IRS scandal is worse than Benghazi for Obama; impeachment still a long shot

IRS logo

Over the past week, the Obama Administration has been repeatedly rocked by scandals.  Beginning with last week’s hearings on the pre-election attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi that resulted in the death of ambassador Chris Stevens, President Obama has endured a steady stream of bad news.

 

Although the Benghazi hearing has raised the ire of conservatives, the real danger to the Obama Administration comes from the domestic scandals.  In particular Obama’s problems with the Internal Revenue Service can fire the imaginations and anger of the American people.

 

As reported by Examiner last October, the fundamentals of the Benghazi fiasco were known within weeks after the attack.  The recent hearings have confirmed that President Obama lied about the nature of the attack to avoid having his foreign policy questioned just before the election.  Benghazi never captured the public’s imagination, however.  Even though a U.S. ambassador, a consulate employee, and two former Navy Seals were killed by al Qaeda-linked militants, the media mostly ignored the story of the cover-up.  The American public, weary of war after more than a decade of fighting, seemed unwilling to get angry over the attack, even if it was the result of Obama’s foreign policy or Secretary of State Clinton’s refusal to reinforce the consulate’s security forces.  This week’s revelations of IRS bullying and Justice Department subpoenas of Associated Press phone records seem likelier to hit home, each for different reasons.

Read the rest on Examiner:

http://www.examiner.com/article/domestic-scandals-more-dangerous-to-obama-than-benghazi

 

Obama’s other legal problems

(Elizabeth Cromwell/Wikimedia)

By now most Americans are familiar with the legal challenges to President Obama’s signature legislation, the Affordable Care Act.  In March, the Supreme Court heard three days of oral arguments on the constitutionality of the various aspects of the law including the government’s mandate that all Americans must buy health insurance.  Although the Court has not yet ruled on the case, pointed questions from the justices lead many observers to believe that at least part of the law will be struck down.

If the Supreme Court does rule that the Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional, it will not be the first time that the Obama Administration has been chastised by the judicial branch.  Last year, President Obama’s Interior Department was held in contempt for violating a federal judge’s ruling striking down the moratorium on offshore oil drilling imposed after the BP oil spill in 2010.  After the judge ordered the moratorium lifted, the Interior Department continued to refuse to issue drilling permits for months.  Interior Secretary Ken Salazar also imposed onerous safety rules on drilling that the judge ruled were in violation of federal law.