Phony Scandals, Phony Leadership

Phony Scandals, Phony Leadership
Commentary by Sanford D. Horn
August 2, 2013

With Bill Clinton, it was a steady stream of deny, deny, deny. Barack Obama has learned at the knee of his predecessor mastering to a new art form of divide, divide, divide – the country; distort, distort, distort – the truth; and deflect, deflect, deflect – the blame.

“An endless parade of distractions, political posturing, and phony scandals,” has been Obama’s oft-repeated mantra of late. The distractions have been the machinations of Obama and his minions themselves to take the American people away from the still failing economy, the embarrassing manner in which America behaves on the global stage, the “train wreck” (Sen. Max Baucus [D-MT]) that is Obamacare, and the all too real scandals.

Are the slaughter of four patriotic Americans and the subsequent cover up a phony scandal? Try selling that pile of steaming detritus to the families of Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, Navy SEALS Glen Doherty and Tyrone Woods, along with information officer Sean Smith, massacred in Benghazi, Libya on September 11, 2012. Let Benghazi be your moral compass when considering former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for president in 2016.

For nearly a year the Obama administration has done more to cover up this terrorist attack on American soil – the embassy, than Nixon and Watergate. And while not defending Nixon or the Watergate cover up, at least no one was murdered. No, no, Benghazi is a real scandal for which Obama and Clinton must answer – perhaps the same way Carlo had to answer for Santino.

Is it a phony scandal for a now former National Security Agency (NSA) to leak government information while the Obama administration loses, first track, then control of the traitor? Now Edward Snowden has been granted asylum in Russia, further embarrassing Obama. This is a genuine national security scandal.

Is it a phony scandal when the IRS specifically targets, snoops on, and violates the privacy and Fourth Amendment rights of conservative and pro-Israel groups and organizations? Is it a phony scandal to do likewise to members of the Associated Press and Fox News Channel as well as their families? Not only are these scandals, but a breach of faith between government and the fourth estate.

“Without a free press there can be no free society.” – Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter, 1954

Is it a phony scandal for the United States to put weapons in the hands of Mexican drug lords in an attempt to track and capture them later? Try explaining that to the parents of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry who was murdered under the auspices of the Fast and Furious gun trafficking scandal.

Is it a phony scandal that Obama’s Justice Department, under the tepid leadership of Eric Holder, allowed members of the New Black Panther Party to intimidate potential voters in Philadelphia without penalty? Try telling that to the voters who left the polling places having not cast their precious votes and received no support from the so-called color blind Justice Department.

Obama can divide, distort, deflect, and even throw members of his own administration under the bus, or in his case, Air Force One, denying the adage of former President Harry Truman whose desk sign read “The buck stops here” all he wants.

Obama can posture all he wishes, denying the reality of these very real scandals, but he would do well to remember President Abraham Lincoln: “You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.”

Sanford D. Horn is a writer and educator living in Westfield, IN.