THERE’S A WHIFF OF BRIMSTONE ABOUT THIS IRS AFFAIR
(…perhaps even a smidge of Watergate and a pinch of Henry II besides…)

All Presidents have episodes of less than righteous conduct: This one is no exception.

From the beginnings of our republic almost all of them have had to face some kind of public uproar about either personal or political peccadilloes of one kind or another. It’s an inherent characteristic of our American politics. In this instance, however, there’s a whiff of brimstone about this IRS affair, perhaps even a smidge of Watergate and a pinch of Henry II besides (…will someone not rid me of this meddlesome priest!).

The reason for saying so is this: No government agency or department operates in a vacuum unaffected or uninfluenced by either the agendas or the policies desired by whatever Administration is in power at the White House. To suggest otherwise is nonsense. Old Harry Truman was only partly right when he said…the buck stops here. What he should have also added to that aphorism is…and it starts here too!

So how and why did this situation come about, and what’s the background context behind it all?

After eight years of war and turmoil under the Bush Administration, and with two political parties not only at odds but seemingly less and less responsive to our needs in the face of a growing financial crisis, we reacted radically (call it the start of the American Spring) by electing President Obama, an African-American, thereby shaking up all the good old boys’ conventional arrangements. By the mid-term 2010 elections however, and disillusioned with the lack of promised real “change”, popular reaction set in (call it buyer’s remorse), and a tsunami of opposition swamped the Congress putting it firmly in the grip of a herd of “back to our roots”, “we’re taking back our country”, “all the oil may be in Texas, but our dipsticks are in DC”, “Tea Party”, “Occupy”, politically motivated groups, forming a broad array of populist, independent, libertarian political elements…whose only common characteristic was mostly incoherent political perspectives.

Faced with such an apparent “revolutionary” mood  in the electorate, the Obama Administration reacted much as any other vested political interest would have…by applying whatever means at hand to justify the ends of maintaining its hold on the levers of power. One of those means, of course, being the IRS (not to mention Homeland Security, etc.). In short, as a defensive move…it turned the dogs loose.

Of course now that such political skullduggery has come to light, and things have hit the fan as they say, everyone is scrambling to maintain some semblance of plausible deniability for the President… with one senior official already having been forced to fall on his sword for that purpose…and others sure to follow no doubt. For all of that, however, the President is overlooking a fundamental aspect of this situation, and perhaps this following personal anecdote will better illustrate it

As a junior recently appointed company commander in our regiment, I was the object of very close scrutiny, particularly by my battalion commander who had put his own reputation on the line to place me in command of that company. By and large I lived up to his and everyone else’s expectations, so was soon given a relatively free hand to run things as I saw fit. But then there came the day of our annual IG inspection, something every unit commander dreaded because failing it, or not getting a high enough rating, could affect one’s future advancement and career. Yet, since we were a STRAC unit, supposedly ready to deploy at any time, and rather than having everyone work day and night for 30 days to prepare for that inspection which, in my opinion, would only prove we could follow a check list, I opted to delegate everything to my NCOs instead…just to see how ready we really were. It was a big risk, but I needed to know which ones I could depend upon. Soon the day of the inspection arrived and the IG team, led by a tough old eagle-bird colonel, fanned out to do its work.

Their colonel, the Ex-O of our regiment, my battalion commander, and I, then trailed along to see how things were going. To our collective surprise my unit was almost acing every category of that inspection. Everyone was beaming. My battalion commander even lit up and puffed away on one of his favorite cheroots; while I just floated on a cloud of prideful satisfaction… then… disaster struck. At the last moment that colonel decided to personally inspect our OVM Storage unit (Off Vehicle Materiel…from our tanks and other machines). It was a shambles! The NCO I had charged with the task had completely goofed off, figuring no one would ever actually inspect his domain. When that IG colonel turned steely eyes on me demanding an explanation for such a sorry state of affairs, in panic, I began making excuses and blaming the NCO. At which point my battalion commander seized my arm, pulled me aside, and irately growled in my ear…who the hell is in command of this goddam outfit, Captain? Shamed, I quickly turned back to the IG colonel saying…Sir, my lack of proper oversight is the cause of this mess. May it be re-inspected within two weeks? With a grin at my battalion commander, he nodded his approval, and with my battalion commander giving me a parting glare, they all left…leaving me to fix what needed fixing.

The somewhat roundabout moral of all this is: If you’re in command, when things go right, your troops…get the credit. When they go wrong…you have to take the blame. That’s the price of leadership………whether you’re a lowly company commander…or even a…….                             Commander-in-Chief.

CENTURION