With the Obama administration reeling from three (count-em 3)
scandals the American people are now getting an idea what it is like to live in
Chicago.
Chicago is the city where the dead vote and the ballot boxes
still have to be stuffed just to make sure the dead don't change their minds.
As Studs Terkel once wrote: "Chicago is not the most corrupt American city. It's the most
theatrically corrupt.”
When Obama was elected in 2008 I knew it would only be a
matter of time before Chicago style politics took over in Washington. Now it
has--and how.
Let's take a look at what has transpired in the past few
days. Monday Obama and his Chicago minions found themselves in the bizarre position
of reiterating Republican umbrage over the admission that the Internal Revenue Service
targeted Tea Party and other conservative groups, while condemning his political
opponents for generating "a sideshow" over his administration’s non-response
to last year’s attack on a U.S. diplomatic post in Libya.
By the end of the day Monday, the Obama administration found
itself battling yet another potential crisis as lawyers for the Associated
Press charged that the Justice Department secretly obtained two months of
telephone records of its reporters and editors in what the news agency called a
“massive and unprecedented intrusion” into how news organizations gather the
news.
Then, Tuesday the nation watched White House press spokesman
Jay Carney get his knickers in a twist over persistent and hostile questioning
from an obviously outraged mainstream press corps that until now had been the
administration's biggest cheerleaders.
But just as in Chicago, where politicians never admit to
wrongdoing--even as they are carted off to prison--Carney, Obama et al feigned
ignorance of the Justice Department's raid on AP and the IRS targeting of
conservative organizations.
"We must wait for the facts to come out," Carney
wheezed under the bright lights of the White House press briefing room.
Actually, the facts are out. The IRS has already admitted
some of its offices targeted conservative organizations for "special
treatment" much to the delight (I am sure) of Obama and his Chicago
acolytes. A report by the Inspector General, sure to be critical of the IRS, is
due out later this week.
As for the Justice Department, there is little doubt that it
subpoenaed phone records of editors and reporters. The question now is for what
reason? And where did the order to do so come from?
“This is obviously disturbing,” said Rep. Darrell Issa,
chairman of the House Oversight and Government Committee. “Americans should
take notice that top Obama Administration officials increasingly see themselves
as above the law and emboldened by the belief that they don’t have to answer to
anyone.”
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| Chicago's Original 'Boss" Richard J. Daley |
Welcome to Chicago! That is the way politicians in the Windy
City have behaved for more than 150 years.
Mark Twain was aware of that dubious legacy back in 1897
when he penned the following in Pudd’nhead
Wilson’s New Calendar: "Satan
(impatiently) to Newcomer: The trouble with you Chicago people is, that you
think you are the best people down here; whereas you are merely the most
numerous." (From,"
1897).
Those "Chicago People" may not be the most
numerous in Washington, but they have managed to latch onto a lot of
power--from the White House on down the line.
Finally, much to the chagrin of the Obama administration, Republicans
rejuvenated scrutiny of the White House on Benghazi, including last week’s
House Oversight Committee hearing that featured the No. 2 U.S. official in
Libya at the time of the attack describing how his pleas for a military
response to the assaults were rejected.
Last week, internal emails showed that Obama's senior aides
and State Department officials edited out references to terrorism in early
"talking points" put out by the administration last September.
In Chicago when politicians don't want something disclosed
whistleblowers mysteriously disappear or suddenly lose their memories. It's the
Chicago Way.
So what will the White House do now? As much as Jay Carney
would like to, he can't make an irate press disappear. They will not go away
and they will continue to ask annoying questions that will cause a president
who somehow believes he should be politically inviolate to fret and fume.
Up until now, Carney has had a pretty easy job. He only had
to field tough questions from a handful of reporters (most from Fox News). Now
he has the entire press corps to deal with. It's about time.
Obama, who might be the most arrogant president in history,
would do well to take a lesson from the original boss of Chicago, Richard J.
Daley, who said:
"Power is dangerous unless you have humility."
Amen.
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