Well it has been a few weeks since the news broke on Governor Christies of
New Jersey Bridge gate scandal. And months have
passed since a number of the presidents scandals. But what I want to talk about
here is not the scandals alone, but how irresponsible both have been and to use
them as an example as to what not to do in a public office.
The Governor: Governor Christie is in charge of
New Jersey. Anything
that goes wrong is on him, so when members of his staff reduce the lanes on the
George Washington Bridge to one in order to cause massive traffic in a ploy to
get revenge on a mayor that did not endorse the Governor in the last race, then
blame should fall right on the Governors shoulders. Needless to say, a senior
citizen died on the way to the hospital due to traffic caused by this childish
revenge scheme. I will not have any mercy for Governor Christie. It happened on
his watch whether he orchestrated it or not. Your staff is your responsibility
and thus the Governor must accept the consequences.
Another possible incident could have occurred during the 2012 election. This
is pure speculation, but the Governor getting along well with President Obama
after hurricane sandy and making the President look good at that time may have
been a revenge play against Mitt Romney who passed over Governor Christie as a
potential Vice Presidential candidate. Could we be seeing a pattern here or are
we putting too much thought into this? I am not sure myself.
The President: President Obama has some scandals of his
own. The first scandal is the program known as "Fast and Furious"
(not the movie). Here the ATF had licensed gun dealers sell to known gun
runners for the drug cartels so as to track where the weapons go. However, the
entire program was a fiasco. Almost none of the guns were properly tracked and
thus thousands of
U.S.
firearms were used in gang violence and mass murder over the border in
Mexico. It is
incalculable to tell how many innocents lost their lives as a result of this
program.
Next is the IRS scandal where the IRS agents gave Tea Party and other
conservative minded groups a hard time during the 2012 elections with respect
to there tax exempt statuses. It was hoped by these agents to impede the
conservative groups enough to protect key politicians on the Democratic and the
Republican tickets. As such, many of the tea party challengers could not raise
adequate funds to capture the Senate, let alone more seats in the House of
Representatives.
Finally we have the
Benghazi
scandal. All people involved have been forced to sign non-disclosure
agreements, save a few who decided to speak out regardless. In this scandal,
four Americans (one of whom was a U.S. Ambassador) were killed by terrorists in
Benghazi in
Libya. The facility attacked was
not adequately defended nor did it meet with proper security procedures. Also,
the rescue team was delayed. Another stain on the White House, and President
Obama's record.
Conclusion: In all three of these incidents, the President
has been shielded from blame. News media covered these incidents lightly. The
Governor on the other hand is being dragged through the mud. In both cases, regardless
of knowledge, the leader is responsible for the whims of there staff. As such,
President Obama and Governor Christie are to be held accountable for what their
staff did. Is this a symptom of government being so big that even the leader of
the Country (or State) cannot keep track of there staff? If the bridge was
privatized in
New Jersey,
would this incident have happened? Getting rid of the ATF would certainly
change things in the federal government and not taxing the equivalent of a
business would have protected the Tea Party groups (and all other groups) from
possible attacks and reprisals by various politicians.
Benghazi should have never have happened in
the first place. These scandals show the symptoms, in my belief, as to why the
federal government and even the State governments are dysfunctional. Maybe it
is time we cut the bull crap and make government work effectively by making it
small.
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