The scandals are falling apart - Ezra Klein, WaPo

[Bill USA]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/05/16/the-scandals-are-falling-apart/

Things go wrong in government. Sometimes it’s just bad luck. Sometimes it’s rank incompetence. Sometimes it’s criminal wrongdoing. Most of the time you never hear about it. Or, if you do hear about it, the media eventually gets bored talking about it (see warming, global).

But every so often an instance of government wrongdoing sprouts wings and becomes something quite exciting: A political scandal.

The crucial ingredient for a scandal is the prospect of high-level White House involvement and wide political repercussions. Government wrongdoing is boring. Scandals can bring down presidents, decide elections and revive down-and-out political parties. Scandals can dominate American politics for months at a time.

On Tuesday, it looked like we had three possible political scandals brewing. Two days later, with much more evidence available, it doesn’t look like any of them will pan out. There’ll be more hearings, and more bad press for the Obama administration, and more demands for documents. But — and this is a key qualification — absent more revelations, the scandals that could reach high don’t seem to include any real wrongdoing, whereas the ones that include real wrongdoing don’t reach high enough. Let’s go through them.
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[Thinkingabout]

1. I think it is time to turn Larry Flynt loose on the greatest accusers, Issa, Inhofe to name a couple

and let the chips fall where they may. With the remarks made by several others may just be a Trojan horse and corruption abounds in the halls of Congress.

[BeyondGeography]

2. No sex, no money

No interest.

[Tx4obama]

3. GOP Rep Claims Responsibility For AP Surveillance

GOP Rep Claims Responsibility For AP Surveillance

Here: http://www.addictinginfo.org/2013/05/16/no-choice-gop-congressman-cites-national-security-defends-doj-investigation-of-ap-video/

and

GOP Congressman Defends DOJ Surveillance: ‘They Are Doing What We Asked Them To Do’

Here: http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/05/15/2013511/gop-congressman-defends-doj-surveillance-they-are-doing-what-we-asked-them-to-do/

[Bill USA]

9. I hope you put this up as its own thread. great info!

[Tx4obama]

10. I put it in it's own thread yesterday in Politics2013 forum, on the link below

Here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/1251306378

[Cha]

4. But, there sure were a lot of f**** hoping it

was true.

thanks Bill

[Tarheel_Dem]

5. And not just on the right. Have you seen some of the op's in GD?

[Cha]

6. You mean right before I

fucking trashed them? rofl

[Tarheel_Dem]

7. !!!

[SemperEadem]

8. the only reason why a scandal would dominate the news for months at a time

is because you all in the press have no inclination to do the really tough investigations, but go with whatever talking points your paymasters on the right give you. That is the only reason why the Benghazi story got the loft it did by ABC---they didn't do ANYTHING like an investigation--they took the talking points from the thugs and went with that. Now, they have been seriously discredited by Mother Jones and by CNN because the actual emails have been released and there is no "there" there.

It was smoke and mirrors, dog and pony---whatever metaphor you wish to use, that's what it was--and now that the week is done, here you are lamenting the ride you've just been taken on when you and your paper were all in the throes of it on Tuesday.

Dude, please. The hallmark of a scandal is when members of the president's own party are leading the charge against them, the offense stinks that much.

This stuff never rose to the level of Watergate... it just never rose. Just because the thugs are wailing and moaning doesn't mean shit.

[Beartracks]

13. It's the power of "What If."

Republicans show up with their ginned-up evidence and theories, and the press goes, "OMG, WHAT IF this were true?!"

So the "reporting" begins. And it usually starts off with, "Republicans are claiming...."

And pretty quickly they're no longer saying, "Republicans think there's a scandal here"; instead, they just call it "the XYZ scandal" or the cute and trite "XYZ-Gate."

But even the Republicans are pretty transparent. Well, not every conservative blowhard and Tea Party activist, mind you, but the politicians, 'cuz they're on record. Most sort of hew to the notion of "IF Obama knew blah-blah-blah then that would be a national crisis." But they know and expect that the media dissemination of the idea will strip it of its hypothetical-ness and replace it with the all-important truthiness it needs to get legs.

===================

[cstanleytech]

11. The republicans just need to give up before this whole thing backfires as

it will do them no good to try and make up a scandal at this point because even if they succeed the sheer number of republican scandals at the presidential level far outnumber the ones by the democrats.
I mean the best democratic scandal they managed in 40 years was a blowjob where as the republicans own watergate, arms for hostages, wmds in iraq, revealing the name of a cia agent to discredit her husband, diebold and the list goes on and on.

[LiberalFighter]

12. They are stubborn as hell and won't relent.

[Beartracks]

14. Was diebold ever a bonafide scandal?

I mean, I thought scandals brought people down. Diebold was practically ignored by the media, wasn't it?

======================

[cstanleytech]

15. You cant get more scandalous than rigging an election so ya it was a

scandal even though the majority of the media choose to ignore it.