Plausible Deniability the Chicago Way

Yet another scandal has hit Washington.  This time it's that foreign leaders had their phones tapped or bugged by the NSA.  Although I'm not terribly upset about this revelation -- they'd do it to us if they could, and they know it; to feign outrage is simply anger at being beaten to the punch -- the notion that President Obama didn't know anything about it continues the drumbeat that has been nearly a constant throughout his administration:  The President wasn't aware of it until after the news broke.

As excuses go, that's right up there with the guy doing ninety miles an hour on the highway being pulled over by the cops and telling them that he's on his way to the hospital for an emergency.  Nine times out of ten that's an outright lie.

Let's see what the President didn't know was going on under his watch:

There's the IRS scandal in which lackies swear the President knew nothing about.

There's Operation Fast and Furious, which supposedly escaped the President's purview.

There's Benghazi, which the White House defenders claim was a total surprise.

There's the AP scandal, which was completely unknown to the President.

There's the NSA spying scandal, of which the President knew nothing.

The failure of Obamacare's rollout, which had the President completely in the dark.

There are lesser scandals of which either the President knew and downplayed or were not considered scandals by the MSM.  Here's where one can find the running scoreboard of things gone awry under the President:

http://www.whitehousedossier.com/2013/08/01/obama-dozen-scandals-counting/

Whatever the true tally, that there are scandals in a modern-day president's administration isn't, in and of itself, scandalous.  There hasn't been a president, liberal or conservative, whose administration hasn't faced scandal to some degree.

What's enervating is that the President constantly distances himself from any scandal, telling reporters that he knew nothing about it.  How can a Harvard-educated person, who led the august Law School's law review, be so utterly clueless about what's going on his administration?  What's more, when the scandals break, no heads roll.  The easy inference is that those heads of the people allegedly responsible for the scandals remain as payback for taking the fall for the POTUS.  Unless and until the President borrows from Harry Truman, the inference will remain.

But should we be surprised at this happening?  That is, should the American people be surprised the President is imitating the three wise monkeys?  At the risk of being accused of being racist, I post the following picture for those unaware of the reference:

Not really.  For those birthers who believe the President was born outside the United States, all I can say is that that may be, but he surely caught on fast, especially during his time in Chicago.

For those who are a little younger, allow me to explain:  Chicago, and for all intents and purposes the State of Illinois, has been run virtually like a Stalinist state since the election to the mayoralty of Chicago of Richard J. Daley, seen here:

Daley, pere, held office from 1955 through 1976.  After a couple of interruptions, his son Richard M. Daley, seen here:

took office in 1989 and held it through 2011.  In other words, from 1955 through 2011, a Daley was mayor for forty-three of fifty-six years.  During that time, both Daley's were largely popular and were never threatened in either the primary or general elections.  Yet during their shared tenures, the following scandals happened:

-- the FBI's Operation Safebet investigation into political corruption and organized crime's control of prostitution throughout metropolitan Chicago snared over 75 individuals;

 

-- Operation Gambat targeted First Ward connections to organized crime with 24 individuals convicted or pleading guilty;

 

-- Operation Incubator on City Hall corruption involved bribes to win city contracts for collecting unpaid parking tickets and water bills; convicted were four aldermen, a former state senator, a deputy water commissioner, and an aide to former Mayor Harold Washington;

 

-- Operation Greylord into Chicago's court system netted 87 court personnel and attorney convictions and guilty pleas, including 13 judges;

 

-- Operation Haunted Hall about City Hall ghost payrolls yielded 38 indictments and 35 convictions, including four aldermen, a Cook County treasurer, and a state senator;

 

-- Operation Silver Shovel probed city government and netted 18 convictions and guilty pleas from public employees and six aldermen;

 

-- Operation Board Games into public corruption of insider deals, peddling, and kickbacks involving state government boards; and

 

-- much more systemic corruption for decades, including under both Daleys.

 

Not once was either Daley so much as indicted for any involvement in these crimes.

Sound familiar?

Part of the problem in Chicago was that news organizations couldn't combat the patronage system sufficiently to sway voters to consider other candidates.  The problem with the MSM and the national problem is that the President has the MSM in his hip pocket; unlike Chicago, where the reporters reveled in taking Da Mayor to task, the MSM acts as an unofficial news organ and cheerleader for the President -- or at least it has during the first five years of his presidency.  There is some hope that the disclosures of recent scandals will result in a much harder line toward the administration, but now that the President is in his second term, what good will that do?  It's not as if he can run for reelection again.

The good, if there's any to be had in this sorry mess, is for enough of a shadow to be cast on his legacy that he begins changing his sorry ways and flies straight.  Perhaps enough voters will see that in fact the man they elected to the White House and the Senators and representatives who have been doing his bidding were not acting in their best interests.  Insofar as the senators and representatives are concerned, they can be voted out at the next elections.  It would be interesting to see the President vetoing proposed legislation passed by both houses at the will of the people.

I've said this before and I'll say it again:  For political pundits trying to read the tea leaves on the future of American politics, especially insofar as it concerns the White House, keep an eye on Illinois.  With Hillary Clinton the frontrunner for the Democrats and the Republicans being in disarray, it's likely that a Clinton-Rahm Emmanuel ticket will be in the offing come 2015.  And if that happens, look for more of the same.

More of The Chicago Way of politics steering the ship right over the edge of the waterfall that the Democrats insist isn't there.

(c) 2013 The Truxton Spangler Chronicles