The Foundation

“All men having power ought to be distrusted to a certain degree.” –James Madison

Editorial Exegesis

“President Obama famously joked in a college commencement address in 2009 that he could use the IRS to target political enemies but of course he never would. It appears that people at the Internal Revenue Service didn’t think he was joking. That’s become clear since IRS Director of Exempt Organizations Lois Lerner admitted on Friday that the agency targeted conservatives for special tax-exempt scrutiny during the 2012 election season. … We’ve also learned that IRS officials knew about this earlier than they have let on. News reports suggest that Ms. Lerner knew about the targeting of conservatives in June 2011, and perhaps as early as 2010. That’s a long time before IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman flatly denied any political targeting when he testified at a House Ways and Means subcommittee hearing in March 2012. … Some Democrats took to the airwaves on the weekend to suggest that while the IRS shouldn’t have been targeting conservatives, no one was harmed. … The harm is in fact real, if hard to measure precisely, because any missive from the IRS is enough to chill political spending and speech. … Oppose the Obama Administration or liberal priorities, and you too can become an IRS target. We’re glad to see Congress mobilizing in response, including hearing plans by Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus and the House Ways and Means Committee that asked the IRS about this in 2012 and received denials. The subpoenas need to fly as thick as those IRS questionnaires.” –The Wall Street Journal

Upright

“Jay Carney, whose unenviable job is not to explain but to explain away what his employers say, calls the IRS’ behavior ‘inappropriate.’ No, using the salad fork for the entree is inappropriate. Using the IRS for political purposes is a criminal offense. … Liberals, whose unvarying agenda is enlargement of government, suggest, with no sense of cognitive dissonance, that this IRS scandal is nothing more sinister than typical government incompetence. Five days before the IRS story broke, Obama … warned Ohio State graduates about ‘creeping cynicism’ and ‘voices’ that ‘warn that tyranny is … around the corner.’ Well.” –columnist George Will

“Can we not at least agree that the Obama administration has established a culture conducive to the type of stereotypical thinking that could lead to this? Didn’t the Department of Homeland Security under this administration list right-wing groups as extremists and potential terrorists? Hasn’t President Obama himself referred to tea partyers as ‘tea baggers’? Haven’t other Democrats deliberately depicted tea party groups as violent extremists who are a hair trigger away from armed revolution? Liberals have been trying to vilify conservative talk radio for years now, suggesting that its strong political opinions lead to violence. That is preposterous, but if we were to apply the same type of standard to Obama, we could say that he has personally fomented a climate of hate against conservative groups, such that the IRS targeting was completely foreseeable. Surely, it’s fair to hold the president to his own standard.” –columnist David Limbaugh

“With lies, as with potato chips, it is hard to stop with just one. … The problem with telling a lie, or even a succession of lies, is that a very small dose of the truth can sometimes make the whole thing collapse like a house of cards. The State Department’s own foreign service officer Gregory Hicks was in Libya during the [Benghazi] attack, so he knew the truth. When threats were not enough to silence him, it was then necessary to try to discredit him. After years of getting glowing job evaluations, and awards of honors from the State Department for his work in various parts of the world, Mr. Hicks suddenly began to get bad job evaluations and was demoted to a desk job in Washington after he spoke with a Congressman about what he knew. The truth is dangerous to liars.” –economist Thomas Sowell

“We may be disgusted and horrified by Kermit Gosnell, but we should not be shocked by his crimes. Thanks to the misguided social entrepreneurship of the Supreme Court, abortion is protected as a constitutional absolute, and late-term abortions, grisly as they are, enjoy substantial protection as well. What that looks like in practice is Gosnell’s slaughterhouse. We should not pretend that this evil does not extend past the Philadelphia city limits. If you would have an unlimited abortion franchise, then you will have all that goes with it, including the pitiless knife of Kermit Gosnell.” –National Review

Essential Liberty

“[L]ook at Obama in this statement in Denver: ‘I am constrained … by the system that our Founders put in place.’ That is an unwitting statement of truth. He is constrained. What does constrained mean? It means things I can’t do. Why is he even thinking about things he can’t do? There are things he wants to do. There are all kinds of executive orders and waiving of the presidential wand to make it happen he would love to do. But the Constitution’s in his way, and he wishes it weren’t. Be wary, folks, of any politician who talks about the Constitution and uses [phrases] like ‘I am constrained.’” –radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh

Insight

“The right of resisting oppression is a natural right.” –President Andrew Jackson (1767-1845)

“Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly, while bad people will find a way around the laws.” –Greek philosopher Plato (c. 428-348 BC)

Demo-gogues

The White (Wash) House: “[T]he day after [Benghazi] happened, I acknowledged that this was an act of terrorism. … The whole issue of talking points, frankly, throughout this process, has been a sideshow. … There is no ‘there’ there. … We dishonor [the four Americans killed at Benghazi] when we turn things like this into a political circus.” –Barack Obama feigning outrage while perpetuating the myth about Cairo

Blame game: “It takes funding to protect a consulate. … Who cut the funds from embassy security? The Republicans in the House, that’s who. … And if it wasn’t for the Democrats, it would have been cut more. … So, I think the Benghazi scandal, in quotes, starts with the Republicans looking in the mirror.” –Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA)

“I genuinely believe that there are actually Republicans out there who would like to work with us but they’re fearful of their base and they’re concerned about what Rush Limbaugh might say about them. And, as a consequence, we get the kind of gridlock that makes people cynical about government and inhibits our progress.” –Obama

Gun control stories: “To use the vernacular, there’s suddenly a lot of senators out there who have seen the Lord. You find out that the senator from New Hampshire [Republican Kelly Ayotte] is in trouble; she voted no. I can name you four senators who called me and said, ‘Jesus, I guess you were right – maybe we can find some other way of doing this. Can we bring this back up?’” –Joe Biden trying to convince us that gun control is the only obvious answer

Delusional: “The Affordable Care Act is bringing the cost of health care in our country down in both the public and private sector. And that is what is largely responsible for the deficit coming down.” –House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)

Say what? “I had a friend who got married to the wrong person, just so she could have health insurance. So, we’ll also have a lot of less bad marriages as a result of [ObamaCare].” –Rep. Janice Hahn (D-CA)

Unbalanced: “[W]e [Democrats] worked very, very hard together in order to be able to put together a balanced budget that reflects the values of the American people, that’s fair, that’s balanced in values and approach as well as in numbers, and we did that.” –Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) on the Senate’s budget that never reaches balance

Dezinformatsia

Media cover: “I.R.S. Focus on Conservatives Gives G.O.P. an Issue to Seize On” –New York Times headline, obfuscating the issue

“Look, if you play by the rules and if you do what you’re supposed to do, an audit doesn’t take very long. IRS agents are there for a reason. Am I defending the IRS? Yeah I am! … So let’s all get on board with the president who wants to simplify the tax code! … I don’t think the IRS ought to apologize for anything!” –MSNBC’s Ed Schultz

“Even when they have real evidence of misdeeds and malfeasance, conservatives still want to change the subject to the fake, ginned up scandal they’ve been pushing month after month.” –MSNBC’s Chris Hayes

“Well, what difference will that make if the White House has already put out the talking points and said that they were written by the CIA with the input of other agencies?” –ABC’s George Stephanopoulos echoing Hillary Clinton

Alternate universe: “What’s so sad about it is the president has been very rightfully proud of the lack of scandal in his administration so far.” –Time magazine assistant managing editor Rana Foroohar

A stopped clock is right twice a day: “These have been a bad few months for journalism. We’re getting the big stories wrong, over and over again.” –CBS’s Scott Pelley

Newspulper Headlines:

We Blame George W. Bush: “Carney: I.R.S. Run by Bush Political Appointee” –TheWeeklyStandard.com

Longest Books Ever Written: “Why We Should Mistrust the Government” –RealClearPolitics.com

Leave Her Alone, You Creeps!: “Benghazi Investigation Creeps Closer To Hillary Clinton” –BuzzFeed.com

Answers to Questions Nobody Is Asking: “Need a Mustache Transplant? Visit Turkey” –The Wall Street Journal

News You Can Use: “How to Lose a War” –Hoover Institution website

(Thanks to The Wall Street Journal’s James Taranto)

Village Idiots

Non sequitur: “What [the] IRS did [was] dumb and wrong. [Important] to note [that] GOP groups flourished [the] last 2 elections, overwhelming Ds. And they will use this to raise more $.” –tweet from former Obama campaign chief and adviser David Plouffe on the IRS targeting Tea Party and Patriot groups

Downplay the scandal: “Mistakes were made, but they were in no way due to any political or partisan motivation. … There was a shortcut taken in our processes to determine which groups needed additional review. … These are factually complex and sensitive cases, and it’s challenging to separate out political issues from those involving education or social welfare. … We want to stress that our employees – all career civil servants – will continue to be guided by tax law and not by partisan issues.” –IRS acting commissioner Steven T. Miller

Nothing to see here: “Those from the IRS that have spoken about this obviously have much greater insight into what took place than we do. … One person’s view of what actions were taken or what that individual did is not enough for us to say something concretely happened that was inappropriate.” –White House Press Secretary Jay Carney

Sick blame-shifting: “Anti-choice politicians, and their unrelenting efforts to deny women access to safe and legal abortion care, will only drive more women to back-alley butchers like Kermit Gosnell.” –NARAL president Ilyse Hogue

“This [Gosnell] case has made clear that we must have and enforce laws that protect access to safe and legal abortion, and we must reject misguided laws that would limit women’s options and force them to seek treatment from criminals like Kermit Gosnell.” –Planned Parenthood spokesman Eric Ferrero (The reality is that, for Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers, the key distinction is whether the atrocity occurred inside or outside the womb.)

Short Cuts

“I was going to start off tonight with an Obama joke but I don’t want to get audited by the IRS.” –comedian Jay Leno

“The best spin they have at their disposal is to argue that the President of the United States has to turn on the nightly news to find out what’s happening [in] the government he runs.” –columnist Guy Benson

“At a press conference, Nancy Pelosi blamed the sequester for keeping her from visiting the troops on Mother’s Day. Ironically, the troops credit the sequester for the same reason.” –Fred Thompson

“The White House was blasted for inaction during the Benghazi attack in House hearings. The terrorists overran the consulate then they overran the annex. So it does support Barack Obama’s claim during the campaign that he’s got al-Qaeda on the run.” –comedian Argus Hamilton

“Obama recently warned some college graduates against being all worried about government tyranny, and Obama has good reason to warn you against that because worrying about government tyranny is the exact sort of thing that will get you audited. Or, when Obamacare is in full force, it will be the attitude that gets you denied life saving health care. So have faith in government. Or it will get you.” –humorist Frank J. Fleming

Semper Vigilo, Fortis, Paratus et Fidelis!
Nate Jackson for The Patriot Post Editorial Team