The Power Genie Is Out Of The Bottle And Running Amok In The National Government

Mandeville, LA – Exclusive Transcript – I think that the point to be made is that when it comes to the IRS, how is it that they obtained this unbelievable power to do and to perform the tormenting things they are accused of performing, which by the way they do.  Same thing with the attorney general.  How in dude’s holy name does the Injustice Department acquire the awesome, unbelievable power to be micromanaging and rifling through the phone records of investigative journalists?  Check out today’s transcript for the rest…

Begin Mike Church Show Transcript

Mike:  “Obama: Nixon in Reverse,” by Daniel McCarthy, American Conservative Magazine blog last night.

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The most basic criticism of Obama turns out to be the truest. A one-term Senator doesn’t have much preparation for governing anything—yes, a risk that Republicans will have to keep in mind with Marco Rubio and Rand Paul—and government under Obama often seems to be run by functionaries. It’s all too plausible that Obama didn’t know, or care to know, about the IRS applying discriminatory standards against right-leaning 501(c)(4) groups, and his attitude toward Eric Holder’s Justice Department grabbing Associated Press phone records appears similarly blasé.

This is rather unlike the disgraced president to whom many Republicans want to compare the incumbent. As Dana Milbank puts it: “Nixon was a control freak. Obama seems to be the opposite: He wants no control over the actions of his administration. As the president distances himself from the actions of ‘independent’ figures within his administration, he’s creating a power vacuum in which lower officials behave as though anything goes.” That’s not exculpatory: a president is responsible for the abuses of his administration whether he orders them directly or simply creates the conditions in which they can happen.

Founders TV: “The Power to Tax Involves the Power to Destroy”

It’s doubtful, alas, that congressional Republicans will treat these matters as anything other than opportunities for Benghazi-style partisan hype. There are fundamental matters behind each of these scandals that the GOP establishment does not want to face any more than Obama does. [Mike: Listen to this. If Dan McCarthy is listening, thank you for putting into print or for being the second one to put into print — Tim Carney puts it into print in another editorial I have — of what I have been saying since the beginning of this entire Libya and Benghazi disaster.] Namely: exactly what the CIA was doing in Benghazi (and why the U.S. had to be so deeply involved in Libya in the first place), the tremendous discretion the IRS enjoys over whom it targets and how, and the extent to which the War on Terror is really a War on Transparency in government. Failure to strike these problems at their roots only reinforces the idea that the GOP’s leadership cares not a whit for the substance of the issues but only about embarrassing Obama. [Mike: Thank you, thank you, thank you, Daniel. Bingo. Exactly.] That may be enough to rally the base ahead of 2014, but there are many other Americans—not nearly enough, to be sure—who actually would like someone to stand up for consistent standards, not only for the IRS but to check and limit arbitrary executive power across the board.

[end reading]

Mike:  In other words, exactly what yours truly has been preaching from the pulpit for years now is making its way into print.  McCarthy has always been, to be fair, he’s been on this show many times and he’s always been of this point of view.  It’s just nice to see other people say it or write it so that we’re not the odd man out.  I think that the point to be made is that when it comes to the IRS, how is it that they obtained this unbelievable power to do and to perform the tormenting things they are accused of performing, which by the way they do.  Same thing with the attorney general.  How in dude’s holy name does the Injustice Department acquire the awesome, unbelievable power to be micromanaging and rifling through the phone records of investigative journalists?

Ladies and gentlemen, this is a power that is supposed to be kept in a bottle.  It is not supposed to be used by government.  When it is, it is government that is at fault.  The people in the conservative movement only tend to focus on the person.  [mocking] “It’s Clinton doing that!  It’s Obama doing that!”  How do they get the authority to abuse?  They get the authority to abuse because they’re abusing government.  It is government that is fire, brute force as Washington called it, and it will be abused unless virtuous statesmen are in control of its administration.  That’s the end of story.  That’s why I love playing the clip from Patrick Henry, from my Project ’76 webisode series, writing that letter to Archibald Blair saying: I don’t think we’re going to turn out to be like the French imbeciles.  I think as long as we maintain our manners and our young men pursue their manners and their studies and their virtuous lifestyles, then we’re going to be okay.  But if we ever lose those things, it will then show in our government.  That’s exactly what’s happened and what has been happening.

End Mike Church Show Transcript

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