends are old enough to be collecting Social Security. They are getting calls from a person who first asks them if they are aware of the changes in Medicare coming this year and next. Huh? What? So my friends being the sharp people they are asked the guy first “Who are you with?” Colonial Penn and Banker’s Life Insurance. “How did you get my phone number?” We purchased the calling list from the Social Security Administration and we are selling life insurance and supplemental health insurance policies.
You got that? The Social Security Administration is SELLING our information.
So this morning I called the Texas Attorney General’s office, the office of Greg Abbott. Seems that these calls are being conducted all across the State of Texas and yes, as far as they can find out, the SSA did sell private information to certain insurance companies. That information includes name, age, address and phone number as listed with the SSA AND your Social Security number.
Now, tie this in with the recent revelation that Kathleen Sebilius has been putting pressure on private insurance carriers to help fund Obamacare.
THE MOST CORRUPT ADMINISTRATION EVEH!!!!
And add this scam to the list:
you get a phone call from a guy who wants to sell you a mortgage re-financing plan. The one I got said he was from U.S. Mortgage Corp., a company that went belly up a couple of years ago and whose CEO was found guilty of wire fraud to the tune of MILLIONS.
But the caller I.D. showed a LOCAL number of a person I know. When I asked the guy why the number came up as a local number, he hung up. According to the A.G.’s office, this is called “call spoofing” and it allows someone to tap into another line, use that line for the phone call and so the caller I.D. shows up as the number that has been “spoofed.”
They are evil AND stupid!
Because of the American with Disabilities Act many large businesses, like supermarkets, hire mentally disabled persons.
But you can go to that store for 25 years and not ever see that mentally disabled person get a higher position.
He/she might get raises, seniority but they stay baggers.
In Long Beach, CA I watched this one man grow old while a bagger, still enjoying his yearly passes to Disneyland as much as he did when he was a teen.
Here in Utah, some baggers trainees are so disabled that they literally zone out while putting an item inside a bag!
It is a little like watching a sloth at the zoo, no insult intended.
But I cannot imagine this bagger getting past her probationary period.
In Obama’s Executive Branch there is a meme that some mentally disabled people are victims of the Peter Principle….they have been given jobs well above their abilities.
That’s what they WANT you to believe.
Do you?
Where’s your yearly pass to Disneyland, if you do?
There is no doubt that the Obama election machine used the IRS and the Labour Department, as well as other liberal believer departments, to intimidate any personal or corporate supporters of the Romney campaign.
There is no chance that this can be put back in the box. We’ll see ‘crowds’ come out of the woodwork.
@James Raider:
What do you make of EO 13522 and any part it may have played in what has happened at the IRS and EPA?
TEA party, circa 2009 – “The federal government is too big. It takes too much from the citizens. Smaller government, more efficient government.
IRS, circa 2009-2011 – “So, you’re a TEA party organization, eh? Here, fill out these forms of asinine questions and we might get back to you in a couple of years.
*right next to that person*
“So, you’re a liberal organization, eh? Here, fill out this one form and you will get your approval in just a few months”
Axelrod, circa May, 2013 – “The government is just too vast (big) for Obama to be able to know about everything”
Kind of enlightening, eh?
Obama should have read the job description before encouraging all of the low information voters to elect him. The buck stops at the President. He can pretent he doesn’t know, but he had a duty to hire people who would brief him. It is difficult to attend all of those daily briefings when you are watching ESPN, Playing golf and basket ball or attending another tax payer concert!
@johngalt: #12,
There was no intent to actually do what is pretended, . . . “By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, and in order to establish a cooperative and productive form of labor-management relations throughout the executive branch, it is hereby ordered as follows” Signed by O. on December 14, 2009.
The purpose was to spread the influence of the goons at the top of the union ladder through as broad a base across society as possible, beyond government departments.
Obama is owned by the union heads. Look at the money and the muscle they raised for him through 2 elections.
The rank and file of unions for the most part have little to say or do with their leaderships. Most members of the rank and file doesn’t even know what happens to the money they see deducted every two weeks from their paychecks. NO CLUE. And they can’t ask questions – that is never healthy. Billions of their dollars have disappeared into the ether, much of it into the mob hands – no question – but that’s an old story, old as Las Vegas, Atlantic City, Cuba etc.
Some of the language is straight out of a communist handbook which would have made Marx blush. It provides, by Executive Order, long reach into all affairs of government and of corporate America, whether or not those subjects are ‘negotiable subject of bargaining’.
Obama/Jarrett gave them vehicles to expand their influence, indoctrination, and socialist ideology. Increasing the reach and influence of union leadership to the extent they have is a serious long term disease on the landscape. What could go wrong?
Don’t forget, he gave them GM just for starters out of the gate 4 years ago.
Just look at this genius line from the MEMORANDUM FOR HEADS OF EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS/AGENCIES and LABOR-MANAGEMENT FORUMS: “the Executive Order expressly requires, agencies should also allow pre-decisional involvement with unions in all workplace matters to the fullest extent practicable, without regard to whether those matters are negotiable subjects of bargaining.”
Yah, what could go wrong?
I think that the proper words to describe them is corrupt and criminalIncompetent infers that they didn’t know what they were doing. We can’t let them off that easily.
Allahpundit at Hot Air makes an attempt to ”connect the dots.”
I thought profiling was considered bad. Here we have government sanctioned profiling of conservative groups.
I have a customer that wholly subscribes to the six stages of project management. If you’ve never heard of these, here they are:
Optimism
Pessimism
Panic
Hunt for the Guilt
Prosecution of the Innocent
Praise and Honors for the non-participants
Every four years, We the People set up a new project; then we watch as these stages unfold. I’m not saying the Obama administration isn’t at fault, but We the People have allowed all administrations the power and ability to do this. They have too much power. By “they,” I mean every single elected official in D.C., be they republican or democrat. No American Citizen, left, right, or in between, should live in fear of their government. Yet every four years, that is exactly what happens.
If those of us on the right think our team is so much better, try getting our representatives to use the IRS scandal to change the tax code. Not just close some loopholes and slap each other on the back, real reform. They need to make it so taxes are not a tool in their kit of power. I love my mortgage deduction, but it’s a federal tool and needs to go. I love all of my deductions, but they all need to go. I’m personally in favor of The Fair Tax, but I’d be happy with closing the IRS and implementing a flat tax. I know there are some republicans that would be in favor of either and would propose it. If they do, let’s sit back and see exactly who on the left and right vote against it in favor of keeping their power.
One of the more humorous excuses I’ve heard from the enlightened progs as to why the IRS targeted the conservative groups is that the IRS tax code is too complicated.
@Buffalobob:
That is almost as incredulous as Axelrod saying Obama wouldn’t know anything about it because the government is too big.
Hmmm, two things that the TEA party groups were trying to educate people about.
they are criminals no other words for that,
wrong is wrong, they try so hard to change or cover it with sugar,
they still stink
they must be arrested from the top down, and the IRS DISMANTLE yes until the APPOINTEES ARE SCREENED thoroughly,
THE OBAMA CARE MUST DISAPPEAR number one priority,
and the criminals in prison, it’s their turn to pay for having done so many hurt and broken lives,
and harassment, instead of doing their assigned jobs, not this one assign by the OBAMA PARTY
of revenge,
MAKE THEM TASTE THE BITTER CUP OF THE SAME AS MILLIONS OF PEOPLE.
they should not ever have the POWER TO DESTROY as they did,
they are there to add and pay or tell with proof if a CITIZEN is not elligible to his demands,
no more power for the IRS they prove that they could not handle power they became corrupt to the core using that POWER TO DESTROY, instead of helping which they are there only for that ,
not acting like POLICE AND LOOKING FOR ANY LOOPHOLE TO REACH THEIR GOAL OF DESTRUCTION
on the AMERICANS which are there enemies, HITLER STYLE
yes is this AMERICA? NO IT AINT NOW, until all those guilty as hell are gone,
it will not be AMERICA until you demolish the rotten house
and built a new one
The, they were merely stupid meme is falling by the wayside as we get a clearer idea of which groups were TARGETED.
We knew Tea Party groups were.
We knew groups encouraging reading the US Constitution were.
We knew 9/12 groups were.
We knew pro-Israel groups were.
We knew pro-life groups were.
Now we are learning that many Christian groups were, too.
According to one article, the only thing (other than being Christian) these groups had in common was their opposed gay marriage.
Gee, we also know that Obama’s Administration had a work-around to meet with people OFF THE WHITE HOUSE LOGS that helps hide his personal involvement. http://www.publicintegrity.org/2011/05/03/4467/impact-house-gop-criticizes-white-house-visitor-logs-0
No wonder he can stand there and lie with such a straight face.
@retire05, #8:
The Social Security Administration does not sell calling lists. They share information with other government agencies to facilitate the administration of various governmental programs. There are also circumstances when personal information can be shared with federal law enforcement agencies.
Nobody has to go to the SSA to compile a calling list of likely Social Security or Medicare eligible persons. How do you imagine organizations like the AARP know when you’re reaching retirement age? There are all manner of private sector companies that are in the business of compiling and selling your personal information. If you ever applied for a credit card, they know all about you. If you’ve been incautious when filling out user information at various internet sites, they know all about you. If you’ve filled out various polls or surveys online, they know all about you.
The Texas Attorney General’s office apparently employs one person who is either a politically motivated liar, or an idiot. The calls might be conducted across the entire state of Texas, but that proves nothing. So are calls from our dear friends Rachel and Sarah at Card Member Services (not to be confused with Cardmember Services, a legit company), Card Services, or Cardholder Services. It’s an ongoing scam. They’ve ripped consumers off to the tune of some $30 million. They also have a calling list, and it wasn’t sold to them by the federal government.
I think Barrack had it right in ’08 elections when he got asked his first tough question face-to-face….do you believe life begins at conception. Obviously a loaded personal question that had implications for policy. There were many ways he could have answered that based on his own feelings. But, he chose to bail on it and say….that question is above my pay grade.
There were many indications at the time that Obama was NOT ready to be POTUS. Because the POTUS doesn’t get to bail on questions of life and/or death. The POTUS doesn’t get to delegate the job to someone else and play community organizer. And it was also already clear from his short time in the senate, that he was a partisan who was not known for reaching across the isle..and who made some early mistakes trying to strong arm long-time senators there and ended up getting his hat handed to him. He ended up physically trying to intimidate Sen Lieberman, corning him in the building and sticking his chest out and getting up into his face. Lieberman, ever the statesman, blows as off as routine business.
But, all the signs were there. As president, he continued to surround himself by “handlers” who are more campaign experts than policy experts. He hired/appointed (without congress in many cases) political hacks as favors…many of which have already hit the trail for complete failure in their jobs. The delegator in chief. Who is quick to step up to take credit for things that go right (or he thinks have gone right). Is quiet when he isn’t sure which way the public and polls are going and insists we “wait”…and considers it carefully before he responds.. And quick to blame somebody else or suggest he was completely out of the loop..when things go wrong. Even Bob Scheifer knows the difference.
Is withdrawal and disengagement a strategy?
Inquiring minds want to know.
A brand new whistle blower is coming forward.
A man who was in a high level at the State Department.
He knew that – at the very least – that requests for more security in Libya, denied by the State Department, did reach the assistant secretaries.
He knows the names of others who might shed more light on that.
He is Raymond Maxwell, a personal friend of Amb. Christopher Stevens.
He was taken from his desk and put on paid leave 5 months ago in an attempt by Hillary to scapegoat someone, anyone.
But he was visited in the late night and demands were made that he sign a letter acknowledging his administrative leave and forfeiting his right to enter the State Department.
He refused to sign, responding in writing that it amounted to an admission he had done something wrong.
Now it looks like he’s breaking his silence.
Why?
Promises broken:
One State Department official close to the issue told The Daily Beast that Clinton’s people told the leadership of the NEA bureau that Maxwell would be given another job at State when the Benghazi scandal blew over. Maxwell said Jones assured him he would eventually be brought back to NEA as a “senior advisor,” but that Mills, Clinton’s chief of staff, reneged.
Look for the name, Raymond Maxwell.
PS, he’s a poet!
http://raymmax.wordpress.com/
Another poem about the day he and three others were put on leave:
@Nan G: #26,
Don’t know if he’s about to turn into a whistleblower in the accurate sense of the term. He’s pissed because he got used by his liberal rulers, however, it’s a long road to flapping his lips about illicit activity by his bosses while showing evidence.
Maxwell will be pressured by the O. minions, and even threatened. He was evidently fine with the statist progressive political ideology and he was OK with the ‘ideologicals’ until the machine turned on him – as it does on everyone of its lackeys.
A few poems don’t provide much of anything other than an oblique scratching of an irritation with two people who were his almighties.
If Stevens had been your friend, close or not, would writing poetry be your best shot at retaliation against those who allowed his death to occur? Would that have been your best approach to exposing deadly corruption of political purpose? You would have at the very least long been on the phone with anyone who might listen and you would have been on talking to every news channel you could find.
His poem mentions “blood sacrifice” . . . . not Stevens’ blood, but his own blood referencing his being dumped. Huh? Is this what is meant by “whining?” Is this the perspective of a caring man?
NAN G
HE was a friend of STEVEN, yes there is always my job to keep,
good pay, bonus, free benefits, medical free,
that’s worthy to balance, but the one who are dying in AFGHANISTAN
to keep the haters there and not here,
that is worthy to balance between my COUNTRY,now in hell,
AMERICA you are worthy of the CITIZENS who know more of you and protect you
those with roots on the ground deep and spread outward from underneath
to support you AMERICA the BEAUTIFUL heavy with the gone BRAVES BONES LAID underneath
when they came back, this all under the STATES OF AMERICA to support the citizens
so to give them a secure footing to grow and stand tall like their previous generation did, and unafraid to pray GOD
yes you are worthy to be chosen as oppose to my job which now demand me a choice,
so to expose the corrupt and liars with intent to destroy my VERY SPECIAL COUNTRY
who gave me the freedom to choose between her and the evil people in POWER to hurt the good PEOPLE,
I CHOOSE AMERICA , she is my love, I wont let her be destroyed,
give me my pen and notebook, here I AM AMERICA.
I must tell now.