Media has put the a large expose on the scandals that oozes from the Obama administration. The advent of a second term is supposed to set in motion the “lasting legacy of the President” but the distractions from ferocious Republicans have clouded the political climate in the past few weeks. The scandals includes the IRS special scrutiny on conservative groups, alleged government cover-up on Benghazi incident and the Justice department’s seizure of journalists’ phone records.
IRS scandal
Since 2010, the IRS paid an unusual interest to “special interest groups”  that filed for exemption from federal income taxes. Consequently, the IRS were vigilant of non-profit organizations that had “tea-party affiliations” or had “patriot and 9/12” as part of their name, opponents to Obamacare, overt concern of federal government procedures, electoral college overhaul and Bill of rights moniker. Unfortunately,  the above attributes were associated with conservative groups themes rather than liberal ones thereby creating a non-partisan government agency that is supposed to be independent. The scrutiny disbarred most of the conservative from receiving the tax break.  Early May 2013, the scandal was exposed when the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration released an audit report that showed the IRS unfair scrutiny  on conservative groups. The White responded non involvement in the scandal and ordered immediate investigation. The House special committee on oversight thoroughly investigated the scandal that led to the resignation of the acting commissioner of IRS, Steven Miller and administrative leave of acting IRS tax-exempt chief-Lois Lerner. The scandal was met by embarrassment and protests from Conservative groups and republican congress. The Republicans were outspoken on firing all the people attached to the scandal despite the resignation of IRS commissioner . Republicans used the hearing to search for possible links between the the White House and IRS scandal. The  fifth amendment clause on “self incrimination” was used a lot by Lois Lerner during the hearings.
AP phone records seizureÂ
Two weeks, the Justice department allegedly seized the phone records of the Associated press within the authorization of a “criminal probe”.  The details on the probe were not fully stipulated and the reach of search was over-reaching that certainly abuses the First Amendment . The  seizure was rumored to be a  consequence of a leak to the AP of information used in a May 7, 2012, story about a foiled terror plot, including details of a CIA operation in Yemen. AP had an internal source within the intelligence community that leaked the foiled plot from the CIA operation before the White House could release it to the public. The probe was used as a precautionary tool to avoid sensitive transmission of information from the intelligence groups to the press especially at the expense of CIA operatives. Eric holder, the Attorney general of the United States has called for a full investigation. There is a strong thread that binds the world of free press and national security which is  the ideological patriotism to the American flag fabric. This fabric in some perspective is strong but is highly flawed by the principles of the First Amendment that strongly supports “free” press despite the expectation of trust between press and the federal government. The relationship between a source and reporter is scared similarly to the priest and practitioner relationship amid the threats of investigation and jail time. The White House responded with non-involvement on the AP scandal and created distance from the scandal because of exposure of ongoing CIA foreign activities.  Upon further investigation, it was reported that the search probe was not directed towards the AP but the telephone companies. In the advent of the scandal, there was a journalistic and few republican outburst at the Obama’s administration invasion of privacy and free press.  The scandal brought up the issue of the delayed 2009 bill on the “Report shield law” that protects the reporters from releasing their sources. The bill is currently supported the White House and Eric holder is filled with a gaping loophole that makes the law “weak” which is the broad exemption for “national security” issues and a various circumstances that allows  prosecutors’ oversight. The bill is currently been drafted for introduction into Congress.
Bengahzi Incident
Last year’s Libyan embassy incident that led to the death of the US ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens. The incident was finally reported to be a terrorist act by Islamic fundamentalists. Republicans were infuriated about the delayed response from the White House on calling it a terrorist act and downplaying a You tube video that  attacked Islam. John McCain and Key republicans were face on further investigation of the incident and accused the White house of a “cover up”. The accusations were primarily made towards Hilary Clinton and or State department and secondarily to the White House.  There was alleged emails showing the White House’s knowledge of a possible imminent attack by a particular fundamentalist group , knew immediately after the incident the responsible group and spread lies about the ties between the You tube video and the incident which was finally deemed false according to a Republican congressmen which was highly rebuked by the White House.
The scandals however big or small has highly inflamed by the conspiracy theorist agenda driven by the Republicans in response to the disappointing loss of Mitt Romney to President Obama  in order to tarnish  the legacy of Obama. The hate towards Obama is similar to President Clinton-Lewinsky scandal that was echoed by conservative Republicans still left him at 53% approval rating at his lowest. The polarization that has driven most Republicans people towards the right has grown stronger in the second term of Obama. CNN  released a survey of 53% Obama approval and the scandals has no real effect on the rating. The scandals seems to be driven by bitter conservative congressmen of which public are aware but do not really care about. The ratings are driven by public approval of the resurgence of the American economy. Although the scandals have led to more distrust with the federal government from the public.
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