Angry, embarrassed Republicans went looking for a scapegoat and settled on a man who’s more than a decade past the normal retirement age. That’s essentially the explanation The Week’s Paul Waldman gives for House GOPers’ move to impeach 76-year-old Internal Revenue Service commissioner John Koskinen.
That effort, asserted Waldman in a Tuesday column, stems from Republicans’ “frustration over the failure of [the IRS] scandal to take down Barack Obama…When that story broke a few years back it seemed like it would prove everything they believed about this administration…[But] there was no nefarious conspiracy, no audits of political enemies, no illegal orders from the White House, no sinister plot to use the IRS'[s] power against anyone.”
In Waldman’s view, Obama has had no major scandals, “only piddling little scandalettes,” a circumstance which “continues to drive Republicans absolutely batty…With every controversy during this administration…Republicans say to themselves, ‘Now we've finally got him!’…And then it turns out to be a giant nothingburger.”
From Waldman’s piece (bolding added):
In recent history, a two-term presidency has usually meant the appearance, often in that president's sixth year in office, of a major scandal…Nixon had Watergate, Reagan had Iran-Contra, Clinton had Lewinsky...
But Barack Obama will be president for less than eight more months, and he's had only piddling little scandalettes. This continues to drive Republicans absolutely batty…
After all, they know, with every fiber of their beings, that Obama is deeply corrupt. He hates America, he's a racial avenger out to destroy white people, he's the embodiment of everything and everyone they despise. Yet somehow they can barely seem to lay a glove on him. So in their latest bit of acting out, Republicans in the House of Representatives are trying to impeach [Koskinen]…
…This is better understood as an expression of their frustration over the failure of [the IRS] scandal to take down Barack Obama. After all, when that story broke a few years back it seemed like it would prove everything they believed about this administration…
[But] there was no nefarious conspiracy, no audits of political enemies, no illegal orders from the White House, no sinister plot to use the IRS'[s] power against anyone…
And so it has been with every controversy during this administration. The story breaks, and Republicans say to themselves, "Now we've finally got him!"…And then it turns out to be a giant nothingburger…
…That might be because of Barack Obama's personal integrity, but it also might just be luck. There are people of questionable ethics in both parties, and after two terms, at least a few of them are inevitably going to find their way into government. But the really meaningful scandals are the ones in which the president himself is involved…
But as far as we know, whether you like Barack Obama or not, his hands are pretty clean. And this is something Republicans in Congress simply cannot accept.
