Obama Scandals Have One Thing in Common–2012 Election (Part I)

I have written extensively in the past about the Obama administration’s lack of transparency, leaks, politics, and hypocrisy. And not surprisingly, this trend of no transparency with plenty of leaks, politics, and hypocrisy continues to escalate to new levels under Obama with one scandal after another. Let’s investigate the Obama administration’s growing number of scandals and why they transpired. It is important to note the reason many of these scandals have come to the attention of the public is because they were leaked, not because the administration has been forthcoming and transparent. With that said; these scandals have one thing in common – Winning the 2012 election.

On Fast and Furious the administration continues to hide behind executive privilege on the failed gun walking program that has led to the death of hundreds of Mexican citizens and a U.S. border agent. Executive privilege should not apply especially since Obama and Holder have claimed to be ignorant about the program. To date, a few officials lost their jobs, but no one has seen any jail time. What’s worse, the public will not know the truth about this scandal until Obama is long gone.

The IRS scandal was purely political by definition. One particular group or organization was targeted based on their political ideology. Initially, the administration and IRS claimed this activity was carried out by a few rogue agents. However, agent testimony and a misfired email by Elizabeth Hofacre alerted the entire DC based Exempt Organizations and Rulings and Agreements department with a summary of the targeting program back in 2010. This means hundreds if not thousands of IRS employees knew what was going on but they let it continue beyond the 2010 and 2012 elections. The head of the tax exempt division of the IRS, Lois Lerner, took her Fifth Amendment right and did not testify before Congress. Meanwhile, the IRS continues to stonewall Congress and refuses to hand over records and documentation. The head of the IRS department which provided “poor customer service” and oversaw the targeting was promoted to head up the IRS organization in charge of overseeing ObamaCare (quid pro quo). If all of this is not bad enough, at the same time the IRS is being investigated for extravagant spending practices which included spending over 50 million dollars on conferences over a two year period. Obama has once again claimed ignorance, but called the actions of the IRS “outrageous” and people would be held accountable (Lerner is on paid leave while the temporary head of the IRS resigned). If this is true, why isn’t Obama pressuring the IRS to hand over its documents on this issue?

The EPA has also been accused of targeting conservative groups and for also violating the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The EPA is accused of providing environmentalist groups private information about small business farmers. The EPA is also accused of charging conservative groups higher fees than liberal organizations. All of this comes on the heels of the EPA email scandal where former EPA head, Lisa Jackson, created not only a new email address, but created a fictitious employee Richard Winsor. Many government officials use multiple email accounts to help organize information, but no one creates fictitious ones. This once again goes to the lack of transparency by administration officials who try to hide information from congressional oversight. If this is not weird enough, Richard Winsor won many awards during his fake tenure at the EPA.