The Games Politicians Play

Logo of the United States White House, especially in conjunction with offices like the Chief of Staff and Press Secretary. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In 2003 I had little doubt that the Bush Administration's Iraqi misadventure was driven by Middle East oil.  Subsequent events proved that assumption correct, as the WMD excuse was unmasked as vacuous and the Hussein connection to Al Qaeda was revealed to be fictitious.  Just incidentally, Haliburton, which had reportedly paid VP Cheney a cool $40 million as a top exec during the Clinton years, won billions in (often bid-free) contracts to support the troops.

     The events of this summer on our southern border lead me to harbor similar suspicions about the Obama Administration.  The so-called loophole under which those young illegals might be entitled to stay in the US has been on the statute books since 2008.  So why now?  Who is instigating this mass migration and why?  Well, the word on the street this morning is that the President is planning to issue an executive order in an attempt to legalize the millions of illegals who have come to our country since the last ill-starred amnesty in 1986.  As Cokey Roberts opined on NPR this morning, he may be baiting the GOP to just try and impeach him… which in turn just might motivate the Democratic base to get off its collective butt and go to the polls in November.

     Ah, yes, in 2003 it was the stalking horses of Islamic terrorism and weapons of mass destruction.  In 2014 it's a Children's Crusade on the Rio Grande and an "I dare you" attitude toward impeachment in the White House.

     Different issues… same sort of strategy:  the fabricated crisis as an excuse for executive actions that the incumbent wants to take for his own political purposes.

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