The rabid news media and conservatives around the country gleefully pronounced the Obama administration dead on arrival this past week. From the IRS to Benghazi to the recent investigations of the Associated Press, people want to declare the 44th president's second term a complete flop.
I'm not here to refute the criticisms of the administration's management, but I think we have a lot of different ways to look at these "crises."
First off, the IRS. The bureaucratic nightmare that is the IRS never seems to end. At the heart of the story about the allegedly illegal actions lies factoids such as Group 7822 and the Determinations Unit.
These meshed organizations within the wider culture of the IRS contributed directly to mismanagement. The flood of applications that included the scrutinized Tea Party groups were not dealt with in an organized way, because the Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United decision unleashed a legal nightmare for the tax agency.
While trying to evaluate organizations that espouse values that disrespect the right for the federal government to exist, the IRS's organizational structure collapsed.
However, to blame the President for the mess created by a few managers at a branch of an agency headquartered in Washington, D.C., really does not make any sense.
On the international scale, the Benghazi attacks of Sept. 11, 2012, were on President Barack Obama's plate last week.
Congress's attacks on the President are truly outrageous. Members have some other agendas in mind that contribute to the rabidness of their questioning.
Foremost among them is taking Hillary Clinton down a notch. She's polling above every potential Republican presidential candidate in 2016, and that scares Republicans in Congress.
It came down to interagency strife and Congress not appropriating enough money for international consulate security.
By pointing fingers at Clinton and, by extension, Obama, Republicans clearly shift the blame from their appropriating errors to how Clinton dealt with those funding problems.
If you're only given $10 to fix your tire and you buy duct tape instead of a new tire, you've saved the money, but probably have a car accident waiting for you. The same applies to this supposed mishandling of the Benghazi attacks.
The third "Watergate" on Obama's hands is the Justice Department's investigation into the AP reporting on a leak.
I'm a little bit less sympathetic to the Obama administration on this one, simply because I love the AP and do not want to see its business hurt, but at the same time, leak reporting has to be investigated.
The administration is merely carrying out national security laws, which may or may not be positive, but would certainly mean impeachment if they were not enforced. On this last count, hopefully the Obama administration can see the need for a review of national security laws that chill free speech and freedom of the press. Overall, the administration has only done what it's supposed to do, and that is a positive message from this whole ordeal.
Now, if Republicans could stop using these events as effigy burning caucuses and try to create some policy, I would be happy.
Reach the columnist at peter.northfelt@asu.edu or follow him on Twitter @peternorthfelt
