Just 3 & 1/2 Years of This To Go

Summers in Washington DC are long and hot.  The way things are going for President Obama, this summer is shaping up to be a Faustian journey to a new level of Hell.  The White House is currently fighting off three scandals that according to Oshkosh native Jim Vandehei at Politico.com, are leaving the President with no friends in Washington.

First you have the battle over who was trying to "control the narrative" when it came to the Benghazi attack.  Everybody knows that President Obama is a militant Islamic apologist who truly believes that the people who want to--and try to--kill us and our allies have a legitimate beef with Western governments and that we should be making concessions in our belief structures and cultural mores to accommodate them.  Do we really need a dozen Congressional committees to investigate that?  Not really.  We all know the real target of Benghazi is Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton--whom Republicans want to grind into the dirt because she is the early frontrunner for the 2016 Democratic Presidential nomination.  (Since Obama was the one who made the deal to guarantee Clinton a high-profile place in his administration in exchange for her and Bill's support in 2008, I guess he should still take some of the blame in this as well.)

Then you have the IRS/Tea Party scandal.  The President has put up his usual "I knew nothing about this and I am outraged that it was happening, and the few 'rogue' people responsible will be held accountable" defense.  While Congress will hold dozens of hearings on this one as well--with similar "outrage" from other Democrats as well--no heads will roll at the White House over this, because heads never roll at the White House over anything. 

And then we have the Justice Department tapping the Associated Press phone records.  I'll spare you the phony outrage as a journalist who "feels violated that my government is spying on me" because what Eric Holder's crew was doing was likely completely legal.  Remember the Patriot Act and how we just had to give the Federal Government so much more power to perform surveillance on us to "protect us"?  Well, this scandal is simply chickens coming home to roost.  However, in targeting the media for scrutiny, the Obama Administration has chosen the absolute worst enemy it can have for the rest of his time in Washington--because he is about to lose the gentle filter that enjoyed from the friendly press room in his first term.

As I mentioned before the November elections, second Presidential terms are inevitably worse than the first terms--both for the politician and the country as a whole.  And when you consider the lack of success this Administration enjoyed in it's first four years--and the start to this second term--this summer won't be the only intolerable period for President Obama.