Last week was not the best week for President Obama. In fact, some have called it "the worst week of his presidency."
With the President mired in three different political stories at once, conservative politicians and pundits saw the opportunity to frame the debate ahead. There was finally a chance to seize public opinion and force Obama out of the White House, or at least keep Democrats from obtaining it in 2016.
Former Governor Mike Huckabee declared that, "the president will not fill out his full term," because of the Benghazi terrorist attack and imaginary "cover-up". The former GOP presidential candidate, Michelle Bachmann also used hyperbolic language when she discussed the possibility of impeachment.
Good ol' politics; it never disappoints. Instead of using the "scandals" to learn how to improve governance, or even how to save lives in the future, our elected officials have decided to put on a circus. One cannot read a story without comparisons to Watergate or Iran-Contra.
All of the partisan politics arising out of the "scandals" did make it a bad week. A bad week for you and I - normal Americans.
Every single day that Congress and the White House fight over Benghazi, AP subpoenas, and IRS policy, we lose. Because there in fact is, a lot that needs to be done.
Did you forget that we have a broken immigration system that needs desperate attention? There are good, church-going, law-abiding individuals who are immigrants, that are ready to pay taxes and contribute to the American story.
Are we too enamored with the talks of controversy that we ignore the fact that our infrastructure is falling apart? The non-partisan American Society of Civil Engineers are ready to build and repair our D+ graded roads, bridges, pipes, and levees.
Is it really important that Benghazi talking points were misstated, or should we focus on making education more affordable? Right now, families are forced to make the decision between retirement and funding a college education.
We should be demanding votes on these important issues, but instead seem to be satisfied with political theater.
I am sure that some will argue that these novel stories are important. The Benghazi attack puts into question how we can better secure our embassies abroad. But as I have stated above, this is not about defense. It is about attacking the President. If you are one of my conservative readers, I am sure that you may have missed the fact that the GOP House cut embassy security prior to the attacks.
Or take the AP subpoenas. I would be willing to bet that the loudest critics do not even know why the Justice Department served the subpoenas in the first place. For the past few years, the Attorney General has been investigating security leaks, which have put our spies in danger overseas. Although I support the question into whether the subpoenas were properly drafted, it is perfectly legal to take such investigatory steps.
And finally the IRS scrutiny of conservative groups that applied for tax-exempt status worries me. I am politically left-of-center but it does not take a genius to know that it could set wrong precedent for the future - liberals could be next. No political group should be targeted because of its beliefs.
The discussion for campaign finance and tax reform would be helpful in the IRS story but it will not happen. The GOP has to find out whether the President knew on May 9th or May 10th that the IRS was acting imprudently, because it will show how Nixonian Obama is.
This was a bad week. But more importantly, if Americans do not pressure our elected officials to do something productive for this great nation, we will have worse weeks ahead. That is the real scandal.
