Let us now consider Lois Lerner, Hillary Clinton, and the decadent civic culture of Washington. That is what Peggy Noonan does in a must-read column this morning.
Lerner, you will recall, was the high official in the IRS who targeted nonprofits with which she disagreed for special scrutiny. In many instances, this put the kibosh on the nonprofits in a crucial time when they might have wanted to get their issues in circulation. Noonan notes, "IRS officials are in the White House a lot, which oddly enough finds the same people hateful."
When the scandal broke, in a way orchestrated by Lerner, who realized that she couldn't keep the lid on things indefinitely, she tried to blame lower level IRS officials in Cincinnati. Called before Congress, Lerner took the Fifth (after an opening statement, which is not allowed when one takes the Fifth, and then retired with pension and benefits unaffected. We taxpayers are taking good care of Ms. Lerner's cushy retirement.
Apropos of Ms. Lerner, Noon asks:
Why wouldn’t Americans think the system is rigged?
This is Washington in our era: a place not so much of personal as of civic decadence, where the Lois Lerner always gets away with it.
And if Lerner manages to escape the consequences of her actions, that's nothing compare to another woman. The misconduct of this woman was revealed in a report from the Inspector General of the State Department over which Hillary Clinton once presided:
{The report] reveals one big thing: Almost everything she has said publicly about her private server was a lie. She lied brazenly, coolly, as one who is practiced in lying would, as one who always gets away with it could.
No, she was not given legal approval to conduct her business on the server. She was not given the impression it was fine. She did not comply with rules on storage and archiving. Her own office told U.S. diplomats personal email accounts could be compromised and they must avoid using them for official business. She was informed of a dramatic increase in hacking attempts on personal accounts. Professionals who raised concerns about her private server were told not to speak of it again.
It is widely assumed that Mrs. Clinton will pay no price for misbehavior because the Democratic president’s Justice Department is not going to proceed with charges against the likely Democratic presidential nominee.
This is what everyone thinks, and not only because they watch “Scandal.” Because they watch the news.
That is the civic decadence they want to see blown up. And there’s this orange-colored bomb . . .
The decadence of Washington, one might just add here, has been reflected in recent weeks by the admission (bragging, really) by President Obama's closest foreign policy adviser that the administration lied to sell the Iran deal. It has been reflected in a federal judge's realizing the Justice Department lawyers are in need of remedial ethics classes, and it was perhaps most famously reflected in the administration's promoting ObamaCare by saying things it knew to be false.