The Scandalmongers

It is fast turning into the summer of scandals, much like 2009 when Obama found himself hopelessly entwined in one petty "scandal" after another, the most annoying was the so-called "beer summit" to ease tensions over the arrest of Henry Louis Gates Jr. The Republicans were effectively able to deflect attention away from the health care bill moving through Congress by forcing Obama to explain himself when he rose to the defense of Gates.

As Yogi Berra would say, "it is deja vu all over again," as Republicans try to deflect attention away from the immigration bill and other pressing legislation in Congress. Heritage Action for America, a toxic by-product of the Heritage Foundation, is apparently urging Boehner and House Republicans to focus on the scandals and avoid bringing any significant legislation to the House floor, which could highlight major schisms in the GOP. In other words, beware of the Teabaggers! Darrell Issa appears to be the Heritage Action's point man, continuing his investigation into the IRS scandal, even after Elijah Cummings called out Issa on the phony scandal, demanding full release of the transcripts.

On an amusing note, John Oliver was having fun with these scandals, as he hosts the Daily Show this summer, calling Jon Stewart on his finger phone to avoid NSA detection. Another story that has become completely overblown, fueled by the Wikileaks wannabe, Edward Snowden, who surreptitiously downloaded classified information while working as an independent contractor at NSA. The Guardian is heralding him as the next Daniel Ellsburg, yet provides the same useless background information on Snowden you read everywhere else. Snowden appears to want to maximize his new found celebrity by leaking his "secrets" out as slowly as possible.

Meanwhile, the Republicans are doing their damnedest to shy away from the controversial immigration bill, which is highly unpopular among their Tea Party constituency. Marco Rubio finds himself at the center of this maelstrom, as he was chosen as the GOP front man in this bipartisan effort to reform a system that has about 11 million persons falling through the cracks. If nothing else, having so many "illegals" in the country constitutes a security threat and I would think Republicans would be just as anxious as Democrats to have them documented.

Yep, nothing like avoiding such pressing issues, especially when you have pit bulls within your own political party biting at your heels.

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