E. J. Dionne Jr.: Liar at the Washington Post

Dainty Boy
There is no reason to be dainty or evasive in saying that racism and racial resentment are part of the equation, and it’s not just that Obama is our first African American president. Racial politics has been helping Republicans since the 1960s when much of the white South realigned toward the GOP in reaction to the Democrats’ embrace of civil rights. (E.J. Dionne Jr., Washington Post, 10/19/2014)

Dionne thinks that no one knows how Democrats and Republicans voted on the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Wrong, E.J. This from Wikipedia:

The Senate version:
Democratic Party: 46–21   (69–31%)
Republican Party: 27–6   (82–18%)

The Senate version, voted on by the House:
Democratic Party: 153–91   (63–37%)
Republican Party: 136–35   (80–20%)

So, Dainty Boy, turns out that Republican supported civil rights by A HIGHER PERCENTAGE than Democrats. We will await your apology. Our guess is that - as with all things Democrat - it will come AFTER the election. 


Instability
A newly created database of New Yorkers deemed too mentally unstable to carry firearms has grown to roughly 34,500 names, a previously undisclosed figure that has raised concerns among some mental health advocates that too many people have been categorized as dangerous. (New York Times, 10/19/2014)

Of course, when one of these crazies goes on a killing spree Liberals will bemoan the country's lax firearm laws.


Wonderful
One of the wonders of this political moment is feminist contentment about the infantilization of women in the name of progressive politics. Government, encouraging academic administrations to micromanage campus sexual interactions, now assumes that, absent a script, women cannot cope. And the Democrats’ trope about the Republicans’ “war on women” clearly assumes that women are civic illiterates.

Access to contraception has been a constitutional right for 49 years (Griswold v. Connecticut, 1965). The judiciary has controlled abortion policy for 41 years (Roe v. Wade, 1973). Yet the Democratic Party thinks women can be panicked into voting about mythical menaces to these things. (George Will, Washington Post, 10/17/2014)

Great column by Will reminding us (yet again) that Democrats are the Party of Grievances, Real or Imagined. 


Little Man
Bernie’s annual average growth rate in net worth 2004-2012 was 29%.  The average American’s growth rate for the same period?  -0.94%.  So when Bernie’s telling you he’s working for the little guy, remember that in Berniespeak, little guy means “Bernie Sanders”. (Chris Campion, ethanallen.org, 10/13/2014)

Colonel Bernie Sanders: Vermont's Millionaire Socialist. 


Strike Out
No one knows if the Obama administration will manage in the next five weeks to strike what many in the White House consider the most important foreign policy deal of his presidency: an accord with Iran that would forestall its ability to make a nuclear weapon. But the White House has made one significant decision: If agreement is reached, President Obama will do everything in his power to avoid letting Congress vote on it. (New York Times, 10/20/2014)

Choose your response:

-Gwyneth Paltrow will be just so pleased.

-Democracy in action.

-What Imperial Presidency?

Keeping Score

Everything Old
The Obama administration is preparing to carry out a campaign against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria that may take three years to complete, requiring a sustained effort that could last until after President Obama has left office, according to senior administration officials. (New York Times, 9/8/2014)

President Obama's proposed military actions in the Middle East were met by boisterous objections from Dennis Kucinich, Bernie Sanders, Code Pink and Senator Barack Obama. 

Get it?


Price of Victory
Unilateral action by the president might undermine the prospects for bipartisan agreement on a broad immigration overhaul for years to come.

As the election draws closer, some nervous Senate Democrats have told White House officials that President Obama’s actions could cost them victory at the polls.

It was that concern, shared by members of Mr. Obama’s inner circle as well as other members of Congress, White House officials said, that ultimately prompted the president to break the promise he made on June 30 in the Rose Garden to act on his own before summer’s end to fix the immigration system. (New York Times, 9/8/2014)

Another broken promise! Is anyone out there keeping track...anyone?

And again, Obama will not act - at least for now - to implement a policy that if implemented would cause people not to vote for Democrats. Sounds like another winner.


Pointless
His (new Meet the Press host Chuck Todd) questions to President Obama were succinct and pointed, but Mr. Obama is not a rewarding guest in a one-on-one interview. He tends to give long, meditative and atonal answers that wear down listeners. (New York Times, 9/8/2014)

So Obama is boring and doesn't answer the question asked. Really? The greatest orator of this or any generation?


For Better or Worse
His policy is better than he has articulated it.... (E.J. Dionne, Jr., Washington Post, 9/3/2014)

Does Dionne even recognize the irony of what he writes? Obama the orator (the greatest of this or any generation - see above) is unable to 'articlulate' his foreign policy. 


Round Up
When President Obama addresses the nation on Wednesday to explain his plan to defeat Islamic extremists in Iraq and Syria, it is a fair bet he will not call them the “JV team.”

Nor does he seem likely to describe Iraq as “sovereign, stable and self-reliant” with a “representative government.” And presumably he will not assert after more than a decade of conflict that “the tide of war is receding.”

As he seeks to rally Americans behind a new military campaign in the Middle East, Mr. Obama finds his own past statements coming back to haunt him. Time and again, he has expressed assessments of the world that in the harsh glare of hindsight look out of kilter with the changed reality he now confronts. (New York Times, 9/9/2014)

Yes, that about sums it up. Thank you New York Times. It's true we are hard on you, but it feels so right and so honest when you get it correct.


Heartless
A new ABC News poll has nothing but heartache for Democrats and President Obama. By a wide margin of 52-42%, voters see President Obama as a failed president. Americans also see Obama as more of a divider than uniter. Only 38% believe President Obama is uniting the country. A majority of 55% believe he's dividing the country. (Breitbart.com, 9/9/2014)

And he is not yet halfway through his second term! Just think of how much further Obama has to fall. Let's hope Americans remember the next time they use the polls to elect novelty candidates. 

Strange Incantations

Meet E.J. Dionne Jr. - The Washington Post's Most Dishonest Op-Ed Writer
Is there any accountability in American politics for being completely wrong? Is there any cost to those who say things that turn out not to be true and then, when their fabrications or false predictions are exposed, calmly move on to concocting new claims as if they had never made the old ones? (E.J. Dionne Jr., Washington Post, 4/2/2014)

Dionne attacks Republicans for "being wrong" in insisting that Obamacare would not reach its (dubious) enrollment targets. Any four year old would recognize that his point can easily be turned around to indict Obama. Only it is worse in Obama's case because he was not just wrong about his "You can keep your insurance plan/doctor/hospital" assurances. He actually lied...willfully. So, E.J., where is the accountability that you so desperately crave?

And as to the White House grandstanding on the enrollment numbers, let's turn to Hollywood (not generally known for giving Obama much pushback) for an explanation:

That’s right, the White House said that it surpassed its goal for people enrolled in ObamaCare. It’s amazing what you can achieve when you make something mandatory and fine people if they don't do it. And then keep extending the deadline for months. It’s like a Cinderella story. It’s just a beautiful thing. You make everyone do it. Isn’t it great how many people do it? But if you still haven't enrolled, you might have to pay a penalty called the individual shared responsibility payment, which is 1% of your salary. Then Americans said, ‘Man, good thing I don't have a job. (Jimmy Fallon, from Townhall.com, 4/3/2014)


This Just In...From a While Ago
One state senator was charged with conspiring to traffic in arms from the Philippines, and taking bribes from undercover F.B.I. agents including one who posed as a marijuana dealer. Another was accused of taking bribes from federal agents impersonating Hollywood film executives. And a third was convicted of perjury and voter fraud after lying about where he lived when he ran for office.

All three are Democratic state senators from California, and their recent legal problems have brought rare bad news to a party that has come to thoroughly dominate politics in this state but now looks besieged by high-profile corruption cases. (New York Times, 4/3/2014)

News Flash: Times Breaks its Silence on (Some) Democrat Scandals!

Now what was it again that caused Harry Reid to have to return money to his campaign....?

Drastic Measures

Taxing
In the budget proposal that Mr. Hickenlooper released Wednesday, his office said the state could collect about $134 million in taxes from recreational and medical marijuana for the fiscal year beginning in July. He proposed to spend $99 million on programs including substance-abuse treatment, preventing marijuana use by children and teenagers, public health and law enforcement. (New York Times, 2/21/2014)

Only Democrats could come up with this: legalize dope; collect $134 million in taxes on dope: spend $99 million on anti-dope programs. It defies common sense, but that is what Dems do.


Limiting
Cities, counties, public schools and community colleges around the country have limited or reduced the work hours of part-time employees to avoid having to provide them with health insurance under the Affordable Care Act, state and local officials say. (New York Times, 2/20/2014)

Wonder why this was not the front page headline of every paper and website? 

Answer: When the public sector mimics the private sector it is not good news for Democrats.


Lesser
President Obama will drop from his latest budget request a plan to use a less-generous measure of inflation when calculating Social Security cost-of-living increases, according to White House officials. (Washington Post, 2/20/2014)

How serious are Democrats about entitlement reform? 

Answer: Not at all.


Ruler
A Nebraska judge ruled Wednesday that the state violated its constitution when it allowed the governor to approve the route of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, a decision that could significantly delay the $5.3 billion project. (Washington Post, 2/19/2014)

Liberal judges ruining America. Gives Obama cover though, doesn't it?


Discord
The United States informed its NATO allies this month that Russia had tested a new ground-launched cruise missile, raising concerns about Moscow’s compliance with a landmark arms control accord. (New York Times, 1/29/2014)

Why did Putin stick it to Obama? 

Answer: He knows him.


Flex
The Obama administration said it would postpone enforcement of a federal requirement for medium-size employers to provide health insurance to employees and allow larger employers more flexibility in how they provide coverage. (New York Times, 2/11/2014)

Next in line for an Obamacare delay: employers in-between "medium-sized" and "larger."


Untimely
For Obama, now is not the time for defensiveness. His current difficulties owe less to Obamacare’s early problems than to a broader alienation fostered by the Republicans’ ability to block government efforts to ease widespread economic stress. (E.J. Dionne, Jr., Washington Post, 1/26/2014)

Question for Dionne. How out-of-touch does an op-ed writer have to be to say that Obama's low popularity is NOT the fault of Obamacare, but rather is the fault of Republicans?

An honest writer might say the following:

It is not only that the president’s political support is diminished; it is diminished, in large part, because of his main political achievement, the Affordable Care Act. Because of the way the law was sold — “you can keep your plan” — Americans have questions about Obama’s credibility. Because of the way it has been implemented — “the system is down at the moment” — they have questions about his competence. In a recent Quinnipiac University poll, a plurality of American voters doubts that Obama is “honest and trustworthy,” and a majority believes the Obama administration is not competent at running the government. (Michael Gerson, Washington Post, 1/27/2014)


Finding
Former Mayor C. Ray Nagin of New Orleans was found guilty on Wednesday of accepting payoffs for city contracts, becoming the first leader in the city’s history to be charged and convicted of corruption. (New York Times, 2/12/2014)

President George W. Bush will now accept your apologies for all criticism directed at him in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Let Us Go Then

Wonderin'
Why did MSNBC's Chris Matthews fail to ask President Obama to grade himself on his five years in office? Last time Obama was asked he gave himself a B+. What does he think he deserves now?

What happened to the "Republican War on Women" that we heard so much about during the last presidential election? Is it over? Who won?


Briefs
...charitable contributions made by the Jane Fonda Foundation. Grand total for the years 2007 to 2011: zero dollars.
...
Ms. Fonda isn't exactly the world's first cheapskate limousine liberal: Think of Bill Clinton claiming a tax deduction for donating his underwear, or the $353 Al Gore gave to charity in 1997. (Bret Stephens, WSJ, 12/16/2013)

Why are Liberals such cheapskates when it comes to charitable giving? Because they believe that the government should be responsible for charity through entitlement programs.


Valued
Politicians talk about family values but do almost nothing to help families. They talk about parental responsibility but do almost nothing to help parents. They talk about self-sufficiency but do precious little to make self-sufficiency a reality for those who must struggle hardest to achieve it.
....
...it was exciting last week to see Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut introduce the FAMILY Act, the acronym standing for their Family and Medical Insurance Leave Act. The bill would provide partial income for up to 12 weeks of leave for new parents and for other family demands, such as care for a sick family member, including a domestic partner. (E.J. Dionne, Jr., Washington Post, 12/15/2013)

So Dionne Jr. believes it is the duty of government to promote family values, apparently by giving families more government-mandated freebies. This is the essence of Liberal philosophy: illogical, contradictory, and bizarre. 

Did you drop out of school and get hooked on drugs? Did you get pregnant and then abandoned by your drug-addicted boyfriend? Do you have three children by three different men? Do you abuse your health through alcohol and fast food? Would you rather panhandle than clean toilets? Not to worry! Liberals will give you complete immunity and protect you from your bad decisions. It's Family Values!


Critical Care
In America’s health-care dialogue, emergency rooms have come to symbolize the system’s economic and medical defects. To critics, typical ERs are swamped by the uninsured, who — lacking a regular doctor or source of care — go where they will be treated. Performing routine medicine at high prices, ERs are crowded and costly. If the uninsured had insurance, these problems would recede. Better medicine at less cost.

Who could oppose that? Well, nobody. It was a selling point for the Affordable Care Act. The trouble is that the story is mostly make-believe. (Robert J. Samuelson, Washington Post, 12/11/2013)

Good article which we recommend to Liberal bloggers who continually cite the use of emergency rooms by the uninsured as a major reason why we need Obamacare. Maybe not....

Counting the Score

Sign Post
Mr. Biden’s attendance is a sign, Democratic officials here say, that he wants Iowa voters to know he is very much considering another White House bid in 2016. (NYT, 8/11/2013)

Run Joe, run!

In keeping with our practice of supporting the novelty candidacy of Democrats for office (see Sharpton, Rev Al; Weiner, Anthony; Spitzer, Eliot) RedStateVT urges Joe to get in the race. It's not too early, especially with Hillary out there grabbing the headlines. (Benghazi? What's Benghazi?)


Limited
In another setback for President Obama’s health care initiative, the administration has delayed until 2015 a significant consumer protection in the law that limits how much people may have to spend on their own health care.
...
The discovery is likely to fuel continuing Republican efforts this fall to discredit the president’s health care law. (NYT, 8/12/2013)

Republicans do not have to do anything to discredit the law. That is happening organically.


Two By Four
Two decisions Monday, one by a federal judge in New York and the other by Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., were powerful signals that the pendulum has swung away from the tough-on-crime policies of a generation ago. Those policies have been denounced as discriminatory and responsible for explosive growth in the prison population. (NYT, 8/12/2013)

And yet somehow, magically almost, crime is down. Liberals just do not get this whole cause-and-effect thing.


Sympathies
Whenever I write sympathetically about religion, I get bombarded by tweets and notes from readers who normally agree with me but cannot abide by the idea that religious belief should be seen as intellectually serious.
...
Getting lambasted doesn’t bother me. On the contrary, citizens talking back to the purveyors of opinion is a glorious aspect of free speech. But my correspondents underscore the existence of a strong anti-religious current within a segment of the liberal community that is both an important political fact and a potential problem for progressives. (E.J. Dionne Jr., Washington Post, 8/4/2013)

Loyal readers know that Dionne Jr. is often a subject of our ridicule. Today we will give him a tip o' the hat for calling out Liberals on their animosity toward religion. We saw this first hand recently at a local lecture. The topic was a theistic view of the big bang theory and the speaker was a local professor who was also a minister. His presentation was wonderful. He was clear about where his beliefs lay; he was scientific in his approach; and he fervently welcomed a discussion on opposing views. Such openness and candor which drew scorn from the atheists in the audience who were more interest in scoring cheap shots then in having an intellectual discussion.


How Bob Filner Can Save His Political Career
San Diego Mayor Bob Filner’s endurance in the face of mounting sexual harassment accusations may be driven by his need to get out of an even bigger problem: a federal criminal investigation that has received little attention from the national media. (Dailycaller.com, 8/9/2013)

It is very simple, actually. All Filner has to do to escape sexual harassment charges is to issue a press release reaffirming his iron-clad, 100% support of abortion. All abortion including late-term abortion, partial birth abortion, abortion for minors, abortion for minors without parental notification. Feminists and Liberals will rally to his defense. 

Relentless Advance

Whistle Stop
In a new statement, the fugitive whistleblower Edward Snowden said President Obama was employing “old, bad tools of political aggression’’ in his campaign to prevent Snowden from gaining political asylum. 

"Although I am convicted of nothing,’’ Snowden said, the Obama administration “has unilaterally revoked my passport, leaving me a stateless person.’’ (Washington Post, 7/1/2013)

So taking a page from the Democrat playbook, Snowden announces that he is a victim. We prefer to think of him as something else. A traitor.


Count Down
New York Times IRS Scandal Article Count for the Day: Zero

New York Times Unemployment Rate Article Count for the Day: Zero

New York Times Gay-Themed Article Count for the Day: Six


Defiance
Mayor Michael Bloomberg answered his critics on Sunday with a defiant defense of his comments that the New York Police Department doesn't stop minorities often enough based on murder suspect descriptions.

"The numbers are the numbers, and the numbers clearly show that the stops are generally proportionate with suspects' descriptions and for years now critics have been trying to argue that minorities are stopped disproportionately," he said before the city's gay-pride march Sunday. "If you look at the crime numbers, that is just not true. The numbers don't lie." (WSJ, 6/30/2013)

We are not big fans of New York's Mayor Nanny Bloomberg, but he gets a RedStateVT tip o' the hat for standing up on the issue of profiling criminals. Yes, the numbers is the numbers!


Imperativo
Conservatism will flounder unless it remembers the imperative of addressing the interests of the many, not the few. (E.J. Dionne Jr., Washington Post, 6/30/2013)

Dionne's ditty today is another one of those helpful columns that Liberals write in which they try to help Conservatives. Their advice typically runs to the need of Conservatives to embrace (pick one) abortion, gay marriage, higher taxes, socialized healthcare, drivers licenses for illegals...you get the picture. He ends by repeating the old canard above: Conservatives are so selfish, all they care about is themselves! It's a schoolyard taunt, devoid of any measure of reality. 

So we'll say it again. Conservatives want everyone to succeed. They want to create a society where anyone (even the mixed race child of an absentee father and a wanderlust mother) can achieve their dreams through hard work and perseverance. Liberals want to create their version of a just society by taking from the achievers and giving to the non-achievers. 

Unfinished Work

Keeping On
He’s an anti-ideological leader in an ideological age, a middle-of-the-road liberal skeptical of the demands placed on a movement leader, a politician often disdainful of the tasks that politics asks him to perform. He wants to invite the nation to reason together with him when nearly half the country thinks his premises and theirs are utterly at odds. Doing so is unlikely to get any easier. But being Barack Obama, he’ll keep trying. (E.J. Dionne Jr., Washington Post, 5/26/2013)

Dionne's love sonnet to Obama reminds us just how hard it is to be Obama. What with the Tea Party and everything....

And so RedStateVT will offer up again (for the umpteenth time) why Republicans do not trust Obama (and it has nothing to do with the birth certificate stuff that Dionne feels compelled to mention in order to delegitimize all of Obama's critics):

Obama and the Dems used parliamentary tricks to pass a healthcare bill that Republicans unanimously voted against. Never mind the argument that Obamacare was a Heritage idea. It does not matter. No Republicans supported it.

Obama got his bill but he forfeited for the rest of his term(s) any chance of Republicans working with him. 

Dionne and fellow bloggers can call Obama a moderate or a middle-of-the-road guy or a non-ideologue until they are blue in the face. We are not buying it. 

And speaking of the Tea Party, close followers of the political scene (e.g. RedStateVT) note that the Legitimate Media has stepped up their usual negative rhetoric on the Tea Party and (particularly) its pernicious effect on the Republican Party. The reason is, of course, obvious. They cannot have the Tea Party viewed in a sympathetic way by the public as a result of being targeted by the IRS. And so - to achieve the Liberal idea of balance - we get the hit pieces. 


Seemingly
Was there really any meaningful connection between the bloody Boston rampage and international jihadism? It seems likely that an al-Qaeda Web site taught the Boston bombers how to build their pressure-cooker bombs, but what about the alienation they obviously felt? What about their mental health? (Eugene Robinson, Washington Post, 5/27/2013)

Washington Post columnist Robinson concurs with Obama that the Bush War on Terror is over. (Yes, there are going to be things like the Boston Marathon bombing and that guy in Britain who decapitated a soldier, but not to worry!)  We'll refrain from a larger discussion about the dangers of the Obama/Robinson mindset because Robinson gives us an unexpected gem here. 

You already noticed it, didn't you?

Yes, the "mental health" of the  domestic terrorists. Liberals absolutely refused to talk about mental health when it came to Adam Lanza and the Newtown massacre. 

Refused. 

Why? 

Because they wanted to make the issue about gun control and gun control only. Now because they do not want to talk about Islamic fascism they suddenly do want to talk about mental health. Thankfully you have RedStateVT to expose the hypocrisy. 

Castles Burning

Words
But his own words only fed the attacks. On ABC’s news program “This Week,” Mr. Pfeiffer said that he did not know whether laws had been broken at the I.R.S., but that regardless, the agency’s actions were seriously wrong.

“I can’t speak to the law here,” he said. “The law is irrelevant. The activity was outrageous and inexcusable, and it was stopped, and it needs to be fixed so we ensure it never happens again.” (NYT, 5/19/2013)

Unfortunately, Team Obama keeps providing inadvertent and disastrous soundbites. Witness Hillary saying "what difference does it make?" in responding to a Benghazi question, Obama exhorting the press to "move on" from the death of four Americans and now Pfeiffer claiming the "law is irrelevant." And then there is Jay Carney who assures us (fourteen times and counting) that Obama believes in "an unfettered press." 


Ignorance
We know American politics are dysfunctional. But after a week of scandal obsession during which the nation’s capital and the media virtually ignored the problems most voters care about — jobs, incomes, growth, opportunity, education — it’s worth asking if there is something especially flawed about our democracy. (E.J. Dionne Jr., Washington Post, 5/19/2013)

So according to Dionne and fellow Liberals, we should stop focusing on government corruption and start focusing on jobs. Well Republicans have been talking about jobs for the past five years...but whatever. 

What Republicans should say is - parroting Obama who said that he could do Obamacare and climate change (or was it Obamacare and gay marriage?) - that they can investigate the Obama Scandals(tm) and do immigration. 

Multi-tasking, that's it.


Folded
How does an administration move on from scandals that are still unfolding?
...
The White House is looking to claim scandal victory because it was shown that House Republicans overcooked their characterizations of the administration cover up of the involvement of Islamist militants in the raid on a U.S. diplomatic outpost in Libya. “We deceived you, but not as badly as our opponents claimed,” has got to be the slimmest solace ever offered to reporters on a scandal.
...
Even the announcement of the scandal is scandalous. The IRS official who went public with the internal audit that found the agency had targeted Obama’s political enemies planted a phony question on the topic with a friendly lawyer at a roundtable discussion for tax attorneys. Don’t do that. (Chris Stirewalt, Foxnews.com, 5/20/2013)

We have seen a bit of Stirewalt lately. He is good. 

We love his point that Democrats want to "move on" from the Obama Scandals(tm) even before we know everything there is to know. 

So to review the changing Democrat narrative:

-There is no scandal/wrongdoing.
-Whatever scandal/wrongdoing there might have been is old news.
-George Bush is to blame.
-We need to focus on jobs. And education. And immigration. And climate change. 

Counting the Broken Ties

Misunderstood
The Internal Revenue Service, according to an inspector general’s report, was not reacting to political pressure or ideology when it singled out conservative groups for special scrutiny in evaluating requests for tax exemptions. It acted inappropriately because employees couldn't understand inadequate guidelines. (New York Times editorial, 5/16/2013)

Such guidelines which said to scrutinize conservative groups? No ideological issue there, huh?

The utter lack of curiosity by the Legitimate Media about the Obama Scandals (we are trademarking that one, too) is truly astounding. The same media, for example, which spilled endless ink over two fruitcakes like Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame is suddenly maxed out on Benghazi and the IRS. Everyday they confirm what conservatives say about a biased media.

Of course the real goal of Republicans - the Times tells - us is stopping Obama's agenda. Exactly.


Remote Control 
It is not even remotely possible that all this was an accident, a mistake. Again, only conservative groups were targeted, not liberal. It is not even remotely possible that only one IRS office was involved. Lois Lerner, who oversees tax-exempt groups for the IRS, was the person who finally acknowledged, under pressure of a looming investigative report, some of what the IRS was doing. She told reporters the actions were the work of "frontline people" in Cincinnati. But other offices were involved, including Washington. It is not even remotely possible the actions were the work of just a few agents. This was more systemic. It was an operation. The word was out: Get the Democratic Party's foes. It is not remotely possible nobody in the IRS knew what was going on until very recently. The Washington Post reported efforts to target the conservative groups reached the highest levels of the agency by May 2012—far earlier than the agency had acknowledged. Reuters reported high-level IRS officials, including its chief counsel, knew in August 2011 about the targeting. (Peggy Noonan, WSJ, 4/16/2013)

Liberal astonishment that Republicans have jumped on the Obama Scandals(tm)  does not pass "the shoe on the other foot test." Would Bush's IRS targeting Media Matters raise the ire of Dems? Of course it would.


Back-to-Back
One tactic was to misrepresent the Benghazi attack, lest it undermine his narrative about taming terrorism. Does anyone think the administration’s purpose in manufacturing 12 iterations of the talking points was to make them more accurate? (George Will, Washington Post, 5/16/2013)

Four days after the IRS announced that it discriminated against conservative organizations, Carney said repeatedly in his daily briefing that, if true, the president would be outraged. If? By then, the IRS had not only admitted the grievous misconduct but apologized for it — and the president was speaking in the conditional. (Charles Krauthammer, Washington Post, 5/16/2013)

Conservatives have the brilliance of Will and Krauthammer. Liberals have Dionne and vanden Heuvel. We like our team's chances. 

Pockets of Resistance

Weighs, Leaps, Stints
As he weighs whether to leap into the race for mayor this year, Mr. Weiner’s lucrative stint in business could serve as a compelling campaign credential, blunting efforts to portray him as a career politician, even as it raises uncomfortable questions about the speed with which he cashed in on his government connections. (NYT, 4/29/2013)

The New York Times in 2011:  "As he weighs whether to leap into the race for president this year, Mr. Romney's lucrative stint in business could serve as a compelling campaign credential...."

Just kidding!


Evidentiary
President Obama on Tuesday said there will be no rush to judgment on escalating U.S. intervention in Syria until there is hard evidence of the use of chemical weapons by the government. 

“We now have evidence that chemical weapons have been used inside of Syria,” he said in a wide-ranging news conference at the White House. “But we don’t know when they were used, how they were used, or who used them [...] If we end up rushing to judgment without hard, effective evidence, then we can find ourselves where we can’t mobilize the international community to support what we do." (Washington Post, 4/30/2013)

The administration will go from arguing that it's too soon to intervene in Syria, to arguing that it's too late.
...
Mr. Obama will treat evidence of Iran's impending nuclearization the way he has looked at Syria's use of chemical weapons, demanding a standard of proof that will be impossible to meet until it is too late to do much about it.  (Bret Stephens, WSJ, 4/29/2013)

Great prescient column by Stephens which actually faults both Obama and Netanyahu for dithering on Iran. 


Convincing
When the ghastly news from Boylston Street first hit, there was an immediate divide between those who were sure the attack was a form of Islamic terrorism and those just as convinced that it was organized by domestic, right-wing extremists. April 15 was Tax Day, after all.
...
My faith in a tolerant, pluralistic America made me worry that hundreds of thousands of law-abiding Muslim citizens could become the victims of our anger — much as Italian Americans were stereotyped in the days of Sacco and Vanzetti.
...
I also found it disturbing that we have given scant attention to the April 17 explosion at the fertilizer plant in West, Tex., that killed 15 people and injured more than 200.

As the labor writer Mike Elk pointed out this week in a Post commentary, industrial accidents are far more common than are acts of terror. We have more control over how we enforce worker-safety laws than we do over random acts of violence. Yet we have allowed the Texas story to be buried beneath all our speculation about the Tsarnaev brothers. (E.J. Dionne Jr, Washington Post, 4/24/2013)

Just getting around to E.J.'s column from last week. And what a column it was! 

First we get the old head fake: "Maybe the Boston bombing was the militias!" Which nobody except E.J. thought for more than four seconds. 

Then we get: "Let's not blame the Muslims..." Turns out it was the Muslims. 

Then - bizarrely - we get: "Don't forget the Texas fertilizer explosion."

It's official, E.J. is now rivaling Charles Blow for the title: Funniest Liberal Columnist.


Consider This
Former Rhode Island Congressman Patrick Kennedy and Kevin Sabet, President Obama’s previous senior advisor at the Office of National Drug Control and Policy, spoke out Thursday against marijuana deregulation efforts under consideration in the Vermont Legislature. (VTDiggers.org, 4/25/2013)

Even a Kennedy argues against pot. Good for Patrick Kennedy!


Nickle Here, There
Gov. Peter Shumlin on Monday afternoon signed the transportation budget bill that contains a new gas tax, meaning the tax will go into effect Wednesday.  The tax is a net increase of 5.9 cents per gallon.  (Burlington Free Press, 4/29/2013)

On behalf of the plumbers, electricians, contractors, painters, teachers and all other working class people in Vermont: "Thanks for nothing Shummy!" 

Vote him out.