I have my thoughts about whether this administration was or is using the IRS to target and harass conservatives and conservative groups or if the Justice Department has overstepped its authority in going after reporters.  And I believe the administration did distort facts regarding Benghazi to bolster an election-year narrative on Muslim extremist groups.  I will address those issues later.

What concerns me, though, is that we have an admittedly progressive-leaning administration arguing that the world would be a better place if only conservatives and Tea Party types would not be suspicious of an overly large government and accept that the federal government should be even bigger and more powerful.

Well.  Fast and Furious?  Rogue, lower-level Justice Department employees.  The leadership didn’t know.   A Libyan ambassador’s pleading for more security?  Refused by folks deep in the State Department.  The leadership didn’t know.   The military was told to stand down during the Benghazi attack?  The President seemingly went to bed after giving the order to engage and didn’t know someone had countermanded him later.  And no one yet knows who did.  The IRS blocking conservative groups’ tax-exempt applications?  The department’s manager was totally unaware, yet she was awarded bonuses and a promotion because she, you know, did such a great job of oversight of her organization.   Tax records for conservative organizations handed to liberal groups? (And subsequently used to attack the former.)   No one higher up in the IRS organization knew.  The EPA granting fee waivers when a green group submitted a FOIA request but making every conservative group pony up the cash?   No one in the EPA management knew.  Finally, Eric Holder did his best Sgt. Schultz impersonation when he testified about the broad collection of AP reporters’ phone records.  A summary of his comments could be, “I know nothiiiiiing.  Nothing.”

Apparently, what we are to believe is that a lot of lower-level people in government do a lot of things that either are illegal or unethical and that no manager or leader should be accountable for their actions.  Ask corporate executives if they can expect the same degree of freedom to beg off from accountability under Sarbanes-Oxley.  That would be a great big NO.

So someone please tell me why we should not be concerned about, much less fear, a behemoth government where the minions can dole our favors to their favored peeps and abuse those who think differently, all while liberal elected officials can do a wink-wink, nudge-nudge, “We didn’t know.”

Next:  We didn’t know what they were doing but somehow they were doing what we’d have wanted.