No one seems to be in charge at White House
What has gone wrong with the U.S. government in the past month?
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the United States to warn Congress about the dangers of a nuclear Iran. He spoke without the invitation of an irritated President Barack Obama.
Obama declined to even meet with the Israeli prime minister, announcing that it would have been improper for such a meeting so close to Netanyahu’s re-election bid.
But if Obama was so concerned about not influencing the Israeli elections, why, according to some news accounts, is a Senate panel launching an investigation into whether Obama’s State Department gave grant money to a nonprofit, the OneVoice Movement, that sought to unseat Netanyahu?
Then, 47 Republican senators signed an unusual letter to the Iranian theocracy, reminding it that any agreement on Iran’s nuclear program negotiated with the Obama administration would have to first clear Congress.
Obama shot back that the senators’ letter was undue interference that aided the Iranians.
Nonetheless, the Senate may well pass new sanctions against Iran, if it feels Obama has been too lax in its negotiations or usurped senatorial oversight of treaties.
Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., bucked the Obama administration and expressed doubt about administration concessions to the Iranians. Other Democrats could join him.
Menendez found himself the target of a federal investigation into purported corruption. And as far as the claim of improper interference in foreign affairs goes, the Obama administration and British Prime Minister David Cameron jointly lobbied U.S. senators not to pass tougher sanctions on Iran.
Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton is bogged down in another trademark Clinton scandal. She never used a standard government email account while secretary.
Clinton’s implausible news conference last week only made things worse.
Abroad, Syria, Iran and the Islamic State are battling for what is left of the Syrian-Iraqi borderlands. As they fight each other, the Obama administration is negotiating with Iran over its efforts against the Islamic State. The administration has also expressed a willingness to meet with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Back home, two apparently inebriated Secret Service agents crashed their government car into a security barrier near the White House — in the midst of an active bomb investigation. This is after the Department of Homeland Security launched an investigation into the culture of the Secret Service following a 2012 scandal in which agents hired prostitutes.
Meanwhile, in the midst of nightly demonstrations at Ferguson, Missouri, a young demonstrator on parole allegedly shot two police officers.
Obama’s own Department of Justice recently issued a report indicating that the Ferguson Police Department routinely violates the rights of black citizens. But the DOJ also found Officer Darren Wilson’s shooting of a charging Michael Brown justifiable. Was Obama worried about the wounded policemen “detracting” from the protesters’ “hands up, don’t shoot” allegations, which Attorney General Eric Holder’s investigators, along with a grand jury, had already debunked?
All this chaos has happened amid ongoing IRS and VA investigations, the Supreme Court’s impending decision on the constitutionality of Obamacare, and Saudi Arabia arranging to buy from South Korea nuclear expertise to counter Iran.
The common thread in all this chaos?
More than the usual partisanship at home and barbarism abroad.
No one seems to be in charge at the White House. And that has terrified America’s supporters and emboldened its enemies — with another two years to go.
What has gone wrong with the U.S. government in the past month? Just about everything, fromthe fundamental to the ridiculous.