The Scandals Are Falling Apart -- Ezra Klein, Washington Post
Things go wrong in government. Sometimes it’s just bad luck. Sometimes it’s rank incompetence. Sometimes it’s criminal wrongdoing. Most of the time you never hear about it. Or, if you do hear about it, the media eventually gets bored talking about it (see warming, global).
But every so often an instance of government wrongdoing sprouts wings and becomes something quite exciting: A political scandal.
The crucial ingredient for a scandal is the prospect of high-level White House involvement and wide political repercussions. Government wrongdoing is boring. Scandals can bring down presidents, decide elections and revive down-and-out political parties. Scandals can dominate American politics for months at a time.
Read more ....
My Comment: Summarizing Ezra Klein (who obviously wants to be the next White House Press spokesman) ....
IRS as a tool used to target conservatives .... no big deal. The IRS is an independent body ..... there are no White House fingerprints on this .... someone got fired (a Bush appointee) .... end of story.
Benghazi .... a tragedy .... confusion on who did the attack and why .... normal in the fog of war/terrorism .... but the White house could do nothing about it. We released a few emails to prove to the world that we were confused .... end of story.
Seizing the AP's phone records .... nothing illegal here .... besides .... the Republicans were complaining about leaks anyway .... end of story.
Sighhhh .... this is the course of U.S. politics and how a good portion of the media covers it today.
Or .... quoting the Roman satirist and poet Juvenal .... give them more bread and circuses.
