History often gives us insight into the things that are happening around us if we take the time to perform a little review.  The current IRS scandal and Justice Department electronic snooping not only looks and feels like the Nixon Watergate chapter of history but should offer us some insight in dealing with the problem.  The similarities are interesting, but so are the differences. 

File cabinets vs. file servers.  I don’t know how many of you have torn into a file cabinet looking for a misfiled piece of paper, but a open five-drawer file cabinet can appear like a ravenous monster that eats paper.   As it turns out, computer file servers are just as efficient at swallowing information.  The break-in at the Watergate allowed Richard Nixon’s crew to rifle through several file cabinets looking for information that might be derogatory to the president. The entry into the servers of various news media outlets was supposedly to allow a search for information related to national defense.  Searching for information on a server is not only quicker; it is more convenient than having to physically break into an office or locked file cabinets.  It also makes it very easy to return to look for additional material.

One problem that Nixon had to deal with was the publication of the Pentagon papers describing the history of the United States’ involvement in the Vietnam War.  The papers were classified and stolen, but a court battle decided, in a split decision by the Supreme Court, that the First Amendment protections prevailed. 

There was a procession of scandals and attempts to cover up the scandals that ultimately led to Nixon’s impeachment and resignation in 1974.  The Watergate and Pentagon Papers Scandals led to the release of the Nixon Enemies List, divulging its intended use, including tax audits to intimidate political enemies.  The only parallel we are missing now is a contorted secretary demonstrating how she accidentally wiped out an audiotape.  Well, not quite all.  What we are really missing is an army of political reporters screaming at the top of their lungs that the president is trampling the constitution, the Bill of Rights and destroying the country.  Those loud voices would normally remind us of the history and importance of our Constitution.   Where are those voices now?

All the liberal media, with the support of faster-than-a-speeding-electron email, can mysteriously and simultaneously ask the same stupid question of the president:  How was your golf game today, sir?  No one from the major media groups is challenging the administration’s handling of these scandals.  When probing questions are asked of the White House appointees, they provide immediate answers to questions that weren’t asked and excuse themselves from further questioning.  The conservative media has been isolated and neutralized.  Obama and his staff refuse to talk to any media that poses a consistent threat their power.  Obama and his appointees are quick to assign blame and explain in some detail how the training failed, how low-paid underlings in the heart of the country far, far, far away from Washington are responsible.

Obama assures us that he knew nothing until he read it in the paper.  He assures us that he will find and punish those responsible and then punishes them with a promotion.   It is becoming more apparent that Attorney General Holder was directly involved in the pursuit of the journalists and that high level IRS and Treasury Department officials were controlling the use of the IRS to neutralize or eliminate conservative groups. 

It is naive, foolish, and politically stupid to believe that these high-level officials acted without Obama exorcising control and oversight.