Aloof, shifty Obama: Nixon times ten thousand!

[DonViejo]

Our evil President managed to both mastermind the IRS flap, and be such a bad boss that no one told him about it

BY ALEX PAREENE

According to Jay Carney, everyone in the White House knew about the big IRS scandal for a few weeks before it went public. Everyone except the president, because this whole month has been a season-long plot arc on HBO’s Veep. (Speaking of, where’s Joe Biden been lately?) Everyone was afraid to tell their boss about this dumb thing the IRS did, and then he learned about it on the news, and now he is probably super pissed.

Clearly Obama is a horrible boss and the White House is a toxic work environment, probably, where people are afraid to report bad news to their superiors. Just like Nixon, time ten thousand.

There is a small problem, though, with the “Obama didn’t know” story, and that is that it ruins the great “Obama did this himself” story. The right has compensated essentially by saying that the president is indirectly responsible for the IRS applying extra scrutiny to conservative groups, by encouraging a culture of liberalism. (Again we are obviously dealing with Nixon reborn and even worse than before.) Among conservatives the notion that the president caused this to happen by loudly disagreeing with Citizens United is now essentially gospel. The Corner yesterday was full of amazing illustrations of the right’s unrecognizable interpretation of Obama’s psyche. (John O’Sullivan compares — at great length — the Tea Party to St. Thomas Becket and Obama to Henry II.)

It still looks to me that the scandal is still primarily the result of overworked, ill-motivated bureaucrats carrying out a poorly conceived assignment from their apparently incompetent bosses, but you know, I am also of the opinion that most “Tea Party” groups shouldn’t be tax-exempt “social welfare” groups, because they’re dedicated almost solely to electoral politics. I really don’t think lifelong Cincinnati-based civil servants actually intended to crush the conservative movement. The IRS just doesn’t know how to interpret and police a horrifically vague statute. That view of events is obviously less fun than spending the entire summer screaming “Watergate.”

full article
http://www.salon.com/2013/05/21/aloof_shifty_obama_nixon_times_ten_thousand/

[Bannakaffalatta]

1. best laugh of the day

" the Tea Party to St. Thomas Becket and Obama to Henry II."

Has anyone mentioned the possibility that groups with that style of name were suspected, with reason based in empirical experience, of perpetrating tax irregularities? (Particularly given the fact they're almost unanimous in opposing taxation?) Isn't it the job of the IRS to find and stop such abuses, close loopholes, catch cheaters, convict Al Capone, etc?

Nixon times ten thousand .... now, that's inflation!
(Um... wasn't Nixon one of theirs? Disgraced and disowned, even though he made possible so much of the political maneuvering they take for granted today. No gratitude.)