Democrats are blushing. And not because Anthony Weiner is back on Twitter, direct-messaging pretty young girls.
Vice President Joe Biden has long held the title of “Liberal Loose Cannon.” But Biden is such a grand hugger and hand-shaker that Democrats still let him work the crowds, crossing their fingers that he won’t say something like: “In Delaware, the largest growth in population is Indian Americans, moving from India; you cannot go to a 7-Eleven or a Dunkin’ Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent… and I’m not joking!”
Slips-of-tongue are easily forgiven (we all make them). But, lately, the Obama administration has been exposed for outright evasion and cover-ups, causing disappointment, anger and embarrassment among independents and Democrats.
Let’s run though how independents and Democrats are expressing their embarrassment in the Obama administration’s lack of transparency:
MADDER THAN HELL AT HOLDER:
Cue King Herod: the press corps wants the head of Attorney General Eric Holder on a metaphorical platter.
On May 23, the front page of the Huffington Post read: TIME TO GO, HOLDER OK’D PRESS PROBE. On Twitter, the Huffington Post editors taunted Holder: “We have a message for Attorney General Holder over at http://huffingtonpost.com,” inviting him to read their scorching assessment of his record.
Obama’s highest law enforcement officer failed to uphold the laws protecting free speech, due process and private property and now he also appears to be lying about his malfeasance.
Holder violated the Constitution and the Department of Justice’s own regulations by approving subpoenas for the phone records of journalists from the Associated Press, the New York Times and Fox News. In the Fox News case, Holder wrongfully classified reporter James Rosen as a “criminal” in order to obtain a 2010 search warrant to tap five lines associated with Rosen. Neither the Associated Press nor Fox News were notified of these probes until afterward, contrary to the law:
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“Justice Department regulations call for subpoenas for journalists’ phone records to be undertaken as a last resort and narrowly focused, subject to the attorney general’s personal signoff. Under normal circumstances, the regulations call for notice and negotiations, giving the news organization a chance to challenge the subpoena in court,” explains the New York Times. Plus: “…Congress has forbidden search warrants for journalists’ work product materials unless the reporter committed a crime.”
During a May 15 hearing, Holder said: "With regard to the potential prosecution of the press for the disclosure of material, that is not something that I've ever been involved in, heard of or would think would be a wise policy. In fact, my view is quite the opposite." This is hard to believe since NBC confirmed that Holder approved the Fox News search warrant.
When Holder offered to meet with the press on condition that the meeting be “off the record,” the media said: “Heck no!” Here are a few of the media groups that refused to meet with Holder:
· CNN
· CBS News
· Fox News
· The New York Times
· Associated Press
· Huffington Post
· McClatchy
James Asher, Washington bureau chief for McClatchy, expressed the sentiments of the entire media when he said: “If the government wants to justify its pursuit of journalists, they ought to do it in public.”
The left-leaning press may have helped Obama get elected by boosting his ego, finessing his community organizer resume and overlooking his flaws. But now that Obama is biting the hands that fed him, those hands are slapping him in the face.
LET DOWN BY OBAMA:
On May 9, Democratic strategist Doug Sosnik wrote a 12-page paper on the state of politics in America. He wrote:
“The country is still looking for change that it can believe in.
Since the beginning of Obama's second year in office, every NBC/WSJ poll has shown that half or more of Americans believed that the country is headed in the wrong direction, at one point reaching as high as 74%. Their most recent April poll found that more than 60% of Americans believe the country is still on the wrong track.”
Obama on Benghazi:
Many members of the mainstream media (think CBS’ Bob Schieffer and Sharyl Attkisson) are showing their frustration over Obama’s refusal tocome clean with the press on the Benghazi talking points. The facts show that the White House crafted inaccurate public talking points and sent U.S. diplomat Susan Rice to deliver this false narrative on five Sunday talk shows. Rice claimed that an obscure You Tube video (not terror) caused the attack that took the lives of four Americans in Benghazi, Libya on September 11, 2012
“There’s no ‘there’ there.” This was the President’s petty response to the press on May 13 regarding Rice’s talking points. He basically insulted serious journalists on both the right and the left, accusing them of creating a “political circus” when in fact he is the ringleader of an act bigger than Barnum and Baily’s.
Obama on IRS targeting:
“Irrelevant.” On May 19, during the heat of the IRS scandal, Obama’s adviser Dan Pfeiffer went on five Sunday news shows and proclaimed that it was “irrelevant” whether the IRS violated the law when targeting the applications of non-profits from tea party groups.
ABC’s left-leaning George Stephanopoulos challenged Pfeiffer: “You don’t really mean the law is irrelevant do you?”
A May 30 Quinnipiac University poll found that President Obama’s job approval rating has slipped significantly among independents, by nine percentage points since May 1. This poll indicates that May’s big three scandals—the IRS-targeting of tea party and patriot groups, the testimonies of Benghazi whistleblowers and Eric Holder’s probes into reporters—have tainted the public’s trust of Obama’s leadership.
Obama used to be the cool kid but he is losing his cool factor. His former Democratic and independent allies are keeping their distance. This situation is simultaneously revitalizing and sad because it would ultimately be best for our country if the President and his administration were trustworthy and reliable.
Whatever our political views, we all want free speech; we all want the Department of Justice to administer justice and we all want our President to tell us the truth.
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