I know that I’m supposed to be outraged at President Obama about something, but for the life of me, I’m not entirely clear on what. Thankfully, I caught a few minutes of Morning Joe today, and somewhat enlightened, I thought that I would share some of what I learned.
Benghazi
We now know that the e-mail that got ABC and the rest of the traditional media flustered last week does not exist. You know, the nonexistent e-mail where the State Department spokesperson reportedly scrubbed talking points provided by Intelligence—talking points identifying the suspected attackers who President Obama (inexplicably) wouldn’t have wanted us to know about before the election.
So what are we supposed to be outraged about today? Well, White House spokesperson Jay Carney had previously told reporters that there was just one edit to the talking points provided by Intelligence when, in fact, there were multiple edits. Were these edits malignant in any way? Irrelevant. Carney said one. So.
Oh. Let’s not forget…President Obama used the word “terror” on the day after the attacks, not “terrorism.” Don’t worry. The Washington Post’s Fact Checker is all over that one.
IRS
Non-political civil servants at the IRS improperly targeted grass-roots Tea Party-like groups for extra scrutiny when they applied for non-profit status. Were any of these applicants ultimately denied non-profit status? No. Was the Obama Administration or Obama appointees involved? No. Is there any evidence that the decision to target these groups was “motivated by partisan interests?” No. To the contrary.
Like many of you, I knew that I should be angry at the President, but I wasn’t sure why. So what are we supposed to be outraged about? Well, according to Joe Scarborough, we should be outraged at the fact that President Obama took too long to publicly express his outrage. Obama waited until his Monday morning press conference rather than expressing his outrage on Saturday, the day after the news came out.
AP
It appears that the Justice Department may have ignored their own guidelines when seeking subpoena’s for Associated Press telephone records. The Justice Department was investigating national security leaks—investigations that Scarborough and other right-wing figures had demanded last year when such leaks were believed to help Obama’s re-election effort. The irony is rich.
Anyway, is President Obama familiar with the details of such Justice Department investigations? Appropriately, no. Was Eric Holder? Appropriately, no…since he had recused himself from the investigation because, casting a broad net, he was a potential subject of the investigation.
So, why should we be mad at President Obama about these Justice Department activities? Well, unfortunately, Joe's not sure yet. But we need to find out when Obama first learned about this because, you know, he probably needed to show his outrage sooner. Outrage that, undoubtedly, would have been a scandal itself because then Obama would likely have been accused of attempting to block an investigation into leaks that might have helped his re-election effort.
Oh, never mind.
Note: I'm unable to find transcripts to today's episode of Morning Joe. Please feel free to provide the link(s) if and when you come across them.