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You are here: Home / Politics / Be Just, and Fear Not

Be Just, and Fear Not

by Betty Cracker|  May 14, 20132:07 pm| 173 Comments

This post is in: Politics, Republican Stupidity, Assholes, General Stupidity, Our Failed Media Experiment

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commas

Alex Pareene at Salon has an entertaining rundown of the three “scandals” that could supposedly lead to the impeachment of the president: Benghazi, the AP phone logs and the IRS-Tea Party thing.

Pareene figures the Benghazi issue is kaput because the GOP stupidly focused on meaningless talking points on Sunday shows rather than the real issue, which was inadequate security. And since austerity-humpers in the House were slashing security budgets like Fruit Ninja addicts in Arcade Frenzy mode, it’s a good bet they don’t want to go there. That and the preening Sunday performances of would-be soap opera stars like Senators McCain and Graham led the GOP to focus on the dud aspect of the Benghazi affair, soiling a once-promising bit of dirty laundry.

Likewise, Pareene points out that while the AP logs issue may have a built-in advantage due to its implications for the very media that would be charged with ginning up impeachment-level outrage, the GOP can’t claim clean hands there either: The Republicans are the ones who demanded that the administration investigate the leaks that led to the AP investigation in the first place. And the GOP isn’t really opposed to spying on reporters, at least if Republicans get to do it sometimes. This might lead to another brogressive boner for Rand Paul, but perhaps nothing more.

According to Pareene, the jackpot scandal has got to be the IRS-Tea Party thing because, even if, as seems likely, no one at the White House knew about it, it’s the “conservative movement’s dream scandal.” True, but there’s another factor in its favor that Pareene didn’t mention:

Even though anyone who was paying the slightest attention should have immediately known that the Tea Party was the rebranded rump of the Bush dead-enders, Beltway pundits clung to the absurd notion that it was a genuine grassroots movement. And they cling to it still, like turds to a moth-eaten pair of faux-Colonial breeches.

Here’s Dave Weigel at Slate, who really should know better, launching a touching narrative about how the big, bad IRS crushed these credulous patriots:

Tom Zawistowski lived the classic Tea Party origin story. He started a business. He raised a family. Then came 2009 and the Obama presidency, and he discovered politics from the couch of his Portage County, Ohio, home.

“Quite frankly my wife and I were apolitical people,” he remembers. “Glenn Beck was on TV, and we were learning things we didn’t know. There was a Tea Party rally scheduled in Cleveland, and the local media was bagging on them. If nobody showed up at the rally, it really would have hurt, you know? So we called every registered voter in Portage County, and people showed up.”

One meeting at a Cracker Barrel later and boom, a local Tea Party group was born…

Weigel goes on to liken a requirement that these politically motivated So-Cons in patriot drag fill out a form with having a cage full of rats attached to their heads a la 1984’s Winston Smith in Room 101. A break, Mr. Weigel; please fucking give me one.

Anyhoo, the fact is that after their Citizens United triumph, the GOP in effect put IRS offices in charge of ascertaining whether obvious political operatives were cloaking themselves sufficiently to enjoy tax-exempt status. Does the GOP House really want to spotlight that Republican-sponsored shit-show so that the rest of the country starts paying attention? It wouldn’t be the first time they shat in their own hats, but I doubt it goes that far.

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173Comments

  1. 1.

    Redshirt

    May 14, 2013 at 2:13 pm

    All well and good, but your premise implies logic, facts, and reasonableness.

    When do the Repubs and their media fluffers give two figs about any of that?

    They are the tribe of base emotion, not thought, not fact, not even ideology. Fear. Hate. “Other”. These are the coins of the Republican realm, and they buy a lot. For example, our entire political system!

  2. 2.

    Trollhattan

    May 14, 2013 at 2:14 pm

    he remembers. “Glenn Beck was on TV, and we were learning things we didn’t know.

    Worst use of “learn” I’ve ever seen.

    Fools seem to find one another, evidently not just in the parking lot before Raiders games.

  3. 3.

    El Caganer

    May 14, 2013 at 2:14 pm

    To further nail the coffin shut on the Benghazi nonsense, it appears that somebody doctored the email that ABC used as Proof of Perfidious WH Conspiracy To Fudge Talking Points. Even the nothingburger they started with is fake.

  4. 4.

    El Caganer

    May 14, 2013 at 2:15 pm

    @Trollhattan: I dunno, he just said he was learning things – he didn’t claim they were true.

  5. 5.

    Senyordave

    May 14, 2013 at 2:16 pm

    I think the IRS issue will be by far the biggest of these three. If there is even a .01% chance that anyone at the WH knew anything about it they will try to impeach Obama. I have to laugh when I hear people compare the republicans attitude toward Obama and Clintonm. Obama is a blah, and that changes everything. Half of the modern-day GOP is confederate, not neo-confederate, and teh Republican Congress is filled with sociopaths like the King brothers, Bachmann, Gohmpert, Steve Stockman, et. al.

    I think Obama should try to short-circuit the whole thing and appoint a Special prosecutor. It’s going to happen eventually, and anyone who works for the IRS who is stupid enough to have mentioned it should be fired or worse.

  6. 6.

    Southern Beale

    May 14, 2013 at 2:17 pm

    Meanwhile, the Florida RNC’s Hispanic Director has switched his party affiliation to the Democratic side of the aisle, citing the GOP’s prevailing “culture of intolerance.” AND he’s donated to the ACLU.

    Hard not to think of those words, “culture of intolerance,” amid all the cries for impeachment when these same assholes turned a blind eye to real crimes by Bush and Cheney.

    I hope they do it, I really do. Go ahead and try to impeach every single Democratic president and see how far off the rails that makes you look, Republicans. Please, climb out on the edge of that cliff. Don’t be surprised if the rest of America gives you a little push when you’re out there, too.

  7. 7.

    Hill Dweller

    May 14, 2013 at 2:18 pm

    @El Caganer: Yeah, I saw where Jake Tapper, of all people, released the real email.

    Jonathan Karl is a f’n hack.

  8. 8.

    piratedan

    May 14, 2013 at 2:19 pm

    and when the nothingburger that are these three latest “worst than 9/11” faux scandals are retired, they’ll be a new set for them to either create or recycle. Lets face it, there’s loads of other projectionable evils that the R’s can use. They’ve got their dirty little fingers ina whole lotta pies.

  9. 9.

    Belafon (formerly anonevent)

    May 14, 2013 at 2:21 pm

    @Senyordave: Actually, I think he should call a press conference with the old director, and fire him, only to have the guy say “I have already quit. Maybe congress can approve my replacement so you can fire him.”

  10. 10.

    askew

    May 14, 2013 at 2:23 pm

    None of these scandals will have any serious staying power.

    I am curious if the media will drop the Benghazi scandal now that it has been revealed that ABC doctored the Benghazi WH e-mails to make WH look bad?

  11. 11.

    Zifnab

    May 14, 2013 at 2:23 pm

    @Senyordave: Any investigation Obama were to initiate himself would be held instantly suspect. Only a fully Republican crack team appointed by Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and the great Donald Trump can get to the bottom of this.

  12. 12.

    GxB

    May 14, 2013 at 2:23 pm

    @Trollhattan: That whole blockquote is a comedy goldmine.

  13. 13.

    Trollhattan

    May 14, 2013 at 2:24 pm

    Completely OT, search for The Worst People in the World is now completed.

    Rich Manhattan moms hire handicapped tour guides so kids can cut lines at Disney World

    http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/manhattan/disney_world_srich_kid_outrage_zTBA0xrvZRkIVc1zItXGDP

  14. 14.

    Betty Cracker

    May 14, 2013 at 2:24 pm

    @Redshirt: I agree that they don’t give a shit about actual wrongdoing and are focusing on political gain to the exclusion of all else, counting on a lazy, credulous media to ignore the details. But I believe there’s a chance that the money people, who benefit greatly from an absurd status quo that pretends Karl Rove’s group is a non-political organization that deserves tax-free status, will point out that they might not want to upset that particular apple cart.

    I’m not saying they won’t screech and howl about it in front of every camera; I’m just wondering whether they’ll risk actual impeachment hearings that bring the country to a standstill and parade every detail of the corrupt system in front of the American people. Lord knows they’ve done stupid things before, but that could have unintended blowback that should be obvious even to an idiot like Gohmert.

  15. 15.

    ? Martin

    May 14, 2013 at 2:27 pm

    If the current laws that govern federal taxes and spending do not change, the budget deficit will shrink this year to $642 billion

    Whoops. Nobody thought it would fall that much. That’s $200B below the estimate just from February (apparently CBO doesn’t believe sequestration will end). 4% of GDP. Not great, but certainly not crisis levels.

    By 2015 it looks like deficits will be below GWB numbers.

  16. 16.

    scav

    May 14, 2013 at 2:28 pm

    The Boys That Continually Cry Worse Than Watergate! may be keeping their base energized and donating, but I’m less convinced it will necessarily work as a long term strategy and magic bean for growth.

  17. 17.

    Svensker

    May 14, 2013 at 2:28 pm

    @Betty Cracker:

    but that could have unintended blowback that should be obvious even to an idiot like Gohmert.

    Now, see, there you’re going too far. Gohmert MAY be aware that he needs oxygen to keep breathing, but I wouldn’t count on it.

  18. 18.

    ? Martin

    May 14, 2013 at 2:28 pm

    @Trollhattan:

    Rich Manhattan moms hire handicapped tour guides so kids can cut lines at Disney World

    Yankees fans, every one of them. I guarantee.

  19. 19.

    askew

    May 14, 2013 at 2:28 pm

    While these scandals are nothingburgers, it is not stopping posters at DK from calling for Obama’s impeachment. So much crazy on the left and right. It gets old.

  20. 20.

    Redshirt

    May 14, 2013 at 2:29 pm

    @Betty Cracker: Maybe. I think even a lot of the money people – the supposedly rational actors behind the Republican’s insanity – have gone insane as well. So insane that they are willing to lose/waste money for partisan reasons.

    We’ve entered a “post-fact” world, and only one side has realized it.

  21. 21.

    MattR

    May 14, 2013 at 2:30 pm

    Trying to figure out why WP is eating my comment

    I am just trying to point out that Tom Zawistowski’s description of how/why he formed his group makes me think it was political in nature and deserving of extra scrutiny.

  22. 22.

    ira-NY

    May 14, 2013 at 2:31 pm

    There is no there in any of these stories. They are going nowhere fast.

    The developing story with some real there to it is the sharply improving economy. This story will prove politically potent.

  23. 23.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    May 14, 2013 at 2:31 pm

    Can someone tell me the word order of whatever is being alleged in the IRS scandal? Because that matters, I think.

  24. 24.

    Xantar

    May 14, 2013 at 2:33 pm

    @Southern Beale:

    I saw that. And while I welcome him to the Democratic fold, I have to ask: it took a paper on eugenics for him to realize that the GOP is really, irreparably racist? He didn’t notice any of the other dogwhistling of the past 5 years?

    Well, better late than never I guess.

  25. 25.

    Mike E

    May 14, 2013 at 2:33 pm

    Your lack of seriousness is duly noted. ZOMG, have you no sense of outrage?

    But what really bugs me is this is the 2nd time I’ve seen the term “brogressive” and I hate not being in with the kool kids! Urmm, what does it mean? And should it be added to Teh Lexicon? Also.

  26. 26.

    Todd

    May 14, 2013 at 2:34 pm

    Actually, “its” may work in the context of the posted graphic, according to several of my English teachers from my past.

  27. 27.

    Tom Q

    May 14, 2013 at 2:34 pm

    @askew: Not a chance. The governing rule of news today is, if there’s a simple, obvious explanation for something that can be made to seem nefarious, the press corps’ job is to make sure that explanation never sees the light of day.

    I wonder if Jay Carney looks out at this circle jerk and thinks “Was I this much of an asshole when I was out there asking questions?”

  28. 28.

    Trollhattan

    May 14, 2013 at 2:35 pm

    @GxB:
    Because they were handy and because I’m a sick individual, I’ve been to three teabagger rallies. This schmuck epitomizes the attendees and speakers at all of them–somehow their life hasn’t panned out quite the way they imagined and now, damnit, somebody’s going to pay the price for their imagined pain–dusky dude in the White House, I’m looking at you. Mind, I never saw anybody who looked underfed, poorly clothed or couldn’t make the payment on their F-250 turbo-diesel.

  29. 29.

    ranchandsyrup

    May 14, 2013 at 2:35 pm

    I miss the 90’s. Mostly because I had long luxurious hair and traveled for a portion of them. But I don’t miss the impeach-a-thon aspect of the latter part of the decade.

  30. 30.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    May 14, 2013 at 2:35 pm

    I think it would be awesome if Congressional Republicans impeached Obama. How can we help this along? (FYI, it’s not going anywhere in the Senate.)

  31. 31.

    jl

    May 14, 2013 at 2:36 pm

    @askew:

    ” None of these scandals will have any serious staying power.”

    I agree. If the dumb IRS approach to screening non-profit applications originated within the IRS, then it will be long forgotten by the midterms. Though I see it has given even sensible people, like young Josh Marshall, vapors and galloping fantods right now.

    “I am curious if the media will drop the Benghazi scandal now that it has been revealed that ABC doctored the Benghazi WH e-mails to make WH look bad?”

    No our miserable worthless corporate media will try to string this out as long as possible. And they will write up and broadcast inaccurate ten second ‘reports’ that will work to make it look as bad as possible for DemocRAT blah president.

    Reality will pry “Benghazi!” from Gregory and Schieffer’s cold dead fake journalist hands. WT hell would crazed hick and courtly gracious high priest of CW crap journalism, Schieffer, do if he couldn’t drag the warmonger grumpsy twins McCain and Graham on his show every other week?

  32. 32.

    Hill Dweller

    May 14, 2013 at 2:38 pm

    Holder recused himself from the AP case after being interviewed by the FBI. The FBI also interviewed Brennan about the leak.

  33. 33.

    The Moar You Know

    May 14, 2013 at 2:39 pm

    The IRS thing ought to be a slam-dunk for the GOP. Oh, they won’t get a conviction out of the impeachment, but they ought to be able to really and truly kneecap the shit out of this administration with it.

    They won’t succeed. They’ll have congressfolks shooting watermelons in the House gallery and a billion other self-aggrandizing stunts, a full three-ring circus that they’ll try to string out through next year, and since the public aren’t monomaniacal assholes whose only mantra is “destroy Obama”, they will lose interest and move on.

  34. 34.

    Alex S.

    May 14, 2013 at 2:40 pm

    I think the worst scandal of these is the AP scandal. This is the one I am angry about. The Obama administration should be above that. That’s what Greenwald should write about, not Benghazi which is a tempest in a teapot. And the IRS scandal will also create more noise, but the IRS is not the government and the IRS head was a Bush appointee – that won’t matter, of course, but it is the scandal that will get the most traction.

  35. 35.

    Suffern ACE

    May 14, 2013 at 2:40 pm

    @? Martin: actual gwb numbers or lets keep the war off the books GWB numbers.

  36. 36.

    Betty Cracker

    May 14, 2013 at 2:40 pm

    @Todd: Well, they’re wrong.

  37. 37.

    Svensker

    May 14, 2013 at 2:41 pm

    @Todd:

    How so? In this context doesn’t aren’t the “its” short for “it is”? In which case, apostrophe.

  38. 38.

    Ash Can

    May 14, 2013 at 2:41 pm

    @Senyordave:

    I think Obama should try to short-circuit the whole thing and appoint a Special prosecutor.

    Funny you should mention that. And I think it’s a fine idea. By all means, have an investigation. And then publicize the hell out of the findings of “Here’s what the tax law says, here’s our backlog, here’s our personnel, here are our resources, and oh by the way, we have no actual guidelines on this issue. Now you tell me how we’re gonna get this work done.” It could be the best thing that’s happened to those field offices in a long time.

  39. 39.

    askew

    May 14, 2013 at 2:41 pm

    @Tom Q:

    @askew: Not a chance. The governing rule of news today is, if there’s a simple, obvious explanation for something that can be made to seem nefarious, the press corps’ job is to make sure that explanation never sees the light of day.

    I wonder if Jay Carney looks out at this circle jerk and thinks “Was I this much of an asshole when I was out there asking questions?”

    Yeah, I was being too optimistic on the media finding their conscience.

    I am shocked Carney has managed to hang on to that job for so long without punching one of the idiot reporters or having a nervous breakdown. Those people are imbeciles.

  40. 40.

    ? Martin

    May 14, 2013 at 2:43 pm

    @Suffern ACE: Hmm. I think both from the looks of it. It appears that it’ll take another massive drop next year as the revenues + PPACA fully kick in.

  41. 41.

    Trollhattan

    May 14, 2013 at 2:43 pm

    @Svensker:
    A-yep, and a semicolon in lieu of a comma.

    “It’s a grammar thing.”

  42. 42.

    Betty Cracker

    May 14, 2013 at 2:44 pm

    @Alex S.: I’m reserving “anger” until I have more details about it, but on its face, the AP logs thing looks pretty goddamned inexplicable to me too.

  43. 43.

    Morbo

    May 14, 2013 at 2:44 pm

    Here’s Dave Weigel at Slate, who really should know better,

    I have yet to see any evidence that this is true.

  44. 44.

    ? Martin

    May 14, 2013 at 2:45 pm

    I should add, Obama promised to cut the deficit in half by the end of his first term. If CBOs number comes true, he’ll have done it one year late. All things considered (given the shitpile he was handed), that’s pretty damn good.

  45. 45.

    Violet

    May 14, 2013 at 2:45 pm

    Really wish a wingnut politician would get caught with the proverbial dead girl/live boy to shift media attention. It’s almost summer–isn’t it about time for another Summer of the Shark?

  46. 46.

    Steeplejack

    May 14, 2013 at 2:46 pm

    @Trollhattan:

    This guy may portray himself as a homespun political naïf, but chances are that he’s not. He founded this company 30 years ago and is probably a solid one-percenter. And no doubt a Republican through and through.

  47. 47.

    jl

    May 14, 2013 at 2:46 pm

    @Alex S.:

    ” I think the worst scandal of these is the AP scandal.”

    I think there is a good chance that the AP ‘scandal’ will turn out to be only one of these ‘scandals’ where nothing was going on but standard operating post-Patriot Act procedure.

    We have to see how the AP’s story holds up. IMHO, AP issued a misleading story at an opportune time, where it whined and pooped, er, conducted serous investigative journalism about how it was victimized by our security state.

    And of course, AP has been doing brave intrepid controversial journalistic work on national security and foreign policy ever since 911, right?

    Oops, no, I forgot, that was Knight-Ridder/McClatchy.

    AP has been an corporate weasel media enterprise for years. Maybe they have a case, maybe they don’t. I’m not taking their initial story as the final word.

  48. 48.

    Suffern ACE

    May 14, 2013 at 2:47 pm

    I would think the AP story will go somewhere since it involves Holder and the press. But then I went to get my coffee this morning and none of the six papers had it above the fold. Apparently for the Post and the Daily News, the fact that OJ has gotten fat is the big story. I think the NewsCorp rags are going to try to make more hay of the Bloomberg LP reporting “scandal”, as that is a competitor.

  49. 49.

    Belafon (formerly anonevent)

    May 14, 2013 at 2:47 pm

    @Alex S.: As pointed out by Betty, the GOP called for the investigation. It’ll be interesting to see how far it goes, especially considering there were exactly 0 laws broken in doing this.

    And personally, I consider leaks from the government serious. Why would people presume that you aren’t going to be investigated if you leak?

  50. 50.

    YellowJournalism

    May 14, 2013 at 2:48 pm

    @askew:

    I am shocked Carney has managed to hang on to that job for so long without punching one of the idiot reporters or having a nervous breakdown

    Oh, if one of those things has to happen, please let it be the first one!

  51. 51.

    Heliopause

    May 14, 2013 at 2:48 pm

    Impeachment or no, the sad fact is that nothing of substance is going to come out of Washington for the foreseeable future which, come to think of it, has been the case since December of 2010. Social advances will stall completely, fiscal policy will continue to be a series of stupid and mildly destructive compromises. And no, that’s not defeatism, I’ll happily listen to any plausible alternative scenario.

  52. 52.

    askew

    May 14, 2013 at 2:49 pm

    @Alex S.:

    I think the worst scandal of these is the AP scandal. This is the one I am angry about. The Obama administration should be above that. That’s what Greenwald should write about, not Benghazi which is a tempest in a teapot. And the IRS scandal will also create more noise, but the IRS is not the government and the IRS head was a Bush appointee – that won’t matter, of course, but it is the scandal that will get the most traction.

    I am more pissed at the AP for publishing national security leaks that endangered our asset in Yemen after the government asked them to sit on info than I am at the DoJ for subpoenaing those records. They are using the records to find a leak within government who is violating national security not spying on the media.

  53. 53.

    Hill Dweller

    May 14, 2013 at 2:50 pm

    @Alex S.: The AP stuff is part of a criminal investigation. The US Attorney is likely being heavy-handed with the subpoena, but the AP reported classified info that exposed spies, including an MI-6 agent, and an ongoing operation, putting a lot of lives at risk.

    Again, the FBI has been interviewing administration officials about the leak. This isn’t a joke.

  54. 54.

    ? Martin

    May 14, 2013 at 2:52 pm

    @Belafon (formerly anonevent): Well there are authorized leaks and unauthorized leaks. I think most are authorized, so you wouldn’t expect to be investigated in those cases.

    This appears to have been unauthorized given how Carney just days before the news broke was quite clear that there were no known plots (which proved to be false) and how much relative damage this did to intelligence efforts. There was no clear political benefit from it.

    I’m guessing Holder recused because of his proximity to the suspect?

  55. 55.

    aimai

    May 14, 2013 at 2:53 pm

    @piratedan:

    I guess I think that the very category “nothingburger” and “won’t stick” are actually features for the right wing, not bugs. They operate on the principle that “where there’s smoke there’s fire” and “throw it against the wall and see if something will stick.” (oh, and also, that old chestnut “people are talking about it.” And we have to remember that it is really, really, really, low cost to them–they don’t think they can ever disgust or turn off their own voters, and they figure (perhaps incorrectly as the case of the missing hispanic outreach guy shows) that they may just turn enough “undecided” voters to be able to get back into the white house or at least win back the Senate.

    I’ll never forget my republican sister in law–as one excuse for the Iraq invasion was knocked down after another she fell, finally, for the “humanitarian intervention” one. Never mind that each of the previous excuses would have rendered the humanitarian one null and void, or that a real humanitarian intervention wouldn’t have included bombing the fuck out of innocent civilians. I remember looking at her, as she sat on my living room couch, and thinking “You must be so stupid to believe this crap–how can you get out of bed in the morning and put on your makeup without swallowing your own tongue?”

  56. 56.

    Tom Q

    May 14, 2013 at 2:53 pm

    @jl:
    “We have to see how the AP’s story holds up. IMHO, AP issued a misleading story at an opportune time, where it whined and pooped, er, conducted serous investigative journalism about how it was victimized by our security state.”

    I’m amazed how no one, even on our side, is questioning the timing of this AP story. Right…it just HAPPENED to be released today, when an unrelated feeding frenzy is half-underway.

    Seems to me, AP has been sitting on this item, and waited for the moment they’d get the most favorable slant possible. How much you want to bet the more details come out, the more it looks like AP behaved asshole-ishly?

    By the way, I’m with the “this will all add up to nothing” crowd, but, having lived through these press mood swings for far too many years, I see no point in trying to squelch it with facts. It’s like a toddler’s tantrum: it’ll just have to be allowed to run its course until its lack of foundation causes it to dwindle to nothing.

  57. 57.

    Suffern ACE

    May 14, 2013 at 2:54 pm

    @askew: When I think about it, the “You told us there was no credible threat and we found about about this underwear bomber II plot, nyah, nyah, nyah” is one of those non-stories that I wish the AP would have sat on.

  58. 58.

    TAPX486

    May 14, 2013 at 2:55 pm

    It wasn’t that long ago that the GOP, Limpdick and the rest of the clowns were defending warrantless wiretaps as the gold standard of patriotism. Whither DOJ has gone to far with the AP is a matter to debate but at least it is part of an investigation under a court warrant. The Bushies seemed to be just on a fishing expedition

  59. 59.

    ? Martin

    May 14, 2013 at 2:55 pm

    @askew: I think the problem was that it wasn’t our asset in Yemen. It’s was Britain’s.

  60. 60.

    Hill Dweller

    May 14, 2013 at 2:56 pm

    @? Martin:

    I’m guessing Holder recused because of his proximity to the suspect?

    Holder was interviewed/interrogated(?) by the FBI. That was the rationale for recusal.

  61. 61.

    beltane

    May 14, 2013 at 2:56 pm

    @jl: BooMan agrees with you http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2013/5/14/102151/828

    The Patriot Act gave the government extraordinary powers of surveillance it did not have before. The real scandal is that the Patriot Act was passed so hastily, not that the government is using the powers that Congress gave to it.

  62. 62.

    askew

    May 14, 2013 at 2:57 pm

    @Hill Dweller:

    @Alex S.: The AP stuff is part of a criminal investigation. The US Attorney is likely being heavy-handed with the subpoena, but the AP reported classified info that exposed spies, including an MI-6 agent, and an ongoing operation, putting a lot of lives at risk.

    Again, the FBI has been interviewing administration officials about the leak. This isn’t a joke.

    Has FBI/DOJ confirmed that the leak came from the WH? If the House intelligence committee had this info, I am placing money on Michelle Bachmann being the leak. She is crazy enough to do it.

  63. 63.

    jl

    May 14, 2013 at 2:59 pm

    @Tom Q:

    I think there is a case for investigating leaks to the AP story. It might have endangered operations against real terrorist in Yemen.

    The question is, are the post-911 Patriot Act ground rules an appropriate legal framework for investigations.

    I think NYT and McClatchy have broken more, and more damaging and controversial, more important, and to themselves riskier stories about our post-911 totally awesome foreign adventures. (edit: and our post-911 domestic security state).

    Were they not investigated? Why is the AP whining right now.

    If McClatchy or NYT squealed, I would be less skeptical.

  64. 64.

    Alex S.

    May 14, 2013 at 3:01 pm

    @jl:

    I know the AP is not a ‘friend’ of Obama (Is Ron Fournier still there?). But still, the media should remain independent. I know it’s not a perfect world and the right-wing media complex and the ‘centrist’ corporate media complex violate that principle as well. If the Obama government in fact spied on AP, they do democracy a disservice.

  65. 65.

    liberal

    May 14, 2013 at 3:01 pm

    @? Martin:

    Nobody thought it would fall that much.

    What I’m interested in is this claim that a national accounting identity, plus some assumptions on a couple of the factors, implies that a declining budget deficit will mean declining corporate profits.

  66. 66.

    askew

    May 14, 2013 at 3:02 pm

    @? Martin:

    @askew: I think the problem was that it wasn’t our asset in Yemen. It’s was Britain’s.

    Ah, I missed that piece. I am still holding out hope that the leak isn’t coming from the administration, but it is a faint hope.

  67. 67.

    Eric U.

    May 14, 2013 at 3:02 pm

    @jl: Bush and the SCOTUS effectively ended the 4th amendment with media and Democratic support. It’s not surprising that the current administration is using the tools available to it. Where was the AP when these laws were passed? It was only the DFH that were complaining about it. It is truly disturbing, but I have no idea how it will be reversed. Just one more reason to keep the presidency out of republican hands

  68. 68.

    Hill Dweller

    May 14, 2013 at 3:02 pm

    @askew:

    Has FBI/DOJ confirmed that the leak came from the WH? If the House intelligence committee had this info, I am placing money on Michelle Bachmann being the leak. She is crazy enough to do it.

    Not to my knowledge, but the FBI has interviewed Obama admin personnel, including Brennan and Holder.

    The way Republicans threw a tantrum when this leaked last year, I’m betting more than one Republican leaked the info to the press.

  69. 69.

    aimai

    May 14, 2013 at 3:02 pm

    On the subject of impeaching Obama all I have to say is “I wish a motherfucker would”–you know? If anything would blow this country apart and guarantee that the Dems take back the House in 2014 it would be the sight of John Boehner and Paul Ryan and the rest of those assholes unsuccessfully trying to hold back their caucus of mouth breathers as they try to impeach the President. The tidal wave of rage would sweep these assholes out of the Augean stables known as congress and hopefully drown a few of them.

  70. 70.

    Betty Cracker

    May 14, 2013 at 3:03 pm

    @Tom Q: RE: the timing of the AP story — the AP says DoJ informed them about the logs last Friday. Doesn’t look like the AP is sandbagging the admin, if that is true.

  71. 71.

    Mart

    May 14, 2013 at 3:04 pm

    Read Bob Sommerby’s Daily Howler blog where he has listed the Sunday Morning transcripts of Ms Rice stating words to the effect that the initial video tape demonstration was overrun by heavy weaponry; and they are determining possible links to various al Queda groups. Infuriating this portion of her comments never make the airwaves. As far as the IRS, the flood of Tea Party non-profit apps. deserved some scrutiny for tax evasion fraud; just hope would apply same level to Dem tax free groups. Plus with a firewall between IRS/Admin – just see R grandstanding with these two.

    The AP story is the one that concerns me. Obama flip-flopped from Senator/Pres Candidate to President on a Federal press shield law. And some props to Glen Greenwald for always stating the obvious – Obama doing it instead of Bush does not make it right. Greenwald may be an unreadable sanctimonious libertarian jerk-wad, but he is consistently right on civil liberties and concentration of Presidential power.

  72. 72.

    MattR

    May 14, 2013 at 3:04 pm

    @beltane:

    The real scandal is that the Patriot Act was passed so hastily, not that the government is using the powers that Congress gave to it.

    Who here is shocked to discover that the media is suddenly outraged about what the government has the power to do now that the power is being wielded against them after relative silence (or condescending dismissal) whenever anyone else tried to complain about those powers in the past?

  73. 73.

    Belafon (formerly anonevent)

    May 14, 2013 at 3:06 pm

    @Alex S.: If what you mean by spying is “got a subpoena, went to the phone companies and got pertinent call logs, and then told the AP they had acquired them” then yes, the government spied. If you mean “watched appropriate people at the AP and tapped their phones” then no, they did not.

  74. 74.

    chopper

    May 14, 2013 at 3:06 pm

    “it’s not a racial thing, it’s an american thing”

    yeah! it’s just that obama isn’t really american. there’s just something about the guy, something about the way he looks. something dark and sinister. WAIT! FORGET I SAID ‘DARK’!

  75. 75.

    Bubblegum Tate

    May 14, 2013 at 3:08 pm

    @Trollhattan:

    Fools seem to find one another, evidently not just in the parking lot before Raiders games.

    BURN!

  76. 76.

    jl

    May 14, 2013 at 3:08 pm

    @beltane:

    I don’t think booman agrees with me, really. Booman thinks some rules were broken, or at least stretched.

    But in the end of all three of these (so far) BS scandals, sorry GOP. Unless something totally unexpected transpires, I predict that come 2016, Nixon (a GOPer) will still be only president who had to step down due to scandals, and Dub (a GOPer) will still be considered one of the worst presidents in U.S. history.

    And the current DemocRAT blah president will look a hell of a lot better than the loony vicious clowns, thugs, and liars that constistute the Congressional GOP.

  77. 77.

    Gex

    May 14, 2013 at 3:09 pm

    Warning: OT and I’m not going to stick around for much discussion because I had a spectacular blow up about comments already today and I would like to retain any dignity I have left. (Probably none, but I can pretend like the cat that cleans themselves after a spectacular miss.)

    So anyhow, to continue on in the amazing fashion it has, 2013 now includes my third abnormal pap in a row, or as we like to call it, “Is that you, Cervical Cancer?”

    I’ve at least had the opportunity to learn that I don’t go suicidal as easily as I did as a young ‘un. So that’s good.

    Anyhow – doing as well as can be expected psychologically given everything. Gonna go curl up and lick my wounds now. If nothing else, I can sit and think about how fast this year has really gone and how soon it will be over. Seems like just yesterday we went into the hospital.

    Crap.

  78. 78.

    beltane

    May 14, 2013 at 3:11 pm

    @MattR: The media told us that anyone who questioned the scope of the Patriot Act was helping the terrorists. We were told by the media to mind our language and not question the president. Now that they have been targeted in accordance with this law that they told us was absolutely essential, they are crying like the WATB’s they are. Fuck them. I hope the feds have pictures of Ron Fournier fucking a goat.

  79. 79.

    schrodinger's cat

    May 14, 2013 at 3:12 pm

    Not related to the impeachment freakout.
    Guess who is defending Richwine? None other than Balloon Juice favorite Sully. Here is what he has to say,

    But please don’t say truly stupid things like race has no biological element to it or that there is no data on racial differences in IQ (even though those differences are mild compared with overwhelming similarity). Denying empirical reality is not a good thing in any circumstance. In a university context, it is an embrace of illiberalism at its most pernicious and seductive: because its motives are good.

  80. 80.

    beltane

    May 14, 2013 at 3:14 pm

    @schrodinger’s cat: I was waiting for that. Also, is Sully aware that Hispanics are not a race?

  81. 81.

    quannlace

    May 14, 2013 at 3:15 pm

    The Right Wing Outrage-Meter. It goes to 11.
    Always.

  82. 82.

    jl

    May 14, 2013 at 3:15 pm

    @Gex: I’m very sorry to hear that. Keep us posted.

  83. 83.

    Citizen_X

    May 14, 2013 at 3:15 pm

    Does the GOP House really want to spotlight that Republican-sponsored shit-show so that the rest of the country starts paying attention?

    The other problem for the GOP in this is, who’s he star? Who’s the victim? The fucking Tea Partiers. The rest of the country hates the Tea Partiers (seriously, all except about 27%, heh heh). Do they really want to drag those illiterate racists back into the spotlight?

  84. 84.

    Gex

    May 14, 2013 at 3:16 pm

    FPers – if someone you trust not to flame me wants my email to contact me about the latest developments, feel free to share it. I don’t know if that’s a thing you do or not.

  85. 85.

    beltane

    May 14, 2013 at 3:17 pm

    @Citizen_X: A lot of people are going to be pissed that teabagging is tax-exempt.

  86. 86.

    Comrade Dread

    May 14, 2013 at 3:19 pm

    I can’t really see the AP thing taking off because really, the collective response should be “Well… duh… Welcome to post 9/11, Patriot Act America. Maybe next time, you’ll realize that laws apply to you too and oppose overly intrusive ones.”

  87. 87.

    askew

    May 14, 2013 at 3:20 pm

    @jl:

    I don’t think booman agrees with me, really. Booman thinks some rules were broken, or at least stretched.

    But in the end of all three of these (so far) BS scandals, sorry GOP. Unless something totally unexpected transpires, I predict that come 2016, Nixon (a GOPer) will still be only president who had to step down due to scandals, and Dub (a GOPer) will still be considered one of the worst presidents in U.S. history.

    And the current DemocRAT blah president will look a hell of a lot better than the loony vicious clowns, thugs, and liars that constistute the Congressional GOP.

    And with the economy recovering and the deficit falling, come 2016 Obama will be remembered as a successful two-term president which is media and Republicans worst nightmare.

  88. 88.

    Belafon (formerly anonevent)

    May 14, 2013 at 3:21 pm

    @beltane: Especially people who pay for it.

  89. 89.

    rikyrah

    May 14, 2013 at 3:22 pm

    Imani ABL @AngryBlackLady

    Holder has been ride or die for civil rights and voting rights. Maybe that has something to do with Republicans’ zeal to see him ousted?

    9:54 AM – 14 May 2013

  90. 90.

    rikyrah

    May 14, 2013 at 3:22 pm

    Sari Horwitz ‏@SariHorwitz48s
    DAG Jim Cole made the AP phone records decision because AG Holder was interviewed by the FBI in this case and recused himself from decision.

    Sari Horwitz ‏@SariHorwitz3m
    A Justice Dept. official has just confirmed that AG Holder recused himself from AP phonerecords decision. It was made by Deputy AG Jim Cole

  91. 91.

    Emma

    May 14, 2013 at 3:22 pm

    @Gex: I am so, so sorry. I can’t even wrap my mind around what you’ve gone through and are still going through. For what it’s worth,I do want to hear how you’re doing. Keep us all informed, yeah?

  92. 92.

    chopper

    May 14, 2013 at 3:23 pm

    @aimai:

    i almost imagine obama daring these fuckers to do it. he’d end up becoming the democratic jesus.

    seriously, what does the GOP think minorities in this country are going to think when the first minority president gets impeached over nothing at all? what then happens years from now when minorities make up the largest block of reliable voters? does the GOP think this sort of shit is good for their long-term survival or not?

  93. 93.

    rikyrah

    May 14, 2013 at 3:23 pm

    Bobfr @Our4thEstate

    Bad news to whoever leaked CIA classified info, DOJ didn’t just begin their investigation with the @AP subpoena. Lawyer up.

    12:01 PM – 14 May 2013

  94. 94.

    scav

    May 14, 2013 at 3:23 pm

    @Gex: Even in absentia, all the best and blowups can be as valuable a response as any.

  95. 95.

    Jack the Second

    May 14, 2013 at 3:23 pm

    Obama will be impeached by the House of Representatives. The only question is when.

    Personally, I think they will wait for 2015 on the hopes that they’ll control the Senate and can convict him there. They’ve already voted dozens of times to repeal Obamacare. It would be no harder to get an impeachment vote through the House. But if they win the Senate in 2014 how much sweeter it will be…

    If they fail to take the Senate, they’ll still impeach him, because why the hell not. If they lose the House as well, there will still be time to impeach him in the lame duck session.

    It will happen.

  96. 96.

    liberal

    May 14, 2013 at 3:23 pm

    @Gex:

    I had a spectacular blow up about comments already today and I would like to retain any dignity I have left.

    Well, I for one thought your other comments were fine, even if I am a breeder. :-)

  97. 97.

    Belafon (formerly anonevent)

    May 14, 2013 at 3:23 pm

    @Comrade Dread: Actually, I suspect most people won’t do they Post-9-11 thing, because that’s too complicated. I think “someone leaked information that exposed our spy” will be much easier for most people to grasp.

  98. 98.

    liberal

    May 14, 2013 at 3:25 pm

    @chopper:

    what does the GOP think minorities in this country are going to think when the first minority president gets impeached over nothing at all?

    Or what any rational person thinks when they look at the batting average (1000% for impeaching Dem presidents post-Carter).

  99. 99.

    chopper

    May 14, 2013 at 3:25 pm

    One meeting at a Cracker Barrel later

    of course it was. how apropos that a barrel full of crackers would meet at a cracker barrel.

  100. 100.

    El Caganer

    May 14, 2013 at 3:26 pm

    @schrodinger’s cat: He’s still flogging that Bell Curve horseshit? Along with whatever else he’s flogging, that is.

  101. 101.

    j

    May 14, 2013 at 3:27 pm

    @El Caganer: It wouldn’t surprise me if that “someone” is one of Cheney’s political operatives who changed their employment status from “appointed” to “career, Civil Service” so they can hang on to theis jobs.

    There are hundreds of Bush era partisan hacks populating every department at the highest levels using something called burrowing. (Google it). Their whole purpose is to gum up the works and sandbag Obama at every turn, and bring down the government from within.

    […] But some find a way to protect their paychecks via a controversial practice known as “burrowing in.” A Washington tradition, burrowing entails transferring from a political position to a career slot (often under circumstances involving a conspicuous lack of competition) and has become such a regular occurrence that the Office of Personnel Management sends out a memo each election year warning agency heads to keep their personnel selections free from political interference. The latest version of this letter went out in March, noting that opm will review all conversions through Inauguration Day.

    http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2008/10/bush-o-crats-burrow

  102. 102.

    different-church-lady

    May 14, 2013 at 3:27 pm

    @Trollhattan: What do you have against job creators?

  103. 103.

    schrodinger's cat

    May 14, 2013 at 3:28 pm

    Frankly I am getting really tired of this self defeating and negative talk about impeachment on this blog. This is probably the fourth or the fifth post about it in the last couple of days.

  104. 104.

    jl

    May 14, 2013 at 3:29 pm

    @beltane:

    I hate to pull rank as a statistician, but really, this race/IQ stuff is so far over their heads, people like Sully, and any pundit you read in the corporate media and blogs and TV radio etc., simply have no idea what they are talking about. People should take Sully’s opinion on quantum mechanics about as seriously.

    Thanks for pointing out that ‘Hispanic’ is NOT a race,

    One of the odd things that I notice about the race/IQ BS is that how the racists’ incompetent statistical mumbo jumbo is never matched up with what we know about population genetics.

    Take Hispanics, the ethnicity. Who are they ancestrally and genetically? They are WHITE, and Native American. Who are the Native Americans, ancestrally and genetically? Well, if you look at maps of the principal components of standard genetic markers, they are, compared to other races, practically the same as East Asians. Seriously compared to other races, Native Americans and East Asians look like almost the same population.

    So, why shouldn’t the racists argue that genetically, Hispanics should be smarter that whitey whitey white types?

    One good BS detector for sound scientific theories is whether multiple independent lines of evidence point to the same conclusion. If you see that, there is some hope for the theory. If you don’t then be very skeptical.

    With the race/IQ BS, this is not happening that I can see. The racists keep redoing and redoing and redoing the same flawed statistical analysis on the same type of flawed (at least flawed for the purposes of untangling genetic, developmental and environmental factors) observational data.

    It is really mind boggling how this stuff keeps staggering along as (edit: I meant, being advertised as) a serious scientific proposition.

    Something is going on with traditional measurements of IQ and gaps between different races and ethnicity that we do not understand, and have a hard time fixing. That is about all we really know.

    Stuff that racists and reactionaries and conservatives hate, like stereotype bias has a lot more promise to explain the differences. There is certainly more evidence for that angle.

  105. 105.

    El Caganer

    May 14, 2013 at 3:30 pm

    @schrodinger’s cat: True. The Sunday Morning Teevee Circus has more than enough coverage of this BS.

  106. 106.

    Svensker

    May 14, 2013 at 3:30 pm

    @Gex:

    Oh, honey. You just don’t need this right now! Big hugs and let us know what the doc/lab says.

  107. 107.

    schrodinger's cat

    May 14, 2013 at 3:33 pm

    @jl: Sully meanwhile can’t calculate a percentage, so I take your opinion of over his, on this matter.

  108. 108.

    burnspbesq

    May 14, 2013 at 3:35 pm

    Weigel, Benen, and Drum have all been infuriatingly obtuse about the IRS thing. Ezra and, to a lesser extent Alec McGillis, seem to be the only people who can see clearly.

    Fuck it. Here’s today’s earworm. Turn it up and enjoy.

    http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XmNUFYWUmaI

  109. 109.

    different-church-lady

    May 14, 2013 at 3:35 pm

    @Jack the Second: Need 2/3rds of the Senate to convict, so 2014 isn’t going to make a difference.

  110. 110.

    BillinGlendaleCA

    May 14, 2013 at 3:35 pm

    @j: Burrowing. That’s the first thing that came to mind when I heard about the IRS “scandal”.

  111. 111.

    beltane

    May 14, 2013 at 3:35 pm

    @jl: Every time there is a major wave of immigration, the reactionaries of the time trot out these studies which “prove” that immigrant group X has lower IQs than native group Y. People like Richwine may like to claim that Jews and Asians have high IQs, but their counterparts a century ago singled out both these groups as being of below average intelligence and therefore deserving of exclusion.

  112. 112.

    Hill Dweller

    May 14, 2013 at 3:36 pm

    Does anyone think ABC/Jonathan Karl/Diane Sawyer will address their leaking of doctored emails on tonight’s new broadcast?

  113. 113.

    different-church-lady

    May 14, 2013 at 3:37 pm

    Also: capitalization.

  114. 114.

    Eric U.

    May 14, 2013 at 3:37 pm

    @schrodinger’s cat: can we just dismiss sully as a racist now? There is no genetic component of race, so any IQ differences are external factors. Long ago, I decided God made skin color differences so we could tell who the stupid people were, and nothing has changed my mind on that.

  115. 115.

    Keith G

    May 14, 2013 at 3:37 pm

    @schrodinger’s cat:

    Frankly I am getting really tired of this self defeating and negative talk about impeachment on this blog.

    It’s much easier to praddle on in a defensive “outrage blogger” mode than to write thoughtfully and with depth on important issues as Kay does.

    This is not a knock on this post, as here Betty does provide a bit of value added writing.

  116. 116.

    different-church-lady

    May 14, 2013 at 3:38 pm

    @Hill Dweller: This is why they’re forcing Barbara Walters out — she’s going to take the fall.

  117. 117.

    Cassidy

    May 14, 2013 at 3:38 pm

    @BillinGlendaleCA: Heh…without competition. If people really knew how many of those GS11/12 positions on USAJobs was only posted for one person to fill out…

  118. 118.

    beltane

    May 14, 2013 at 3:38 pm

    @Hill Dweller: If they had any integrity ABC would begin the evening news with a major retraction/mea culpa. I expect silence.

  119. 119.

    Bulworth

    May 14, 2013 at 3:39 pm

    “Quite frankly my wife and I were apolitical people,” he remembers. “Glenn Beck was on TV, and we were learning things we didn’t know.

    Wait…I think I’ve spotted the problem.

  120. 120.

    Redshift

    May 14, 2013 at 3:40 pm

    @Gex: Damn. We’re here for you. Well, as much as a group of people connected through the ether whose real names are mostly unknown can be.

  121. 121.

    Matt McIrvin

    May 14, 2013 at 3:40 pm

    @Jack the Second: They need 67 votes to convict in the Senate. Control of the Senate wouldn’t be enough; they’d have to have a large supermajority or get a significant number of Democrats to defect.

  122. 122.

    schrodinger's cat

    May 14, 2013 at 3:41 pm

    @Keith G: This post is fine. It is the sheer number of posts on a non issue that is what is off putting.

  123. 123.

    gogol's wife

    May 14, 2013 at 3:42 pm

    @chopper:

    Your second paragraph captures my sentiments.

  124. 124.

    jl

    May 14, 2013 at 3:42 pm

    @beltane: True. And as for East Asians, it it wasn’t genetics, it was their oh so foreign mysterious ‘Oriental’ cultural ways which were so incompatible with us whitey white European types, immigration and integration would just cause horrible problems.

    Now, East Asians are the model minority, that reactionaries and conservatives slobber over, and have wet dreams about getting their All-American work ethic votes, somehow. And falsely claiming that East Asians are like Lake Woebegone kids, were everyone is above average.

    These racists are just the most pathetic goofballs, they would be funny, truly hiiiilarious, if what they peddle were not so dangerous.

  125. 125.

    Calouste

    May 14, 2013 at 3:44 pm

    @jl:

    I wouldn’t even put any value on Sully’s opinion about what he had for breakfast this morning.

  126. 126.

    whoami

    May 14, 2013 at 3:45 pm

    @jl:
    Some very smart people interested in this stuff.

    They and other folks like them are starting to apply all this genome sequencing tech to this issue.

    To me the science is either not that interesting or wrong, but this kind of thing is only going to get worse.

  127. 127.

    Trollhattan

    May 14, 2013 at 3:46 pm

    @schrodinger’s cat:

    Sully and McMegan should have a maths-off. Whose calculatorsliderulenotepadfingers and toes will reign supreme?

  128. 128.

    Aimai

    May 14, 2013 at 3:46 pm

    @Gex: I am so horribly sorry, Gex. I will hold you in the light and send all my positive energy your way. You have had the roughest of rough deals all the way along. My heart is with you.

  129. 129.

    Heliopause

    May 14, 2013 at 3:48 pm

    @aimai:

    You do remember 1998, don’t you? 60-80%, depending on the poll, thought the impeachment of Clinton was a farce, yet the GOP barely lost any ground in the election.

  130. 130.

    whoami

    May 14, 2013 at 3:48 pm

    @jl:

    …they are, compared to other races, practically the same as East Asians. Seriously compared to other races, Native Americans and East Asians look like almost the same population.

    I think the claim of those claiming a racial difference would argue that the time these groups (East Asians, Native Americans) were separated was more than enough for the observed group diffs in IQ to arise. I don’t agree that the claim (difference in racial IQ means is “real” and due to genetic differences) is true, but there’s no reason to think that 14,000 years of separation isn’t enough.

  131. 131.

    Keith G

    May 14, 2013 at 3:48 pm

    @burnspbesq: What did Drum post that was, “…infuriatingly obtuse about the IRS thing.”?

    I read the relevant posts and find no there, there. And as it turns out, Kline links favorably to some of Drum’s work.

  132. 132.

    MomSense

    May 14, 2013 at 3:51 pm

    I think my scandley sense is broken because I don’t see the scandal in any of these things.

    If there is a scandal it is that so many clearly political organizations are able to qualify as 501c(4).

  133. 133.

    Hungry Joe

    May 14, 2013 at 3:51 pm

    @beltane:

    is Sully aware that Hispanics are not a race?

    Apparently not.

    is Sully aware … ?

    Apparently not.

  134. 134.

    Villago Delenda Est

    May 14, 2013 at 3:51 pm

    @beltane:

    You are correct. There’s as much chance of ABC fessing up as there is of me being named Kaiser tomorrow.

  135. 135.

    Villago Delenda Est

    May 14, 2013 at 3:53 pm

    @Heliopause:

    Not true. The GOP took a major bath in the ’98 midterms, and one of the results was that Fuckstick Gingrich was ousted as Speaker. Someone had to take the fall for the near loss of the House by the GOP.

  136. 136.

    catclub

    May 14, 2013 at 3:55 pm

    @Just Some Fuckhead: I, R, and S are heavily used letters in “terrorism”.

    Act of terror, not so much, but some!

  137. 137.

    different-church-lady

    May 14, 2013 at 3:57 pm

    @MomSense:

    I think my scandley sense is broken because I don’t see the scandal in any of these things.

    There’s a non-Republican in the White House AND on top of that his skin is weird shade. What, we gotta draw you a picture?

  138. 138.

    catclub

    May 14, 2013 at 3:57 pm

    @Matt McIrvin: plus Lieberman is no longer there (Halleljuah!). He could be a vote to impeach if Obama has not bombed Iran by then.

  139. 139.

    Jockey Full of Malbec

    May 14, 2013 at 3:57 pm

    Has the identity of the ‘low level’ Republican appointee who started all this been revealed yet?

  140. 140.

    Xenos

    May 14, 2013 at 4:01 pm

    FWIW, Gex, I thought your were pretty on point.

    I have gay family members. I suspect one of my kids is gay (too young to tell, or even speculate at this point). I suppose I get the urge to pat myself on the back about being enlightened.

    But your are right – that is bullshit. No matter what I do or say, my gay relatives can’t fully relax around me. They have been burned by straight friends and family too many fucking times. It is too easy to forget the rotten abuse that a lot of people have had to put up with, and try to get beyond day by day. It must be exhausting to live on a planet full of assholes and clods. Feel free to unload.

  141. 141.

    Thot Gor

    May 14, 2013 at 4:02 pm

    The howler monkeys have been freaking out about whatever is convienient for them for 5 years and they won’t stop until a republican is in the WH. Do most people care about any of these “scandals”? The President is fairly popluar, Congress polls terribly, we are in an off year election-wise… REAL scandals could happen and I doubt it would change much at this point. If the right treats every slight as the worst scandal ever who is going to pay attention to the real thing?

  142. 142.

    kc

    May 14, 2013 at 4:05 pm

    I’m not an Obot, but if those bastards impeach him, I’ll be grabbing a pitchfork and a torch.

  143. 143.

    MomSense

    May 14, 2013 at 4:08 pm

    @Gex:

    I’m so sorry, Gex. I will say that over the years I have had a few scares of the big C variety and it is stressful but please try to stay calm and be gentle with yourself. Please do let us know what happens.

  144. 144.

    Temporarily Max McGee (soon enough to be Andy K again)

    May 14, 2013 at 4:12 pm

    @jl:

    I think there is a good chance that the AP ‘scandal’ will turn out to be only one of these ‘scandals’ where nothing was going on but standard operating post-Patriot Act procedure.

    Hell, I don’t think you even need the Patriot Act to do this. The Espionage Act alone might be enough, and that fucker’s nearly 100 years old.

  145. 145.

    Paula

    May 14, 2013 at 4:17 pm

    “If they haven’t done anything wrong, they have nothing to worry about.”

    Goose blah blah gander.

    If Republican Congressmen can openly target and shut down something like Acorn and be applauded, I don’t see why a fucking audit that resulted in NOTHING HAPPENING is illegal.

  146. 146.

    Kay

    May 14, 2013 at 4:22 pm

    The wingnuts are all stirred up here, Betty.

    This is going to be an emotional roller coaster for them.

    It reminds me a little of the afternoon of election day, really.

    I’m going to be there for them, after :)

  147. 147.

    Jockey Full of Malbec

    May 14, 2013 at 4:28 pm

    @MomSense:

    If there is a scandal it is that so many clearly political organizations are able to qualify as 501c(4).

    This.

    Chris Hayes did a good job on his show last night of explaining how this was ultimately driven by Citizen’s United.

    The resulting flurry of applications for 501c{4}’s was caused by that.

  148. 148.

    Heliopause

    May 14, 2013 at 4:31 pm

    @Villago Delenda Est:

    Not true. The GOP took a major bath in the ’98 midterms

    Sorry, not true. The GOP only lost five House seats and zero in the Senate. They maintained control of both houses of Congress.

  149. 149.

    mai naem

    May 14, 2013 at 4:33 pm

    @Steeplejack:
    You can’t make this shit up. This guy who was apolitical made a contribution in 09 to a Repub running in 09 and is running for GOP chair this year in Ohio but Weigel doesn’t notice this.
    http://tomzforgopchair.wordpress.com/2013/04/22/zawistowski-makes-statement-on-borges-tax-issues/

    @jl: Asians voted for Obama at a greater percentage then the Joos and Hispanics and I wouldn’t be surprised if they would have matched the AAs if it wasn’t Obama but a non AA Dem running.

  150. 150.

    Hoodie

    May 14, 2013 at 4:34 pm

    Bengazi is already starting to blow up in their faces, looks like some doofus from the Weekly Standard may have doctored the emails that were the subject of the ABC “scoop” (give Jake Tapper credit where due). The public will not give a shit about the AP subpeona because it involves leaks of classified info and the public already hates the press. The IRS thing may last a bit longer, but I’m not sure the money guys in the GOP will like airing dirty laundry about these “social welfare” groups and their tax deductions. Hell, in a few weeks, these could turn into GOP scandals. The AP leak could be from a burrowed republican in the bureaucracy or someone in the House, the IRS thing occurred under a Bush holdover and brings out the whole issue of dark money, Bengazi may be turning into a blown GOP ratfucking operation.

    Now the CBO is saying the projected deficits are way down. Employment numbers are improving. A Congress that is obsessed with non-existent scandals, voting to repeal Obamacare for the thirtieth time and is doing nothing to help the middle class.

    Ought to be plenty to work with there.

  151. 151.

    Jeremy

    May 14, 2013 at 4:34 pm

    @jl: Many Hispanics are not just white and native American. Many are black or partially black due to the slave trade.

  152. 152.

    mai naem

    May 14, 2013 at 4:34 pm

    @Heliopause: They didn’t take a bath but it was either the first time or only the second time ever that the opposition party had lost seats in the midterms.

  153. 153.

    Patricia Kayden

    May 14, 2013 at 4:36 pm

    Oh the poor racist, homophobic, sexist T’Baggers!! My heart bleeds that the IRS scrutinized their requests for tax exemption, even though their only function is to oppose Democrats and get Republicans elected to office.

    Poor things.

  154. 154.

    Kathleen

    May 14, 2013 at 4:36 pm

    @Hill Dweller: Why of course, Just as they addressed the Valerie Plame leak. A tad OT, but my local ABC Propatainment Bootlick this morning outright referred to the “IRS Scandal” with no qualifiers. I’ve noted that any time there is a Republican scandal, reporting is always mitigated to include statement, “According to Democrats…”

  155. 155.

    mai naem

    May 14, 2013 at 4:45 pm

    I don’t have a problem with the IRS thing because my gut feeling is that they saw the teabaggers and the stories about the AstroTurf/Grassroots stuff. The optics aren’t going to be great but whatevah.
    The AP telephone records story is just bad bad bad bad. Whatever idjit had the stoopid idea of going after the AP needs to be canned yesterday. You do not go after the AP. Its even worse than going after the NYT or WSJ or WP. Seriously stupid and to top it off the recent AP editors seem to have been GOPrs

  156. 156.

    Heliopause

    May 14, 2013 at 4:45 pm

    @mai naem:

    That’s neat, but we were talking about what Aimai said up @69, that impeachment would “guarantee” the Dems take the House in a “Tidal Wave” of rage.

  157. 157.

    Patricia Kayden

    May 14, 2013 at 4:47 pm

    @Heliopause: Well, isn’t that what those who voted for Republicans wanted in 2010? Wasn’t the whole point of the 2010 mid term election to “punish” President Obama and the Dems?

    I gather that those who voted for the T’Baggers/Repubs in 2010 are happy with the way the government is being stalled and will be stalled at least until 2014.

  158. 158.

    Patricia Kayden

    May 14, 2013 at 4:51 pm

    @aimai: I hope you’re right. It happened with Clinton in 1998 after Rethugs impeached him for lying about sex. (Rolls eyes). I’m hoping Rethugs will overreach on these “scandals” as well. I’m sure they won’t disappoint me.

  159. 159.

    Patricia Kayden

    May 14, 2013 at 4:56 pm

    @schrodinger’s cat: Sullivan has always been a Bell Curve type of guy. Interesting that he believes that there is a biological basis to race. Does he feel the same way about homosexuality?

  160. 160.

    Heliopause

    May 14, 2013 at 4:59 pm

    @Patricia Kayden:

    It happened with Clinton in 1998

    Except, it didn’t.

  161. 161.

    aimai

    May 14, 2013 at 5:02 pm

    @Heliopause:

    Look, the gerrymandering of the congressional seats means that any prediction of a tidal wave–even if it happens–is wishful thinking as to result. I’m not that starry eyed. But I do think that impeachment will turn a “midterm slump election” into a tidal wave of rage election in which the democratic base will turn out like never before–if the republican base is not energized (and impeachment may or may not energize it) then anything can happen.

    It is in fact the case that the Republicans badly miscalculated with their previous impeachment attempt of Clinton and one of the things they miscalculated on was the effect it would have on the voers and the public. Clinton had been sinking in the polls before the impeachment and he became quite popular afterwards. Impeachming and looking like fools may have the same effect on this current incarnation of hte republican party. I do not think it will help them in any way with the voters and I know it will hurt them with democratic voters and on the fence voters because it turns Obama from a sometime enemy into a martyr to the cause.

  162. 162.

    aimai

    May 14, 2013 at 5:05 pm

    @Heliopause:

    Too global a perspective. The wiki has this to say:

    The U.S. Senate election, 1998 was a roughly even contest between the Republican and Democratic parties. While the Democrats had more seats, Republican attacks on the morality of President Bill Clinton failed to connect with voters and anticipated Republican gains failed to materialize. The Republicans picked-up open seats in Ohio and Kentucky and defeated incumbent Senator Carol Mosley-Braun (D-IL), but these were cancelled out by the Democrats’ gain of an open seat in Indiana and defeats of Senators Al D’Amato (R-NY) and Lauch Faircloth (R-NC). The balance of the Senate remained unchanged at 55-45 in favor of the Republicans. Because of gains made in the House of Representatives, it was the first time since 1934 that the out-of-Presidency party failed to gain congressional seats in a mid-term election, and the first time since 1822 that the party not in control of the White House had failed to gain seats in the mid-term election of a President’s second term.

    The Republicans did much worse than expected and ended up barely staying even.

  163. 163.

    Suffern ACE

    May 14, 2013 at 5:06 pm

    @Heliopause: I think it did matter that they lost those seats. Thoughout the summer the MSM was predicting a blowout win for the Republicans benefiting from the supposed clinton fatigue and anger over the scandal. And when that didn’t happen, it was reported to be a major win and turn around of fortunes for the Dems.

  164. 164.

    Patricia Kayden

    May 14, 2013 at 5:06 pm

    @Heliopause: For some reason I thought Repubs lost the Congress in 2008. Alrighty then.

  165. 165.

    Heliopause

    May 14, 2013 at 5:26 pm

    @aimai:

    The GOP paid a small price for their stunt, but only a small one. They maintained their House majority for four election cycles after impeachment, controlled the Senate for all but a year and a half in that time, and won the White House twice (once with an asterisk, of course). Impeaching Obama will lose them some credibility with a few percent of independents, but most members of the caucus have likely already priced that in. And it’s hard to conceive of what more they could do to hurt themselves after nearly destroying western civilization in 2008.

  166. 166.

    gene108

    May 14, 2013 at 5:31 pm

    @aimai:

    On the subject of impeaching Obama all I have to say is “I wish a motherfucker would”–you know? If anything would blow this country apart and guarantee that the Dems take back the House in 2014 it would be the sight of John Boehner and Paul Ryan and the rest of those assholes unsuccessfully trying to hold back their caucus of mouth breathers as they try to impeach the President. The tidal wave of rage would sweep these assholes out of the Augean stables known as congress and hopefully drown a few of them.

    Kind of like Voter ID laws got people off their duffs to vote, I think impeaching Obama will let otherwise disengaged voters realize “it’s on, motherfuckers” and will help drive turn out for 2014.

    Of course, they’ll probably do what they did in 1998 and hold the actual impeachment in the lame duck session of Congress, as to minimize the electoral impact of their fucknuttery.

  167. 167.

    jl

    May 14, 2013 at 5:32 pm

    @Patricia Kayden:

    ” Interesting that he believes that there is a biological basis to race. Does he feel the same way about homosexuality? ”

    I have no idea what Sullivan thinks about theories that sexual identity is genetically determined.

    But I wonder how he would react to claims that if being gay is genetically determined, some other random generalization about gays has to true and genetically determined as well. Say, things like being indifferent to the future of the human race? A colorful perhaps slightly feminine manner? Talking funny?

    Would be interesting to see what he would think about that.

    Edit: I think we know that a few superficial features of different races have a genetic basis, say kinky black hair versus straight blond hair. But does that mean you can extrapolate that info to all sorts of observed differences between groups of people?

  168. 168.

    Heliopause

    May 14, 2013 at 5:35 pm

    @aimai: @Suffern ACE:

    That’s all well and good, but history does not show that impeaching President Clinton proved a fatal blow to the Republican Party. Far from it.

  169. 169.

    ruemara

    May 14, 2013 at 5:59 pm

    @mai naem: I really wish you knew more before you condemned it. No one “went after the AP”. No one. It’s a standard investigation into a security leak that was damaging and it was subpoenaed. This is not “going after the AP”.

  170. 170.

    aimai

    May 14, 2013 at 7:15 pm

    @Heliopause:

    Different electorate, different time. No one said it dealt a fatal blow to the Republicans but it did actually set them back on their heels. If they hadn’t had the Supreme Court bail them out we would have seen them descend into gibbering madness during the Al Gore Presidency. As it is they took power back and ran with it–while their base was getting older and sicker and more out of touch. We are heading for a demographic tipping point and they know it so, no, impeaching Obama will not be a “knock out blow” but it will prove the blow that finally scuttles the hopes of the remaining “sane” corporatist dems that the tea party assholes will ever stop alienating hispanics and blacks. You are setting up a straw man and then arguing against it. The Clinton Impeachment did not give them what they wanted and, in fact, broke their momentum considerably. They moved farther to the right and they dragged the country that way for a while through a combination of fearmongering, the war, and voter suppression. But the rising new voter population is not their target voter and they can’t figure out how to get them and they seem to be determined mainly to piss them off. So I think an impeachment of Obama will be exactly what they think is good for their party, and I think it is highly unlikely to work out the way they want.

  171. 171.

    burnspbesq

    May 14, 2013 at 7:40 pm

    @Keith G:

    Based on your comment, I went back and re-read the Drum post that pissed me off yesterday. I over-reacted. I feel like I have a dog in this fight, since I am ex-Office of Chief Counsel and had a front-row seat for eight years to rank-and-file IRS field personnel struggling to do their jobs with insufficient guidance form DC.

    Benen, however, is definitely not off the hook.

  172. 172.

    karen

    May 14, 2013 at 8:48 pm

    I’ve reached four points in this whole clusterfuck. And I’m no Obamabot. I’m a pragmatist who has realized that as much as I hate war, hate drones, hate all that shit, it will happen whether it’s Obama or Hilary or whoever the Democrat is. But with a Teapublican we have all that horrible stuff AND get left to rot. And I finally got into disabled housing after waiting for three years so if I get the benefit with a Democrat and I don’t with a Teapublican. With Romney that funding would be cut and I’d never have gotten in.

    1. No one will ever mention about how liberal groups were targeted by the FBI and by the IRS and NO ONE will mention that Crossroads and all that ilk that is breaking the non-profit rules or the churches that are breaking that rule as well.

    2 4 deaths > thousands of deaths in a Republican administration if the President with the 4 deaths is black. It has nothing to do with him being a Democrat, they wanted to impeach him for being black and since they can’t do that legally, they’ve been impeaching him for breathing and will until Obama does the “honorable thing” and either resigns or some acolyte of Beck, Jones or Limpdick goes off the rails and finally does what they’ve been daring their groupies to do because they don’t want to get their own hands dirty.

    3. The PUMAs here shouldn’t be licking their chops so much. If this actually goes anywhere, it WILL affect Hilary so I’d be careful about calling for Obama’s head, Knockabout.

    4. No one dares say it in the media but the Grand Old Party or the Republican Party has ceased to exist since Obama was running for President the first time. The Tea Party confederate Dixicrat drega of society are the only ones left. Well they need to stop breathing. They’re wasting air that the sentient creatures can be breathing. They all need to be exiled to a toxic waste dump where they can all be poisoned and choke on their hatred.

  173. 173.

    mclaren

    May 15, 2013 at 1:59 am

    “Glenn Beck was on TV, and we were learning things we didn’t know.”

    Just the same way UFOlogists and flat earther learn things they didn’t know. The earth is hollow and full of reptoids. Fluoridation is a secret communist plot. Heavy metal records contain satanic messages recorded backwards…

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