A Limber State, a Wounded Body Politic

Blog Song for the Moment

Hans Zimmer, Time, from Inception (2010)

Some Republicans have been trying and trying to Watergate President Obama with the Benghazi Affair (though they may be really aiming at Hilary Clinton), but the administration has just handed them something even better--a real scandal.  Actually two.

One is the revelation that the IRS has been targeting some conservative organizations, giving their requests for tax-exempt status as non-profits extra scrutiny, such as requesting the identity of their contributors.  In response to complaints from constituents , GOP lawmakers questioned IRS commissioners last year, who replied that the IRS did have the authority to request donor information.  Though they didn't mention targeting, at least one commissioner knew about it as early as May 2012. As reported in Politico:

Lois Lerner, the head of the IRS division the oversees tax exempt groups, acknowledged that groups seeking nonprofit status were flagged for additional review if their applications included phrases like “tea party” or “patriot.” She told reporters that requests for donor information isn’t standard practice at the IRS.

On top of this, we have the DOJ seizing private records from AP reporters and wire services.  According to the AP

The Justice Department secretly obtained two months of telephone records of reporters and editors for The Associated Press in what the news cooperative's top executive called a "massive and unprecedented intrusion" into how news organizations gather the news.

Apparently the DOJ was after the source of a leak that it deemed a threat to national security, that is, a leak about a proposed operation in what ever we're calling the "War on Terror" these days.  But what a stupid, heavy-handed way of going about it.

So, along with the IRS handing Tea Party groups their "biggest victory yet," as Slate's David Weigel suggests, the DOJ has given the GOP one more reason--a good one this time--to investigate the hell out of the Obama administration, gumming up government operations, along with distracting Congress from crucial matters that need its attention--say, immigration reform for starters.

Administration officials are to blame, and I imagine some heads will roll, but I think their are also some systemic problems behind these humongous gaffes.  The role of big money in campaigns, combined with political polarization, created an environment encouraging what was likely illegal behavior in the IRS.  As for the DOJ--it's serving the needs of an executive trying to combat terrorism with means that violate domestic and international norms and laws.

Writing during WW I, Randolph Bourne pointed out the paradox for democratic regimes waging war.

Democratic control of foreign policy is therefore a contradiction in terms. Open discussion destroys swiftness and certainty of action.  The State is paralyzed. . .(from "War is the Health of the State")

Bourne was talking about growing restrictions on civil liberties as the Wilson administration geared up for war in Europe.  Today it's the Obama administration, like the previous one under Bush, working mightily to avoid this paralysis.  They have succeeded so far in keeping the State limber, but at the cost of wounding our democratic body politic.