When the late economist-philosopher Friedrich Hayek coined the term €creeping socialism€ in The Road to Serfdom, he couldn't have envisioned the great socialist leap forward this America has witnessed under President Barack Hussein Obama. To complement the soaring socialism, Obama and his administration are now proving they are as guilty of creeping corruption as they are of perpetrating socialistic schemes.
It may all be a good thing.
In 2008, Obama was painted by his mainstream media as Mr. Clean, free of political contamination perhaps in part because he was so inexperienced in politics, and in everything else except community organizing. Perhaps, too, that cleanliness feature was on the mind of then-Senator Joe Biden when he described his future boss as €bright and clean.€
For the most part, the president somehow eluded significant scandal for two years but in the third year of his reign the dirt has hit the executive fan big time.
To be sure, there were relatively minor dings in Obama's armor during his first two years. However, the out-of-control EPA and TSA, the WikiLeaks leaks, the black racism demonstrated at Eric Holder's Justice Department, etc. and Obama's scandalous mishandling of the economy weren't comparable in gravity to the overt instances of corruption playing out now in both the White House and DoJ.
First came the €Fast and Furious€ fiasco, the botched gun-running sting which resulted in the ATF furnishing some 1500 weapons to Mexican cartels which were then used to kill a U.S. border patrol agent and in countless crimes south of the border rather than achieving the planned aim of arresting Mexican criminals.
Close on the heels of Operation Fast and Furious came the Solyndra and LightSquared messes, the administration's favoritism toward so-called €green€ companies. Playing favorites is a time-honored if sleazy feature of politics but when the administration wasted hundreds of millions of dollars of scarce taxpayer money and the good buddies repaid that largesse by generously funneling millions back to Obama's campaign war chest, favoritism entered the realm of impeachable corruption.
If anything, the corruptive nature of the LightSquared seamy involvement with the presidency actually eclipsed the Solyndra boondoggle.
What may turn out to be the ultimate irony in the deceit, misrepresentations, and outright lies of Eric Holder and Barack Obama relating to the administration's growing record of corruption is the fact that most of it was avoidable had the president not adopted the Nixonian approach to being caught: deny, deny, and deny again.
Many historians believe that Richard Nixon might have escaped the humiliating fate of forced resignation had he simply fessed up and owned up rather than covering up the illegalities of the White House €plumbers.€ Had Nixon thrown himself on the mercy of the American people and taken responsibility while explaining that Watergate was the product of overzealous underlings, he could have survived.
Obama is following that same ruinous path to political oblivion:
. Instead of firing Holder for converting the DoJ into a branch of the New Black Panther Party, Obama allowed him to continue with his black racist advocacy;
. Instead of the attorney general cooperating with the congressional investigation into Fast and Furious, Holder continues to stonewall even in the face of substantive evidence that he€"and the president€"knew of the operation's abysmal failure;
. Instead of offering a frank and honest admission that he was wrong about Solyndra and LightSquared and regretted his mistakes, Obama antagonizes both the public and the congress by denying he knew anything about any misdeeds;
. Instead of insisting his appointee, Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan, recuse herself in the matter of the constitutionality of Obamacare in the face of proof she cannot be impartial, the administration and a friendly judge claim all the Kagan communications on the subject are €personal.€
Granted, Obama firing Holder would be a political embarrassment, as would admitting that he and his AG were aware that Fast and Furious was a disaster. Granted, conceding that his €green€ schemes were losers but lucrative for DNC coffers would cause more suspicions that he and his environmentalism were frauds. And, granted, trying to influence the SCOTUS decision on Obamacare may be construed as a grossly unethical exercise of presidential power.
On second thought, I'm glad Obama and his lackeys are feeding creeping corruption. As Democrat stalwart Mortimer Zuckerman recently said of his former hero, €It's as if he doesn't like people.€ It's also as if the president feels he really is a one-termer, which is fine by me. (See all sources at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=5724.)
It may all be a good thing.
In 2008, Obama was painted by his mainstream media as Mr. Clean, free of political contamination perhaps in part because he was so inexperienced in politics, and in everything else except community organizing. Perhaps, too, that cleanliness feature was on the mind of then-Senator Joe Biden when he described his future boss as €bright and clean.€
For the most part, the president somehow eluded significant scandal for two years but in the third year of his reign the dirt has hit the executive fan big time.
To be sure, there were relatively minor dings in Obama's armor during his first two years. However, the out-of-control EPA and TSA, the WikiLeaks leaks, the black racism demonstrated at Eric Holder's Justice Department, etc. and Obama's scandalous mishandling of the economy weren't comparable in gravity to the overt instances of corruption playing out now in both the White House and DoJ.
First came the €Fast and Furious€ fiasco, the botched gun-running sting which resulted in the ATF furnishing some 1500 weapons to Mexican cartels which were then used to kill a U.S. border patrol agent and in countless crimes south of the border rather than achieving the planned aim of arresting Mexican criminals.
Close on the heels of Operation Fast and Furious came the Solyndra and LightSquared messes, the administration's favoritism toward so-called €green€ companies. Playing favorites is a time-honored if sleazy feature of politics but when the administration wasted hundreds of millions of dollars of scarce taxpayer money and the good buddies repaid that largesse by generously funneling millions back to Obama's campaign war chest, favoritism entered the realm of impeachable corruption.
If anything, the corruptive nature of the LightSquared seamy involvement with the presidency actually eclipsed the Solyndra boondoggle.
What may turn out to be the ultimate irony in the deceit, misrepresentations, and outright lies of Eric Holder and Barack Obama relating to the administration's growing record of corruption is the fact that most of it was avoidable had the president not adopted the Nixonian approach to being caught: deny, deny, and deny again.
Many historians believe that Richard Nixon might have escaped the humiliating fate of forced resignation had he simply fessed up and owned up rather than covering up the illegalities of the White House €plumbers.€ Had Nixon thrown himself on the mercy of the American people and taken responsibility while explaining that Watergate was the product of overzealous underlings, he could have survived.
Obama is following that same ruinous path to political oblivion:
. Instead of firing Holder for converting the DoJ into a branch of the New Black Panther Party, Obama allowed him to continue with his black racist advocacy;
. Instead of the attorney general cooperating with the congressional investigation into Fast and Furious, Holder continues to stonewall even in the face of substantive evidence that he€"and the president€"knew of the operation's abysmal failure;
. Instead of offering a frank and honest admission that he was wrong about Solyndra and LightSquared and regretted his mistakes, Obama antagonizes both the public and the congress by denying he knew anything about any misdeeds;
. Instead of insisting his appointee, Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan, recuse herself in the matter of the constitutionality of Obamacare in the face of proof she cannot be impartial, the administration and a friendly judge claim all the Kagan communications on the subject are €personal.€
Granted, Obama firing Holder would be a political embarrassment, as would admitting that he and his AG were aware that Fast and Furious was a disaster. Granted, conceding that his €green€ schemes were losers but lucrative for DNC coffers would cause more suspicions that he and his environmentalism were frauds. And, granted, trying to influence the SCOTUS decision on Obamacare may be construed as a grossly unethical exercise of presidential power.
On second thought, I'm glad Obama and his lackeys are feeding creeping corruption. As Democrat stalwart Mortimer Zuckerman recently said of his former hero, €It's as if he doesn't like people.€ It's also as if the president feels he really is a one-termer, which is fine by me. (See all sources at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=5724.)