TPM Reader T(heda) S(kocpol) is not buying it and I think she’s got a point …
Hard to believe what I am reading from people like Tomasky and Joe Klein and others on the Benghazi and IRS stuff. Instantly, such commentators are declaring the Obama administration in trouble of being classified along with Nixon or inviting an Impeachment bid.
On Benghazi, it is in fact nothing more than an inter-agency blame shifting episode in a drafting process of minor substantive importance. More to the point, one does not hear regular Americans talking about this whole thing. Seems like a classic case of right-wing-commentator frenzy infecting the DC bubble, but I remain convinced that most Americans will be completely turned off at attempts to smear HR Clinton with this, even if they pay any attention at all. Not many are paying attention now.
On the IRS thing, it sounded bad to me — until I read down several paragraphs into news stories and learned that the high-level IRS officials who learned about the extra look into “Tea Party” labeled entities in 2011 IMMEDIATELY ordered it to stop. If that is true, I fail to see the scandal, except that some lower-down people maybe did not take the order. How does this tar the Obama White House? Any close look would presumably reveal that the IRS officials did order it to stop — and set guidelines for even-handed enforcement of IRS rules. Certainly it is not the case that Tea Party groups can expect to be exempt from the rules that apply to all, and there have been shady cases of stretching rules by entities with such a label.
I wonder if, once again, we are not seeing overly fast anxiety attacks among liberal journalists — who proceed to play up the trivial. In fact, there is little of substance in these matters, especially the first. And if the right goes for Impeachment over either of them, they will hurt themselves, not Democrats.
Right wing forces are constantly yelling scandal and constantly going for over-hype. Why join them, and why not realize that they turn off most Americans who are not already Obama/Clinton haters?
I don’t get it.
