2013-08-03

Obama Scandals Keep Brewing

Obama recently called various scandals tied directly or indirectly to his administration "phony scandals", a term that will no doubt come to haunt him in the next 18 months. Remember that it took 18 months for Nixon to be ousted from office; the Watergate scandal was underway before his reelection, just as Benghazi and the IRS scandals were in motion before Obama's reelection. It takes time for Congress to investigate and figure out what really happened, and only later will they decide to bring charges or escalate their investigations.

REP. WOLF: SOURCES SAY CIA WAS MOVING GUNS IN BENGHAZI
We’re getting calls from people who are close to people who were [in Benghazi at the time] that they were moving guns. So where are the guns?” asked Rep. Frank Wolf (R-VA), a sub-committee chairman of the Appropriations Committee. Wolf also wonders what Ambassador Chris Stevens was actually doing in Benghazi on that night. Stevens and three others were killed over the course of the attacks.

“Are they in a warehouse somewhere? Some people say they moved on to Turkey and then from Turkey to Syria," Wolf told Breitbart News on Thursday. "Did they fall into the hands of some of the Jihadis?"

"Nobody knows, so I think there are so many questions from the failure to respond to where the guns went,” he stated.
In Is Benghazi about to blow sky high?, I covered the speculation that Benghazi was about the U.S. having given weapons to Al-Qaeda and was then looking to get them back.

I don't find this remotely outlandish. The U.S. supported the overthrow of the Libyan government. Many rebel fighters were/are Al-Qaeda members. The U.S. funneled arms to rebels and some of them ended up in the hands of Al-Qaeda. This is one of the complaints Russia is making over Syria as well, that the U.S. is arming terrorists. This also looks like a perfect political scandal. On the one hand, there is arming terrorists. The U.S. ambassador is killed trying to rectify the situation. Rather than admit that American weapons were given to Al-Qaeda in the midst of a presidential election, lies were told about what happened that night and efforts were made to block investigations. The question then would be whether there were illegal acts committed in the process (lying to the American public is not a crime), which would then turn this into a scandal at least as large as Iran-Contra, and possibly into something bigger than Watergate. It is a lot of speculation, but to my mind it only hinges on whether guns were given to Al-Qaeda or not. If weapons weren't given, then this looks like a stretch. If weapons were handed over to Al-Qaeda, then everything that follows is fairly typical damage control in corrupt Washington, D.C.

Finally, don't ignore the foreign policy dust up between Republican Governor of New Jersey Chris Christie and Republican Senator from Kentucky Rand Paul. One reason why some Republicans may be dragging their heels on Benghazi investigations is because they support Obama's Middle East policies, or at least the general interventionist policy. If the Benghazi story turns into a major scandal, it will tilt the balance of power in favor of GOP rebels Paul and Texas Senator Ted Cruz, among others, while severely damaging the prospects of Hillary Clinton. This is why John McCain recently said that in an election between Rand Paul and Hillary Clinton, he would have a tough choice deciding who to vote for. If faced with a serious threat to the foreign policy establishment, many Republicans would side with the Democrats and defend the establishment. However, in the end it may come down to social mood as to which side wins. Even if only 20% of the country would support a breakaway GOP candidate today, if social mood collapses and the GOP and Democrats are seen aligned, then the public will cast their lot with the newcomer, as they tried to do with Obama in 2008.

For a long look at previous presidential scandals and Obama, see Will Obama Be Impeached? Watch The Stock Market

For a prior post on Benghazi from May, see Is Benghazi about to blow sky high?

Hillary vs. Rand Paul would be ‘tough choice,’ McCain quips

No comments:

Post a Comment