Ouch, Mr. President.
You've just finished what was arguably the toughest week of your presidency.
In fact, your second term has been an incredibly bumpy ride and a frightening, tumultuous decent into political oblivion.
Back in 1974, former President Richard M. Nixon attempted to address the nation that he had recently betrayed.
“I would say only that if some of my judgments were wrong, and some were wrong, they were made in what I believed at the time to be the best interest of the nation,” Nixon stated.
What Nixon is trying to conceal here is the fact that he oversaw what was then arguably the most unjust, immoral and shocking display of political corruption America had ever known.
Even Nixon, himself, realized that his political future was in jeopardy; his resignation not only indirectly acknowledged his involvement but provided the spoken confession of a politician in free-fall.
Now fast-forward 39 years. Our current president — in response to the Sept. 11 Benghazi attack in which Ambassador Christopher Stevens was killed — says that his administration is the “most transparent administration in history.”
Even his administration's website echoes the fact that Barack Obama and company are committed to being unequivocally transparent.
Obviously, he must think the majority of America is inexplicably stupid.
Let's briefly recap the controversies of his administration:
- Appointed Secretary of Homeland Security and former Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano came under scrutiny for surprisingly purchasing 1.6 billion rounds of ammunition, and we still haven't been given a legitimate reason why.
- U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice, as well as Obama himself, came under fire for incorrectly referring to the Benghazi attack as related to an unimportant YouTube video on the set of various talk shows when, in fact, we now know that it was a coordinated and deliberately planned attack. This is a lose-lose scenario for Obama: Even if his initial assessments were incorrect (which is highly unfeasible), it makes his administration look like fools and his response look like idiocy.
- The Department of Justice secretly obtained telephone records from the Associated Press in a “massive and unprecedented intrusion" into the way in which news organizations gather news.
- The IRS unjustly targeted conservative groups; we do not know how it began, and we do not clearly know how many groups were even targeted.
- Remember “fast and furious?”
- Many, many more. Go ahead, Google it.
Some, like my esteemed colleague and brilliant State Press writer Peter Northfelt, write about how Republicans are merely using these minute hiccups to score political points.
Of course, on some level, this is true. Politics is politics; a Democratic Congress would do the same under a Republican president if roles were reversed.
But this goes beyond party politics. The Obama administration, while claiming to be the most transparent administration in history, has done notorious, unexplainable things behind the scenes.
Is it wrong for America to demand answers?
Is it wrong for Americans — no matter what party they identify with or what position in Congress they may hold — to ask tough questions?
By doing so, are they merely attempting to score political points?
Maybe, instead, they're wondering what is actually occurring under the watch of the “most transparent administration in history.”
Reach this columnist at spmccaul@asu.edu or follow him @sean_mccauley
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