If you're not gonna love me, fear me.
That, my friends, is the bottom line on all these White House scandals--trust me.
To intimidate.
To bully.
To use the powers at your disposal to dispose of those who challenge your power.
I don't know where this IRS intimidation of conservative groups goes.
Or the Justice Department targeting journalists goes.
Or Health and Human Services hitting up private companies to promote a controversial healthcare law goes.
But I do know what it says, what all these scandals say.
That this White House doesn't play nice. But it does play rough.
Get onboard, or we go full-bore.
Scary stuff. But consistent stuff. Each and every incident, eerily the same theme.
Shake down conservatives who question you.
Oil industry executives who challenge you.
Reporters of any stripe who investigate you.
I don't know if any of this stuff is illegal, I do know it is immoral.
Just like I know Jay Carney parsing his words on whether something is right or wrong is silly.
Not much different than another president bemoaning what the meaning of the word is, is.
Let's be clear here.
Using the IRS to hound groups is wrong.
Targeting reporters who dare investigate a finely crafted narrative is wrong.
Strong-arming companies to pony up and pay up is wrong.
Promising Americans they could keep their healthcare coverage, even as we're learning the plan this fall, is to force potentially millions to lose their coverage is wrong.
Coordinating talking points among vast and far-flung agencies and departments over what exactly happened in Benghazi is wrong.
Demanding your subordinates never use the words global war on terror in the face of global acts of terror is wrong.
And keeping essentially all offending personnel in their jobs at pretty much all these agencies even now is wrong.
But this isn't about firing people.
This is about fooling people.
And intimidating people.
And scaring people.
To keep them in line. And punish those who get out of line.
I'm no lawyer, but I think stuff like that should be illegal.
But I am a human being, and the White House saying none of this is bullying?
Bull.
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