The (So Far) Scandal-Free Administration.

[Babylonsister]

http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/tappe...ee_adminis

The (So Far) Scandal-Free Administration.

Rep. Darrell Issa, who as chair of the House Oversight Committee will be chief inquisitor in the new congress, has gotten some attention from his remark that Barack Obama is "one of the most corrupt presidents of modern times." And what kind of corruption has this corruption-hunter uncovered? Kickbacks to supporters? Shady contract deals? Suitcases full of cash from foreign dictators? Well, not really. "When you hand out $1 trillion in TARP just before this president came in, most of it unspent, $1 trillion nearly in stimulus, that this president asked for, plus this huge expansion in health care and government, it has a corrupting effect," Issa explained. So the "corruption" is that the government has spent money on things Issa didn't think it should have spent money on, and also enacted policies with which he disagrees.

As idiotic as that assertion may be, it actually raises something interesting: the Obama administration, in its first two years anyway, has been extraordinarily scandal-free, not only in terms of corruption but with regard to any kind of malfeasance at all. There haven't been any intern scandals, any selling-arms-to-terrorists scandals, any leaking-the-name-of-covert-CIA-operative scandals, really any kind of scandals at all. Over at Fox they've done their best to drum some up, but they've been dealing with pretty weak tea, like the New Black Panther Party.

Every administration has its scandals, and eventually this one will too. It just isn't possible to run a government with thousands of people dealing in power, influence, and money without it happening sooner or later. Some administrations are more corrupt than others, however. And while it's possible that the Obama administration is engaged in all manner of criminal conspiracies we just haven't discovered yet, so far it's been remarkably clean.

This might be a happy accident, the result of the fact that they've been too busy for any graft, or the result of a concerted effort. The fact that they've gotten through much of the stimulus spending without anything erupting has to be counted as an achievement -- it's not easy to hand out a couple hundred billion dollars all over the country without any kickbacks or theft, but they seem to have managed it.

So Rep. Issa may hurt himself by crying wolf -- if he already thinks Obama is "one of the most corrupt presidents of modern times," for no other reason than that he happens to be a Democrat, he may not have much credibility left when he claims to have found some actual corruption.

-- Paul Waldman

[Treestar]

I always thought that about Obama, too. When the best they could come up with was Rev. Wright, I knew Obama hadn't done much of anything bad in his life.

[PoliticalTiger]

Good article and a fact that doesn't get mentioned much.

Off course, there are the 'Obama was born in Kenya' and 'Obama is really a Muslim' scandals.....lol

[The Desperate Blogger]

I'm waiting for Issa to investigate a possible connection between Obama and Vince Foster... C'mon -- you know he wants to...

[jaxx]

Oh the drama to come. Will Issa drag out Bill Ayers with the New Black Panthers? Or how about Rezko and that strip of land? He's going to get dirty and the President is going to stay clean. Imagine Issa's frustration. ;-)

[OptimistesMaddie]

(01-04-2011 09:03 PM)Sass Wrote:  Oh the drama to come. Will Issa drag out Bill Ayers with the New Black Panthers? Or how about Rezko and that strip of land? He's going to get dirty and the President is going to stay clean. Imagine Issa's frustration. ;-)

If he brings up the Black Panthers then he will have to investigate the Tea Partiers won't he?

[OptimistesMaddie]

Once Issa starts attacking the Obama family like we all know he will it's all going to go very bad for him. The Republicans are too inmature to stick to a game plan. Issa will inevitably open up a can of worms that started with the previous administration....watch and see..

[Pirate Smile]

Issa's "corrupt" comment was so ridiculous and divorced from reality that it was hilarious.

I was imagining "scandals" like:

I told POTUS that if he did this then hundreds of thousands of new jobs would be created, so he did it.

POTUS told AARP that if they support HCR then the prescription drug dough nut hole will get closed eventually - and it does in the legislation passed.

POTUS got nuns to support health care reform by promising to cover 30+ million uninsured people by 2014.

Acckkkk - Quid pro quo! Quid pro quo!

Corruption!!!

[firedupdem]

I just have to add......I hate that little creep of a person Issa! What a little pesky maggot.

[atomic]

I don't think America will take kindly to a witchhunt.

[JuniperLea]

I think Americans are tired of dirty pool, and I think Obama is smart enough to recognize blue dresses for what they are. I think the more frustrated Issa becomes, the further he's going to reach and the uglier he's going to get... and that will spell trouble for him. I think the last presidential election pointed to real change in elections too. Hillary went all old school brutal and it got her nowhere, and she had a very, very strong following. Ugly no longer helps anyone. I know I heard a lot about how mud slinging works during the California gubernatorial race, and maybe it did. But both candidates had dirty hands in that one. When Obama went up against the negativity, in the primary and in the general, he didn't buy into it... and it worked. Pitting dirty against clean will no longer work in America... I hope!

[SeattleGirl]

(01-05-2011 05:08 PM)JuniperLea Wrote:  I think Americans are tired of dirty pool, and I think Obama is smart enough to recognize blue dresses for what they are. I think the more frustrated Issa becomes, the further he's going to reach and the uglier he's going to get... and that will spell trouble for him. I think the last presidential election pointed to real change in elections too. Hillary went all old school brutal and it got her nowhere, and she had a very, very strong following. Ugly no longer helps anyone. I know I heard a lot about how mud slinging works during the California gubernatorial race, and maybe it did. But both candidates had dirty hands in that one. When Obama went up against the negativity, in the primary and in the general, he didn't buy into it... and it worked. Pitting dirty against clean will no longer work in America... I hope!

I remember seeing some polls around election time in November where a majority said they wanted to see the Republicans and Democrats work together to get things done, not fight against each other. Let Issa go on his witch hunt; it will end up hurting him and the Republicans who are cheering him on.