posted 05-15-2013 10:04 AM                  

By Douglas E. Schoen

Published May 14, 2013

FoxNews.com

The first question for White House spokesman Jay Carney at Tuesday's press briefing went right to the heart of the growing crisis facing President Obama:

In the matters of the Benghazi terror attack, the IRS targeting conservative groups, the Justice Department going after AP phone records, “…doesn’t responsibility for setting tone, setting direction ultimately rest with the president?”

That question of “where the buck stops” harkens back to another Democrat who occupied the Oval Office some 60 years ago, “Give ‘em Hell” Harry Truman but the answer is as relevant today.

Benghazi may not be "Obama's Watergate," as Sen. Lindsay Graham has called it, but what we have is an administration that is adrift and leaking more controversy and unanswered questions every day.

On Libya, a detailed examination of the record shows that the White House has had no consistent message on what happened on September 11. In fact, they changed their message from day to day -- and it's clear that the administration's actions in the days and weeks after the Benghazi tragedy was all political maneuvering.

The White House has been caught not telling the full story, and modifying the narrative for political ends.

But that’s just a piece of the troubling picture emerging from the West Wing.

We have Attorney General Eric Holder -- he who managed to dodge full responsibility for the “Fast & Furious” gun-walking debacle in the president's first term -- revealing Tuesday that he had recused himself from the investigation into Justice Department gathering of phone records from more than “20 separate telephone lines assigned to the AP and its journalists in April and May of 2012.”

The bipartisan response to Monday's disturbing challenge to press freedom was swift. Speaker Boehner's office said Monday, “they better have a damned good explanation.” And Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, a Democrat, acknowledge he’s “very troubled” by the allegations.

Then there is the very serious matter of the IRS singling out conservative Tea Party and Patriot groups, among others, for special scrutiny when they sought to apply for tax-exempt status. The president says he's “outraged” -- but also said Monday that he knows nothing about this news.

But “newly obtained documents” show the current IRS chief knew about the agency's targeting of Tea Party groups as early as May 2012, and other officials in Washington were clued in more than a year before that, as the scandal continued to spread.

Perhaps even more telling is White House spokesman Jay Carney’s acknowledgement to reporters Tuesday that the administration is getting its information on these matters from news reports.

Again, who’s in charge here?

And finally there's what appears, from the public record that has emerged so far, to be the prevarication, without any clear explanation, from the administration on Benghazi:

On November 28th, 2012, Carney stated that the State Department had only changed one word of Susan Rice's talking points -- we now know this not to be the case. We also know that within hours of the attack, the White House, the State Department and the FBI received emails saying that an Islamic group had claimed credit -- even going so far as to identify Ansar al-Sharia as the group.

This epidemic of evasions, and most likely falsehoods, only raises more questions. The White House, the State Department, Hillary Clinton and any additional officials involved have committed a serious breach of trust with regard to the American people, and moreover, their actions are an insult to the American citizens who died in Libya that night, on the 11th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

What’s next?

Just months into his final four years in office, President Obama is facing a credibility crisis, one that threatens his fundamental abilities to govern.

Congress needs to get to the bottom of not only Benghazi, but these other scandals so that the American people can regain some semblance of trust in a government that is seemingly run amok.

Perhaps it's time for the president to gather his inner circle to lay down the law -- clean house if and when necessary -- and to assure the American people that regardless of where these investigations may lead, ultimately: “The buck stops here.”

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2013/05/14/benghazi-irs-ap-scandals-will-buck-ever-stop-with-obama/#ixzz2TNF3Gr2f

posted 05-16-2013 08:11 AM                  

......It turns out Miller was already planning to resign in June.....My, what a happy coincidence

Of course, Obama will crow about his "decisive action"

posted 05-16-2013 02:33 PM                  

quote:

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Originally posted by bjprowler:
"Tough Guy" Obama asks for and gets IRS Commissioner Steven Miller's resignation.....

......It turns out Miller was already planning to resign in June.....My, what a happy coincidence

Of course, Obama will crow about his "decisive action"

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/05/16/obama-to-meet-with-treasury-offic ials-over-irs-scandal/

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posted 05-17-2013 05:12 AM                  

i cant help but think that this whole thing is being orchestrated to divert attention from Benghazi.

this IRS thing likely wont be linked to the white house...and some mid to low level IRS people will be thrown under the bus...ir maybe even indicted...

in the meantime, the Benghazi thing will fade...and that is where the State Dept and White house appear to be neck deep in blame...

posted 05-17-2013 12:51 PM                  

be warned , ignorance and foul language bleeped out (hopefully):

Jon Stewart > losing it....

posted 05-19-2013 10:30 AM                  

quote:

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Originally posted by beachcat:
Obama approval rating at 53% even after a rough week. This in an increase over March and April.

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posted 05-19-2013 10:53 AM                  

Kyle Becker
On May 17, 2013

"The scandal storm is raining on Obama’s approval ratings. Not only has his presidency set a new standard for incompetence, but the public is getting wind of rampant corruption."

"Gallup trotted out its new approval ratings, which showed a 7-point drop from his post-election high of 56% down to 49%. The 23% spread of approval-to-disapproval from those heady days is down to four percent:

Obama, whose approval rating was 56 percent around Christmas, has sunk to 47 percent approve with an equal percentage disapproving of the president’s performance.

Worse for the president is how his Gallup approval rating has dipped in just the last two weeks as he’s faced a triple-threat of scandals: Benghazi, IRS and the search for AP sources. Two weeks ago, for example, he held a 50 percent approval rating and 43 percent disapproval.

Rasmussen had a similar even keel of approval and disapproval, but according to the poll, the president has been taking on water"

http://www.ijreview.com/2013/05/53053-scandal-storm-takes-it-toll-at-the-presidential-polls/

Transparency,,,,HOPE & CHANGE,,,, NOT .....