Fairly Philosophical Friday: Rage Against the Scandal

Pissed. This week in American political history we saw the spawning of, or continuation of three so-called scandals that Republicans strongly imply could bring down the Obama administration.

First we have the Republicans current favorite made-up scandal: the attack on the Benghazi Consulate. This fake scandal may be over, however, when an email shows that there wasn't a massive conspiracy between departments, but simply bureaucratic misinformation.

Next we have the IRS scandal, in which they supposedly targeted the nonprofit applications of right-wing groups. This one, for some reason, seems to have gained some traction, with even the president firing the current head of the IRS, even though that person was not the acting man in charge when all this supposedly happened. And yes, I'm using "supposedly." Because you see, it's the IRS's job to go through tax applications. Perhaps it's because everyone loves to hate the tax man that has caused this made-up scandal to garner attention. Or maybe I simply don't understand something fundamental about this story that will bring everything into clarity. The news media certainly hasn't done a good job explaining it.

The last of these scandals may actually be a scandal: this week we found out that the Justice Department had been tapping the phones of the Associated Press. If this is true, and it was done completely illegally, yes, metaphorical heads should roll. But I have also grown quite cynical for anything carrying the name "scandal," so, in my mind, I'm still waiting to see how it all plays out.

So amidst these three scandals, there is the scandal that no one is talking about. Perhaps "witchhunt" would be a more appropriate word, since that is exactly what it is. Republicans had explicitly made it a goal to have Barack Obama as a one-term president. Now that they have failed at that, it is quite obvious that they are searching for something, anything, to impeach him. They used the same playbook during the Clinton Administration, except then they weren't as obvious. Then, they did find something to impeach Clinton over. But then we as a nation found out that impeachment didn't necessarily have to be the end of a presidency. Now Bill Clinton enjoys high favorability. The Clinton scandal certainly showed to us that sex does indeed sell. If Barack ever cheated on Michelle, it would certainly dwarf our current batch of "scandals."

Yes, I know this blog post is not that philosophical, but I had to get it off my chest. I actually restrained myself, somewhat. I haven't dropped the f-bomb once, though I am sorely tempted to. Then again, "philosophical" means wisdom loving, and I'd like to think that rants do have some wisdom in them. Whatever the case, I have a feeling this won't be the last time I rant about politics. It certainly wasn't the first time I have done so.

Let's just hope that fake scandals die a quiet death. I won't be holding my breath.