Three major scandals in one week target the President
By Roger Caldwell
The second term for presidents can be plagued with controversies, because the media and the losing party are always looking for trouble and an investigation. Everyone remembers the Monica Lewinski scandal, where President Clinton was almost impeached in his second term. During his first term President George Bush was a hero and during his second term the economy collapsed, and many of the citizens wanted him impeached.
President Obama has just won his second term as president, and it appeared that he was beginning to develop a bipartisan political alliance in Congress. The President had convinced the Republican Party to raise taxes on the rich and the House is getting ready to agree on an immigration reform bill. But in the second week of May, three major scandals have exploded in Congress and the media, and the Obama Administration and the president have been forced to operate in a damage control mode.
âMy concern is making sure that if there is a problem in the government that we fix it. Thatâs my responsibility, and thatâs what weâre going to do,â says President Obama. When three scandals break out in the same week the president must be proactive and aggressive, because everyone is looking for leadership from the man in charge.
First there is the Benghazi scandal that the Republicans refuse to let go. The Republicans tried to use this tragedy to defeat the president in the election and failed, but there are still many questions that need to be answered. Where was the president during the 8 hour attack and what was Hillary Clinton doing? How did the state Department get the first story wrong, and who should take the blame?
The second scandal is the IRS debacle, and President Obama admitted that the issues were legitimate and the acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller had been forced to resign. Basically, the charge is that the IRS had singled out and harassed conservative political groups during the election year of 2012. Anytime someone mentions the IRS, they think that something is wrong, but it looks like the IRS is practicing dirty politics.
The final scandal is the assault on the media and the right to a free press and the first amendment. It appears that the Attorney General Eric Holder and the Department of Justice used secret subpoenas to get journalist phone records. The DOJ obtained phone records of the Associated Press and this sets a very dangerous precedent, because once the DOJ can do this once, it can become standard operating procedure.
After four years of looking for dirt on the president and his administration, the Republicans have hit pay dirt. Without a doubt there will be three major investigations and hearings, and everyone will begin to dig to find out who is at fault.
âThese three events that have gotten so much attention over the last few days, IRS, AP, and Benghazi tend to confirm a lot of our worst fears about our government. They tend to tell us what we donât want to believe, but that sometimes might be true, that your governmentâs targeting you, that your governmentâs spying on you, and that your government is lying to you,â says GOP Sen. Mike Lee of Utah.
Everything that Senator Lee is saying is true, but at times to keep the citizen secure it is necessary to stop terrorist before they can strike. There is a thin line between the abuse of power and government enforcing the law.
In order to address these scandals, it is necessary for President Obama to be proactive and transparent with his response to the dirty politics allegations. If there are no criminal wrongdoing the president must clean up the affected departments. Scandals are a part of being the president, and his ability to fix the problems is the reason he was voted into office.
