High Crimes

It's "Scandal Spring" for the Obama administration. (We are trademarking that name so please ask permission of RedStateVT if you would like to use it.) How do we know? Well Piers Morgan has temporarily stopped debating (and losing to) Breitbart's Ben Shapiro in order to discuss the Obama scandals. Other members of the Legitimate Media are dipping their toes into this deep pool.  

Witness:

What I don't understand about what the president is doing is, to a certain extent, you could argue that he wasn't really involved in a lot of this stuff. But he is so centrally involving himself with these repeated lies. And, I’m just going to call them lies because they’re lies. They’re on tape. Nobody thought that he called it a terrorist attack. Last night I went and I looked up at The New York Times how they reported it the day after. They never reference that we've had a terrorist attack against the United States. On September 20th, however, they run a story that says, "Libya envoy's killing was a terrorist attack." And they say, "Until now White House officials have not used that language in describing the assault." That is September 20th. That is The New York Times. Now, at what point are people going to get tired of the president coming out over and over saying things like, "Don’t believe your lying eyes"? 
(Kirsten Powers quoted at Realclearpolitics.com, 5/14/2013)


Broken
The Obama administration tried to stay ahead of the furor with an announcement by Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. that he had ordered a federal investigation into whether I.R.S. officials broke any criminal laws by singling out the conservative groups. (NYT, 5/14/2013)

Holder is where investigations go to die. He is still investigating whether Team Obama leaked national security details to make el presidente look tough before the election. Whatever happened to THAT investigation?


Painful
The White House has also been at pains to stress that former Commissioner Douglas Shulman, who told Congress in 2012 that there had been no targeting of political groups, was appointed by George W. Bush. So the Commissioner is accountable to the President, as long as he's the former President? Or what? (WSJ, 5/14/2013)

Best answer we have seen to our Liberal blogger friends who have tried to deflect the IRS scandal!


Die Already
Vermont is poised to become the third state in the nation to allow physicians to prescribe lethal drugs to terminally ill patients who want to die.  State lawmakers on Monday night approved an assisted-suicide bill, which now awaits the signature of Gov. Peter Shumlin, a first-term Democrat who has said he would sign it, likely within a week. Once enacted, Vermont would be the first state to decriminalize assisted suicide through a legislative vote. (WSJ, 5/14/2013)

Death, dope and taxes. Welcome to Vermont!


Main Course
Jay Carney, whose unenviable job is not to explain but to explain away what his employers say, calls the IRS’s behavior “inappropriate.” No, using the salad fork for the entree is inappropriate. Using the Internal Revenue Service for political purposes is a criminal offense. (George Will, Washington Post, 5/14/2013)

We tried - really - reading the Washington Post's opinion writers excuse the Obama scandals. The best we get is, yes, there was some unsavory stuff...George Bush...hey, look at that over there. Until, of course, we read Will. 

Reader Discretion Advised

Resolution
His supporters will say he is resolute and the Republicans are pigheaded; his opponents (including this column) would reverse the adjectives. A neutral way of describing it is that the two parties' worldviews are irreconcilable. (James Taranto, WSJ, 2/13/2013)

Taranto gets it right: irreconcilable. To which we add the answer to the question: Why won't Republicans compromise? The answer is that they have compromised and they are losing the battle. 

To wit:

• The government is expanding in size and scope.
• Entitlement programs are growing.
• Health care is being nationalized.
• Taxes have been raised.
• Regulation is increasing.
• Abortion is legal.
• Marijuana is legal (in some places).
• Princeton University is now transgender-friendly.
• Etc.

What would compromise look like to Democrats?


On The Road
Coverage of the speech described how he'll now "hit the road to sell his ideas to audiences in North Carolina, Georgia and Illinois." It seems normal until you notice he spends little or no time trying to sell any of this to Congress itself. Most of his past high-visibility proposals have underachieved or disappeared in Congress. He prefers instead the wand of solo executive authority. Even Bill Clinton, no stranger to the admiration of crowds, spent presidential capital building support one-on-one with key members of Congress. Hillary or Joe Biden would have done the same. (Daniel Henninger, WSJ, 2/13/2013)

Henninger nails it again. In private moments, even Democrats have spoken of how Obama has made little effort to engage members of his own party, never mind Republicans. Obsessed with his legacy, Obama will find it diminished due to this. What is to prevent President Rubio in 2016 from undoing Obama's executive orders? 


Pointless
President Obama is a freer man than he has been at any point in his presidency. He is free from the need to save an economy close to collapse, from illusions that Republicans in Congress would work with him readily, from the threat of a rising tea party movement and from the need to win reelection. (E..J. Dionne Jr., Washington Post, 2/13/2013)

Dionne's latest love sonnet to Obama. Did he actually write that Obama is "free from the need to save an economy close to collapse?" 


Bored Games
The Obama administration's electric car efforts took another hit on Wednesday after a federal inspection found a South Korean advanced battery maker never scaled up U.S. production despite receiving $142 million in federal grants.
...
The inspector general said that to avoid layoffs at the factory LG Chem paid idle workers $1.6 million in the third quarter of last year, about half of which was covered by its U.S. grant, even though there was nothing for them to do. The workers played board games, watched movies, and volunteered at local animal shelters during regular work hours, Mr. Friedman said. LG Chem has since paid back the government's share of those charges. (WSJ, 2/13/2013)

Unfortunately this report of the latest Obama green energy debacle has been lost due to the breaking news reported by the Legitimate Media that Senator Marco Rubio took a drink of water.


Lewdown
Mr. Lew seems to have been equally disengaged about his own investments. He said he didn't know why the venture-capital fund in which he had invested was based in the Cayman Islands or whether its location had resulted in any tax benefits. (WSJ, 2/13/2013)

Hypocrisy thy name is Democrat.

RedStateVT: Your Illegitimate Media News Source

Incredible
The test drew a crescendo of international condemnation Tuesday, with President Obama calling it a “highly provocative act” that demands “swift and credible action by the international community” against North Korea. (NYT, 2/12/2013)

President Obama added that he was organizing a task force to be headed by Vice-President Biden with the goal of developing recommendations on what the heck to do about North Korea to be delivered within three weeks.


The Warm Embrace of Government
On a central philosophical question of the day — the size and scope of the federal government — a clear majority of young people embraces President Obama’s notion that it can be a constructive force, a point he intends to make in his State of the Union address on Tuesday. (NYT, 2/10/2013)

Well of course the young believe in government. They have yet to feel its oppressive hand. High unemployment among the young and newly graduated has masked for some the seminal moment that most experience when they get out of school, find work and get that first paycheck: 

How much am I paying in taxes? 

Young entrepreneurs will eventually learn what it means to navigate the regulatory hurdles imposed by an interested government. And other young will learn about how the protections put in place for the marginal members of society are abused by free-loaders. Like the 20 year-old described to us recently by a doctor friend who was shopping for a disability diagnosis in order to get yet another government check.

Yes, the young will eventually learn.


Covering Tracks
Menendez is facing a Senate ethics investigation of two free trips he took in 2010 aboard the private plane of a donor, Salomon Melgen, to a luxury resort in the Dominican Republic. After news of the jaunts became public recently, Menendez reimbursed Melgen $58,500. The senator and his various political entities have received almost $50,000 from Melgen and his family, who also gave $700,000 to a super PAC created to elect Senate Democrats. (Dana Milbank, Washington Post, 2/11/2013)

We finally have an Obama Doctrine. It is not quite the one outlined in various major speeches — Cairo, Berlin or the Greco-Roman one delivered at the 2008 Democratic National Convention — but one that has been ingloriously revealed through news leaks and virtually coerced congressional testimony regarding Syria: In a pinch, look the other way. (Richard Cohen, Washington Post, 2/11/2013)

The way we see it, the Liberal media covered for Obama during his first term. Policy failures were attributable to the continuing effects of Bush's mistakes. Any criticism they directed toward Obama was from the Left.  (He hasn't been progressive enough!) During the election they turned mute directing their attention to whether Mitt Romney paid enough taxes or pillaged his way through corporate America. Now with Obama safely re-elected they are free to report occasionally on Democrat peccadilloes or Obama's policy inconsistencies, thus proving their journalistic integrity. 

Nor'easter

Intervention
Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey intervened with federal health officials on two occasions in the last four years in an effort to help a close friend in a billing dispute with Medicare, federal investigators said Wednesday. (NYT, 2/7/2013)

The New York Times finally writes an article about the allegations surrounding Robert Menendez (who we learn seven paragraphs in is a Democrat). Alas, the story focuses on a friend of Menendez who may have had some questionable business dealings. The seventeen paragraph story makes no mention of the other allegations. You know, the ones about Menendez and the underage prostitutes. 

In fairness, writing a story about the allegations involving Menendez and underage prostitutes would be akin to....what? Writing a story about allegations that George H.W. Bush had an affair? Or that John McCain had an affair? Or that George W. Bush did not report for his final two weeks of National Guard duty? Or that 50 years ago, Mitt Romney may have bullied a kid in middle school? Those stories would never be written. Just kidding!


Familiarity Breeds
"President Barack Obama's speeches have a familiar ring these days--no matter if it's guns, immigration or the budget," Politico reports:

Tout what he's already done. Say the public's in his corner. Demand Congress do something. Lament Washington dysfunction. Lay out his own plan. Avoid details. Urge voters to keep up the pressure. Warn it won't be easy. Bask in the applause.

It's the fill-in-the-blank approach to selling a presidential agenda: same template, just adjusted for the topic. (WSJ, 2/7/2013)

POLITICO? Wow, a deliciously incisive indictment! 

The second Obama term is only days old and already the bloom is off the rose. Call it "Obama fatigue."


Manifest
And what do you know, Chris Dorner, the former-police officer suspected of being behind the murder rampage presently unfolding in Los Angeles, has apparently left behind a manifesto addressed to America that the media's already selectively reporting on to leave out the more inconvenient portions. You see, there's no political upside for the media to reveal the politics of this suspected madman.

What's being reported as Mr. Dorner's manifesto not only endorses Hillary Clinton for president in 2016 and vigorously defends Barack Obama and the Democrats' current gun control push, he also savages the NRA's Wayne LaPierre and expresses all kinds of unabiding  for some of the biggest stars in the left-wing media -- by name. (Breitbart.com, 2/7/2013)

It's hard to imagine what we would do without Breitbart. Because of them, we learn that the ex-LA cop wanted for multiple murders is a Liberal. So RedStateVT will now be the first to issue a national warning about the dangers of .... Left Wing Militias. We call upon the Department of Justice to investigate immediately!


Land Of Confusion
Democratic partisans might be confused. They considered Bush a threat to America’s liberty because of his defense of his war powers, yet their hero stands on similar ground. How to resolve the contradiction? Easy. Conclude that they were wrong the first time. (Rich Lowry, POLITICO.com, 2/6/2013)

In an article entitled "Dick Cheney's Revenge" Rich Lowry echoes RedStateVT's recent post about Obama and drone assassinations. Will Liberals take Lowry's advice? Will they say "Cheney was right before as Obama is right now?"  

When asked, Liberals responded: "We must do something about the threat of climate change...."

Ice Breaker

Touched
At the same time, he is preparing Florida Blue, a nonprofit Blue Cross and Blue Shield plan, for 2014, when most of the requirements of the federal Affordable Care Act go into effect. Insurers will have to offer a policy to anyone who wants one, regardless of their health, and will not be allowed to charge more in premiums to people with expensive medical conditions. The plans the companies offer will be highly regulated through government-run exchanges that are still getting their final regulatory touches. (NYT, 2/5/2013)

Here is an example of someone who cannot be denied coverage. Barney Harold O'Brien (not his real name) is 55 years old and self-employed. Although he knows that he should buy health insurance he has never wanted to spend the money. Money that he says he would rather spend on a new Ford F150 pick-up truck. Barney - never one to work-out - is 5 feet seven inches tall and weighs 250 pounds. For breakfast, he swings by Dunkin Donuts to get a large coffee and three cream-filled donuts. Lunch is either Taco Bell where he enjoys the Grande Loco Supremo Gordo Macho Taco or McDonalds where he likes the 1/4 pounder with cheese. He likes it so much that he orders two along with large fries and a milkshake. On the way home from work, Barney grabs two "hot 'n ready" pizzas at Dominos (or is it Little Caesars?) and a case of Bud Light before settling in to watch MSNBC. 

Thankfully, under Obamacare, Barney cannot be denied health insurance and he does not have to pay more than his neighbor who is training for the next marathon.

Who is picking up the cost of the extra medical bills that Barney will generate? You are sucker!

This is not insurance. This is madness.


Budget Crunch
Mr. Obama, who missed a deadline this week to submit his annual budget to Congress, acknowledged on Tuesday that a broader deficit agreement is unlikely to be reached by the March deadline. He provided no details about the tens of billion of dollars in spending cuts and tax adjustments that he wants Congress to pass quickly. More specifics could come when he delivers his State of the Union address next Tuesday. (NYT, 2/5/2013)

Displaying the same distracted stoner affect first seen in Hawaii with the Choom Squad, Obama blows off his homework again. 


Acting Out
Restarting a politically tinged debate, the Senate voted 85 to 8 on Monday evening to take up a renewal of the Violence Against Women Act.  (NYT, 2/4/2013)

Here is what you need to know about anything Congress comes up with that includes the name of a minority group in the title. One, it is completely unnecessary. Two, it is a pander to the group. Three, it is an open invitation to tort lawyers to begin suing. 

In 2013, we need a Violence Against Women Act? Really? Is violence against women legal now?


Tap Tap
Republicans tapped Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, a rising star in the Republican party who is frequently mentioned as a 2016 presidential contender, to deliver the Republican response to President Barack Obama's State of the Union address next week. (WSJ, 2/6/2013)

Easy prediction: Liberals will seek to demean Rubio in similar fashion to how they seek to demean black conservatives by calling them "house negros." They will coin a new phrase, perhaps calling Rubio the "Republican Party's gardener." This is what Liberals do when confronted with an ethnic politician who they insist belongs in their camp.