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Mark Steyn reviews a day in the life of the Republic.
Wednesday, June 26, 2013 — just another day in a constitutional republic of limited government by citizen representatives:
First thing in the morning, Gregory Roseman, Deputy Director of Acquisitions (whatever that means), became the second IRS official to take the Fifth Amendment, after he was questioned about awarding the largest contract in IRS history, totaling some half a billion dollars, to his close friend Braulio Castillo, who qualified under a federal “set aside” program favoring disadvantaged groups — in this case, disabled veterans. For the purposes of federal contracting, Mr. Castillo is a “disabled veteran” because he twisted his ankle during a football game at the U.S. Military Academy prep school 27 years ago. How he overcame this crippling disability to win a half-billion-dollar IRS contract is the heartwarming stuff of an inspiring Lifetime TV movie.
Later in the day, Senator John Hoeven, Republican of North Dakota and alleged author of the Corker-Hoeven amendment to the immigration bill, went on Hugh Hewitt’s radio show and, in a remarkable interview, revealed to the world that he had absolutely no idea what was in the legislation he “wrote.” Rachel Jeantel, the endearingly disastrous star witness at the George Zimmerman trial, excused her inability to comprehend the letter she’d supposedly written to Trayvon Martin’s parents on the grounds that “I don’t read cursive.” Senator Hoeven doesn’t read legislative. …
… Say what you like about George III, but the Tea Act was about tea. The so-called comprehensive immigration reform is so comprehensive it includes special deals for Nevada casinos and the recategorization of the Alaskan fish-processing industry as a “cultural exchange” program, because the more leaping salmon we have the harder it is for Mexicans to get across the Bering Strait. While we’re bringing millions of Undocumented-Americans “out of the shadows,” why don’t we try bringing Washington’s decadent and diseased law-making out of the shadows? …
… As I say, just another day in the life of the republic: a corrupt bureaucracy dispensing federal gravy to favored clients; a pseudo-legislature passing bills unread by the people’s representatives and uncomprehended by the men who claim to have written them; and a co-regency of jurists torturing an 18th-century document in order to justify what other countries are at least honest enough to recognize as an unprecedented novelty. Whether or not, per Scalia, we should “condemn” the United States Constitution, it might be time to put the poor wee thing out of its misery.
Speaking of corrupt, Jennifer Rubin says we have the worst of Washington in Holder and Comey.
If you think the federal government is populated by pols without principles and/or shame, then James Comey’s nomination for FBI will not surprise you. For those who harbor some faith in the morality of elected leaders, I hate to burst your bubble once again. Comey has made a career of feigning moral high-mindedness. But a brief reflection on his conduct over the years shows that, like an average pol, he operates in a world of back-scratching and disingenuous compliments.
In Dec. 2008, he authored a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee on Attorney General Eric Holder’s nomination to that post. On one hand, Comey advised the committee that he was the chief prosecutor in the Marc Rich and Pincus Green matter and the infamous pardons that were a key objection to Holder’s confirmation as attorney general. He wrote: “I have come to believe that Mr. Holder’s role in the Rich and Green pardons were a huge misjudgment, one for which he has, appropriately, paid dearly in reputation.” But wait. There is a back to be scratched: “Yet I very much hope he is confirmed.” Now mind you, he wasn’t “suggesting errors of judgment are qualifications for high office,” but he sure didn’t think they were disqualifying. He gilded the lily to be sure, arguing that Holder “is a smart, humble, decent man.”
Rather stomach-turning isn’t it? …
WSJ Editors agree.
President Obama on Friday nominated James Comey to run the FBI, and the former prosecutor and deputy attorney general is already garnering media effusions reserved for any Republican who fell out publicly with the Bush Administration. Forgive us if we don’t join this Beltway beatification.
Any potential FBI director deserves scrutiny, since the position has so much power and is susceptible to ruinous misjudgments and abuse. That goes double with Mr. Comey, a nominee who seems to think the job of the federal bureaucracy is to oversee elected officials, not the other way around, and who had his own hand in some of the worst prosecutorial excesses of the last decade.
The list includes his overzealous pursuit, as U.S. Attorney for New York’s Southern District, of banker Frank Quattrone amid the post-Enron political frenzy of 2003. Mr. Comey never did indict Mr. Quattrone on banking-related charges, but charged him instead with obstruction of justice and witness tampering based essentially on a single ambiguous email.
Mr. Comey’s first trial against Mr. Quattrone ended in a hung jury; he won a conviction on a retrial but that conviction was overturned on appeal in 2006. This May, the QuattroneCenter for the Fair Administration of Justice was launched at the University of Pennsylvania thanks to a $15 million gift from the banker, perhaps with Mr. Comey partly in mind.
There is also Mr. Comey’s 2004 role as deputy attorney general in the Aipac case, in which the FBI sought to use bogus “secret” information to entrap two lobbyists for the pro-Israel group and then prosecuted them under the 1917 Espionage Act. The Justice Department dropped that case in 2009 after it fell apart in court—but not before wrecking the lives of the two lobbyists, Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman.
Or the atrocious FBI investigation, harassment and trial-by-media of virologist Steven Jay Hatfill, falsely suspected of being behind the 2001 anthrax mail attacks. Mr. Comey continued to vouchsafe the strength of the case against Dr. Hatfill in internal Administration deliberations long after it had become clear that the FBI had fingered the wrong man. Dr. Hatfill ultimately won a $5.8 million settlement from the Justice Department. …
Power Line’s Scott Johnson gives context to the Danny Werfel appointment at the IRS.
When the Bush administration had to contend with enormous public distrust of the Department of Justice in its last year, President Bush sought out and appointed a man of impeccable integrity as Attorney General. In his short time in office, Michael Mukasey added luster to an already distinguished career.
Contrast the Obama administration’s approach to the crisis in which the IRS finds itself today. It is embroiled in genuine scandals. At the outset Obama acknowledged the gravity of the misdeeds revealed in the Inspector General report that kicked off the scandal, but his actions since then reflect nothing but spin and coverup. Consider, for example, the case of Elijah Cummings, a faithful servant of the Obama administration. Cummings has done his best falsely to disparage and to obstruct the investigation of the IRS by the House committee on which he serves as ranking member.
Obama pretended to address the scandal in some meaningful fashion by relieving Stephen Miller of his duties of acting commissioner, although Miller’s time was up. In place of Miller Obama appointed one Danny Werfel as acting commissioner.
Who is Danny Werfel. By all appearances, he is an Obama loyalist. Like Cummings, he has done his best to obstruct the investigation with deflecting falsehoods. The latest example is the report Werfel released this week finding no wrongdoing by the IRS. Werfel’s report, however, was “incomplete.” He is peddling rather obvious falsehoods, rather obviously designed to obscure the truth in the service of his political masters.
Werfel has a brief record of public service, all of it in the Obama administration. It may have been difficult to get a bead on him at the time of his entry onto the scene. In his short time at the IRS, however, Werfel has proved himself a weasel. That Obama has sent a factotum and fixer over to the agency is another sign of the gravity of the IRS scandals.
Remember when Pickerhead said public safety goobers are out of control? Charlottesville’s Daily Progress tells us about the UVA student who bought some water and spent a night in jail.
When a half-dozen men and a woman in street clothes closed in on University of Virginia student Elizabeth Daly, 20, she and two roommates panicked.
That led to Daly spending a night and an afternoon in the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail. Her initial offense? Walking to her car with bottled water, cookie dough and ice cream just purchased from the Harris Teeter in the BarracksRoadShopping Center for a sorority benefit fundraiser.
A group of state Alcoholic Beverage Control agents clad in plainclothes approached her, suspecting the blue carton of LaCroix sparkling water to be a 12-pack of beer. Police say one of the agents jumped on the hood of her car. She says one drew a gun. Unsure of who they were, Daly tried to flee the darkened parking lot.
“They were showing unidentifiable badges after they approached us, but we became frightened, as they were not in anything close to a uniform,” she recalled Thursday in a written account of the April 11 incident.
“I couldn’t put my windows down unless I started my car, and when I started my car they began yelling to not move the car, not to start the car. They began trying to break the windows. My roommates and I were … terrified,” Daly stated.
Charlottesville Commonwealth’s Attorney Dave Chapman read Daly’s account and said it was factually consistent.
Prosecutors say she apologized profusely when she realized who the agents were. But that wasn’t good enough for ABC agents, who charged her with three felonies. Prosecutors withdrew those charges Thursday in Charlottesville General District Court, but Daly still can’t understand why she sat in jail. …
Andrew Malcolm with late night humor.
Letterman: Remember Iran’s Ahmadinejad, the ‘Death to America’ guy? His successor Hassan Rohani is supposed to be a moderate. So, he says ‘Lingering Illness to America.’
Leno: Obama’s approval rating dropped eight points in just one month. He vows to win those people back by tracking them down through their phone calls and emails.
Leno: The LA City Council has voted to ban plastic bags. You can have plastic boobs, plastic faces and plastic asses. You just can’t have plastic bags anymore. …