We can file this one in the category of, “I don’t know what to wish for.” Our side has been absolutely giddy lately with the recent, albeit deserved, fall from grace by key members of Team Zero. On the one hand, Eric Holder is by far the single worst Attorney General our nation has suffered to date. That’s impressive, considering the fact that Janet Reno once held that position. He has politicized the Justice Department to the point where its very name has become some sort of sick mocking irony. Backing off from the Orwellian manner in which Holder has performed his duties thus far however, even if, and things look slightly inevitable now, Holder resigns his position as our nation’s top law enforcement official, who do any of us believe will replace him? (By the way, it is far from a done deal that Holder will be forced out at all. Remember, our current President has not shown the slightest shyness in appointing known criminals to cabinet positions. An example would be Tim Geitner, who’s problems with tax evasion were over looked in order to utilize his genius in overseeing the Department of Treasury, that very directorate that is responsible for handling people with tax evasion problems.)
The problem as I see it, is that even if Eric Holder goes, Barack Obama will still be the only person with the Constitutional Authority to nominate his replacement. Who does anyone believe will be given that nod from the Bamster? As our nation’s chief executive, Barack Obama has shown a penchant for nominating the worst possible candidates for any and every position. If this next statement doesn’t chill you right to your bones, nothing is capable of placing fear into your heart. Are you ready? Hillary Clinton was the most competent member of the Obama Administration. And all she did as our Secretary of State was to oversee a situation where roughly one quarter of our embassies world wide were set ablaze as some sort of bizarre celebration of the, “Arab Spring.” If Eric Holder resigns, which is far from being a done deal, and subsequently slinks out of town quietly, he will be replaced by Eric Holder 2.0, and that version has the potential to be far worse.
The question here, is how can we prevent this from happening? I’m going to take a slight detour here, but I promise that it will tie in to the topic at hand, and eventually make sense. During the summer of 1979, our economy was in a shambles, and actually stood in far worse shape than even the darkest days of 2008’s fall or 2009’s summer. The reported unemployment rate stood at solid double digits, and actual unemployment was pushing 20%. Annual inflation peaked at 13.5%, and William Miller, our Fed Chairman practiced a pure Keynesian approach, despite promising the opposite. Before William Miller, Arthur Burns did the same, and before Burns, W. McChesney Martin ran an identical policy. We had a monetary policy of purposeful currency devaluation from the 1950’s through the late 1970’s without respite. 1979, thanks in part to the utter incompetence of the President we had elected for ourselves saw those sins ultimately reach their inevitable conclusion, as a full blown economic crisis. On August 6, 1979, President Jimmy Carter’s only good decision, Paul Volcker, took his place as our Fed Chairman.
What is important to note here, is that Volcker was not Jimmy Carter’s first, second, or even third choice to head up the Fed. Carter was forced to nominate Volcker, by a business community who were preparing to surround the White House with torches and pitch forks. They were joined in their anger by mostly Congressional Members of his own party, who were skittish about their own prospects for reelection in an election that was only a year away. Volcker’s performance as our Fed Chairman was perhaps as important for our economic recovery and boom as Ronald Reagan. The point I suppose, is that even someone with Jimmy Carter’s level of incompetence is capable of making good decisions.
To be certain, there are differences between Carter and Obama. One being that Barack Obama is a narcissist, and quite frankly incapable of caring about anything or anyone other than himself and those things that do not impact his life and possessions personally. He does not care about trite little things like the electoral prospects of those people in his party. He does not care if his personal convenience is ruinous for others around him, or if his ideology causes hardship for anyone else, anywhere. Eric Holder has served him well, and his brand of politicizing the Justice Department serves the President’s agenda to a tee. I do not see anything changing that, despite the loss of approval ratings that the President has currently enjoyed. Barack Obama does not need to win any more elections, and really no longer has a use for approval ratings. He has shown that he understands executive fiat all too well, and most certainly can continue this strategy for 42 months longer without so much as a scintilla of cooperation from Congress, regardless of the make up of that fine collection of political cowards.
If there is to be any improvement with our current dilemma, it will only ever happen if the church of liberalism were brought down a bit, and more importantly, the church of Obama along with it. The first of those criteria was met over these past few weeks, but that one criteria being met is not enough. Eric Holder must go to prison, and he must face a penalty commensurate with the laws he has broken. Perjuring oneself to congress, swearing out falsified warrants, obstruction of justice, witness tampering, and racketeering all carry stiff penalties should one be convicted of such. The only way a future Attorney General appointed by Barack Obama keeps to the straight and narrow is if they realize that politicizing and abusing the power of that office comes with a price. For that matter, all bureaucrats working in our out of control Executive Branch need to be reminded that behaving in such a manner carries consequences.
Darrell Issa asking a few uncomfortable questions of our nation’s ruling class elite will accomplish nothing. Our ruling class elite learning the hard way that they too, are accountable for their actions will accomplish much. Lisa Jackson broke the law while working for the Environmental Protection Agency, and she was promoted to a position of increased responsibility. Victoria Nuland broke the law while working for the State Department, and she was promoted to a position of increased responsibility. Lois Lerner broke the law while working for the IRS, and subsequently was promoted to a position of greater responsibility. There is a definite pattern to be noticed here. Even if the White House did not direct any of the shenanigans, (something I do not believe for a moment,) they are sending a clear message by promoting these law breakers. Currently, that message is, “abuse your power and break the law, it’s OK, you may even get promoted.” With an incarcerated Eric Holder, Lisa Jackson, Victoria Nuland, and Lois Lerner, that message would immediately change to one of, “even if the President turns a blind eye to people in his Administration violating the public trust, you will still find yourself in prison should you do just that.”
A show hearing in which our Congress Critters pretend to get tough will do little to solve the problems of a politicized government run amok. Actual accountability will do wonders towards the goal of constraining this behemoth. We are beyond the point where a little embarrassment will be adequate. We need to put the criminals in jail, and there is no better group than those who have abused their authority to do that very thing to others in our society, some of them unjustly.
