Citizen Cartwright

Obama's 'inconsistent' use of power

The president's professed ignorance of the targeting of conservatives by one government agency and his support of tracking journalists’ sources by another shows "one of the great paradoxes of his presidency," says The Washington Post.

And that's the way Obama sometimes "uses his office as aggressively as anyone who’s held it; other times he seems unacquainted with the work of his own administration," the Post says.

And that leaves Obama's critics saying he's both leading from behind and displaying the arrogance of power, says the Post.

Obama mentor Laurence Tribe, a Harvard Law professor, explains it this way: Obama "is deeply concerned both that his office ... never violate its primary duty to abide by the Constitution’s checks and balances and that he nonetheless exercise those powers to the limit as needed to protect the nation and its people.”

White House damage control efforts

President Obama on Wednesday demanded and accepted the resignation of Steven Miller, IRS acting commissioner.

The White House also released 100 e-mails on discussions among administration officials over how to respond to the Benghazi attack.

And it signaled that it would support a renewed effort by lawmakers to pass a “media shield law” giving new protections to journalists facing subpoenas.

Washington's Obama pile-on

"The town is turning on President Obama," amid multiple scandals, says Politico.

"Obama’s aloof mien and holier-than-thou rhetoric have left him with little reservoir of good will," and as a result, some Democrats are joining Republicans and reporters in the free-for-all, Politico says.

I gotta say that despite the years I've spent observing politics, I've been surprised by the speed with which Obama is being trashed.

"The narrative emerging from this tumultuous week goes something like this," says Politico: "None of these messes would have happened under a president less obsessed with politics, less insulated within his own White House and less trusting of government as an institution."

Criticism of Obama over civil liberties

You know how highly I regard the reporting of Joan Biskupic of Reuters.

Here's what she has to say about Obama's performance.

So he taught constitutional law and wrote a book on constitutional values in a democracy.

But as president, Biskupic says, "Obama has faced accusation after accusation of impinging on civil liberties, disappointing his liberal Democratic base and providing fodder for rival Republicans as he deals with the realities of office."

And the scandal outbreak of the past week has increased that criticism, she says.

Harvard University law professor Laurence Tribe, a teacher, mentor and longtime supporter of Obama, tells Biskupic that Obama's "failings, in my view, have much more to do with whatever he has permitted to take place under the supposed oversight of (individual Cabinet secretaries) than they have to do with his own constitutional understanding and commitments."

Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics, referring to scandals including Watergate and Iran-contra, says, "Compared to prior presidents, we're still in the minor-abuse league."

What the IRS watchdog says

A report by the IRS inspector general for tax administration that was released Tuesday describes the agency’s tax-exempt unit where the screening of conservative groups took place as a "bureaucratic mess, with some employees ignorant about tax laws, defiant of their supervisors and blind to the appearance of impropriety," says The Washington Post.

The attorney general has ordered an investigation of the issue.

Scandals, scandals everywhere

"Scandal politics are sweeping Capitol Hill," says Politico, as "Speaker John Boehner’s House committees will morph into mock courtrooms where the White House will be the defendant in what amounts to a number of high-stakes political trials."

Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., said during a radio interview last week that the fatal attacks on American diplomats in Benghazi could lead to President Obama’s impeachment.

Mike Huckabee predicted last week that Obama won’t finish his term over the Benghazi issue, which the former Arkansas governor called “more serious than Watergate.”

The president's ability to steer the Washington "conversation" could be compromised by all the controversies, says Reuters, in what may be an understatement.

Adding to the hype: "The environment for communications is so much more complicated now because you have this voracious social media environment in which everything is magnified," says Mike McCurry, who was press secretary for President Clinton.

IRS targeting not confined to Cleveland

Officials at Internal Revenue Service offices in Washington and at least two other places were involved in investigating conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post.

Latest scandal eruption, over The Associated Press

Federal investigators secretly seized two months of phone records for AP's reporters and editors in what the news organization says was a “serious interference with AP's constitutional rights to gather and report the news.”

Your politics and the light bulb you buy

Because of their negative views of climate change, many conservatives won't spend more for energy-efficient light bulbs if their packaging contains a message about cutting carbon emissions, according to a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Young people's cynicism about government

Among Americans age 18 to 29, 48 percent think their vote won't make a real difference, according to a poll released Tuesday by the Institute of Politics at Harvard University.

Well, big money paying for big lobbying has a big impact, that's true.

But —at the end of February, the Los Angeles Times wrote that House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, was increasingly reaching across the aisle, trying to break the gridlock.

"The speaker has made a calculation that the long-term interests of Republicans in some cases require going against the most conservative members of the caucus," the Times said.

And where did Boeher get that idea? From election results and polling of voters.

Young people, I commend to your attention the observation of former longtime Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., whose quote I keep at the top of my website:

"Money is important, but votes will beat money any day."

And that's your vote, plus your friend's vote, plus their friend's vote, and so on.