Glenn Harlan Reynolds – Public servants acting as public masters.
We’re talking IRS targeting, CIA spying on US government officials with a little Boulder County government and subdivision paving mixed in.
“Nothing could be further from the truth. I mean, we wouldn’t do that.” That was CIA Director John Brennan’s answer in March when Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., charged the CIA with breaking into computers used by Senate investigators looking into CIA misconduct.
It turns out that the CIA would do that — and, in fact, had done so. Brennan’s reassurances were false, and CIA spooks had been hacking into the committee investigators’ computers looking for documents they thought the investigators shouldn’t have, violating a promise not to. So, first Brennan broke a promise. Then, he either lied, or showed that he doesn’t control his own agency, which in many ways would be worse.
Glenn goes on to mix in the IRS targeting scandal and Eric Holder’s job as “running interference for the Obama administration and protecting its officials from consequences” and concludes:
The sad truth is that when you elect irresponsible people into positions of power, you get irresponsible government. President Obama oozes contempt for Congress, and for longstanding unwritten political accommodations among the branches, at every opportunity. It’s unsurprising that his underlings feel — and act — consistently with that view.
If the American electorate votes more responsibly next time, things will get better. Until then, alas, elections have consequences, and this is one of them.
There’s an analogy here to our supreme Boulder County Commissioners and subdivision paving but I can’t sum it up in a sentence. Unfortunately, the faces of Boulder County Government might change but the abuse of power will not due to districting and the general class warfare meme endorsed by Progressives.
