Scandalgate, Facts, and What We Choose To Believe

I have to take a point from Chris Hayes, who has referred to the events that have come to a head this week collectively as "Scandalgate." Everyone on the right has been so eager compare any of the events of the past week as similar to the Nixon Watergate scandal. One of the comparisons that this commentate used is that these 3 scandals are similar to the child's story, "Goldilocks and the Three Bears." And the manner of which this comparison works is this: There is a "scandal" here which is a scandal in name only, the one that is "Too Cold." There is a scandal here that is being covered as such, but the root of this "Too Hot" scandal is much different from what the corporate media and conservative politicians would have you believe. And, finally, there is one scandal here that is "Just Right," and worthy of the most attention and scrutiny.

The non-scandal which is "Too Cold" is, in fact, Benghazi. I have said that blaming the Obama Administration, including Hillary Clinton, on the tragedy at the Benghazi consulate is as foolish as trying to blame 9/11 on the Bush Administration. My friend, Joel, wrote an interesting piece on how chief neoconservative of the Bush Administration, Dick Cheney, had said that Benghazi is the worst incident he had ever seen. How selective his memory is. Dick could be seen as trying to mend fences with the Tea Party that the policies of the Bush Administration unwittingly resulted in the creation of, but that's a topic for it's own essay. The re-ignition of the Benghazi faux-Scandal was fueled by an ABC report claiming to have direct quotes from inter-department e-mails damning the State Department for changing Sunday Morning Interview talking points. As the e-mails in question were released to the general public and news media later this week, it was discovered that ABC had, in fact, been quoting from a source who had access to the e-mails and not directly from the e-mails themselves as it had originally claimed. The alleged parts of the e-mails that ABC had reported on were summarized in such a way as to support the Republican interpretation of what happened when, in fact, the full text of the e-mails did not support that interpretation. My understanding is that the full text of the e-mails put the change of the talking points as a request of the Patraeus CIA, which had a vested interest in not bringing too much scrutiny to ongoing investigations into the incident. It was, therefore, the CIA that didn't want the Talking Points to mention Terrorism in an investigation into the Benghazi attack which was ongoing at the time. It is also believed that the Benghazi Consulate was actually a cover for a CIA operation based on the same property. And so, hindsight being 20-20 in all tragedies great and small, why are we arguing over talking points?

The Scandal in this trifecta that is too hot has connections to a pet interest of mine: Campaign Finance Reform. I am, of course, referring to the IRS Tea Party Discrimination Scandal. Reports would have you believe that the IRS discriminated against the Tea Party and that this is the end of the story. The story is that, for a period of time, the IRS was flagging applications for 501(c)(4) Tax Exemption Status for greater scrutiny. And the story is true. But the story that only liberal news outlets seem to be covering is that 501(c)(4) Tax Exemption Status is supposed to be reserved for organizations that are exclusively dedicated to Social Welfare. They are not supposed to have any political connections whatsoever. The Tax Man is not supposed to exempt organizations that run political ads from being taxed, even if their ads are ostensibly related to Social Issues. In recent years, and in connection with the Citizens United ruling which fraked up campaign finance law, the expectation that 501(c)(4) organizations should be exclusively devoted to charity, education, or recreation related to the social welfare of a community has changed. The CIA now enforces this law on the basis that 51% of an organization's funding should go to social welfare purposes while 49% can go to whatever political ads or activities that the organization may please. The CIA interpretation of the law has gone from 501(c)(4)'s being exclusively Social Welfare Organizations to them being primarily Social Welfare Organizations. There is a world of difference between the definition of the word "Exclusively" and the word "Primarily," as several independent liberal media commentators and corporate liberal media commentators are eager to point out. 501(c)(4) Tax Excemption Status also allows all donations to such an organization to be done anonymously. Super PACs have used this privilege to get around the need to disclose the names of donors under current Campaign Finance Law, using the 501(c)(4) organization as a sort of political money laundering organization. The real scandal here is that any political organization right, left, or center can get 501(c)(4) status at all. All Tea Party organizations that were flagged for extra scrutiny ultimately got their Tax Exempt Status, while 3 liberal organizations that had applied for the same status at the same time of this discrimination were denied. The scandal is not that the Tea Party was unfairly targeted here, the scandal is that all political organizations were not targeted and denied 501(c)(4) status. And I will take this as another reason why the current tax code is a decrepit failure which should be burned and remade from the ground up.

We are left with the scandal that is "Just Right." And that is the AP phone tapping scandal. Governments should be afraid of their people, it has been said. All of the AP's confidential sources are likely afraid that their confidentiality cannot be maintained. The AP has been damaged in a way that likely can never be made right. It's freedoms and the sacred trust of those who it has consulted have been violated. Of the trifecta, here is a proper Scandal. The Government, here, has truly overstepped its bounds. But whether a person sees it that way depends on what he or she values most. Is it Safety? Is it Liberty? Is it both in equal measure? Is it possible to have both in equal measure? Or do these questions and these truths mentioned throughout this essay matter in the least? Will we all believe what we want despite facts? I, for one, certainly hope not.