President
Obama and key members of his Democrat cabinet like Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton, disgraced Attorney General Eric Holder,
Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary
of Energy Steven Chu, and UN Ambassador Susan Rice were all among
the top ten most corrupt politicians in Washington for 2012,
according to an annual
list compiled by the non-partisan Judicial Watch. Also on the
roster were several lawmakers including two GOP congressmen from
Florida and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nevada).
The president himself made the infamous “Ten
Most Wanted Corrupt Politicians” list due to a series of
scandals and broken promises that have plagued virtually his entire
time occupying the White House. Lawless behavior, regular violations
of the U.S. Constitution, unprecedented secrecy, and abuse of
so-called “executive privilege” to protect his senior officials all
contributed to Obama’s designation as one of the most crooked
politicians in the capital today.
Citing the president’s 2009 vow that “transparency” and the “rule of
law” would be the “touchstones” of his presidency, Judicial Watch
said the statement would get in on the first ballot if there were a
“Hall of Fame” for broken promises. “Instead of transparency and the
rule of law over the past four years, we have witnessed the greatest
expansion of government in modern political history and,
consequently, an explosion of government secrecy, scandals, and
abuses of power,” the non-profit public interest watchdog explained.
Among the specifics that earned Obama the designation was a shroud
of lawless secrecy that permeated the entire administration.
Judicial Watch, which investigates and prosecutes official
corruption, was forced to file almost 1,000 Freedom of Information
Act (FOIA) requests and close to 100 lawsuits against the
administration to find out what was going on, it said. Despite
stonewalling, the group investigated elements of ObamaCare, the
showering of taxpayer money on mega Wall Street banks, continued
funding of the “criminal ACORN network,” and much more.
According to the Washington-based group and countless other
analysts, while Obama touts transparency in public, he actually
condones the routine violation of federal open records laws by his
administration in an effort to conceal his activities. There are
almost countless examples to prove the point.
Another series of abuses that helped put the president himself on
the widely respected corruption list was the use of unconstitutional
and mostly unaccountable “czars” — many of
whom were
lawlessly put in charge of major government policies and programs.
There are now
45 such figures in Washington, and more than a few have been
linked to “scandals, thefts and kickbacks, flagrant and offensive
statements, conflicts of interest, and radical leftist political
ideologies and policies,” according to Judicial Watch, which has
been monitoring “czar” developments for years. Obama’s
“Green Jobs Czar” Van Jones was even a self-styled communist.
Also among the reasons cited for Obama’s “corrupt” designation:
multiple unconstitutional power grabs employed to advance the
administration’s controversial agenda. One of the most brazen,
according to former officials and Judicial Watch, was the
president’s lawless attempt to unilaterally appoint a number of key
officials while getting around the Senate in a corrupt process
criticized across the political spectrum.
The unconstitutional
use of “executive orders” to further Obama’s agenda on illegal
immigrationdespite clear laws passed by Congress, meanwhile,
was also included on the list of his corrupt activities. Finally,
the president’s fraudulent and illegal use of so-called “executive
privilege” to shield disgraced Attorney General Holder from
prosecution over the Fast
and Furious gun-running scandal also
contributed to the president’s corrupt
designation.
“The list could go on ad infinitum — with Benghazigate,
bailouts, abusing the perks of office for luxury vacations for his
family, and, of course, his personal involvement in the Solyndra
scandal,” the non-profit group said in its listing. “But the bottom
line is this: The federal government under Barack Obama is off the
rails and out of control. And now, with Obama having been given
the ‘flexibility’ of a second term, it can only be expected to
get worse.”
Aside from the president himself, many of his top cabinet officials
also wound up on the corruption list. Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton, who has previously appeared on the list, and Obama’s
Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice, were both listed
together. The reason: “Hillary Clinton’s and Rice’s lies about one
of the most significant terrorist attacks since 9/11 are, perhaps,
the scandal of the year out of this administration,” Judicial Watch
noted. That scandal, however, is far
from over.
As expected, Attorney General Holder — a regular on the corruption
list — was on it again this year as well. He kept his spot for
“shamelessly” running “the most blatantly politicized Department of
Justice (DOJ) in a generation.” Plus, as The
New American has documented
extensively, the administration’s arming of Mexican drug
cartels in Operation Fast and Furious through the Justice Department
means that, as Judicial Watch explained, “it is no exaggeration that
his agency has blood on its hands.”
The lies
and subsequent attempt to cover-up the
deadly scandal — hundreds
of Mexicans and at least two U.S. law enforcement officers have
been murdered with weapons provided by the Obama administration —
eventually led to Holder becoming
the first attorney general in American history to be held in
criminal contempt by Congress. “Every day that Eric Holder
remains at the helm, the Department of Justice sinks further into
the abyss of cronyism, corruption, and deceit,” the organization
said. “And it is well past time for him to go.” Over 120 U.S.
lawmakers agree.
Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, meanwhile, earned his spot among the
most corrupt politicians thanks to his admitted role in the
“green energy” scams — especially the
Solyndra scandal in which the U.S. government gave more than $500
million to a failed company and one of its key investors, Obama
backer George Kaiser. Altogether, as The
New American documented recently, the administration
funneled billions of taxpayer dollars into the pockets of wealthy
Democrats and Obama supporters, who in turn gave some of the cash
back via campaign contributions. More than 75 percent of the
over $20 billion went to Obama financial backers, according
to DoE figures analyzed by researchers.
Last but not least among Obama’s corrupt cabinet for 2012 was
Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius. According
to the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, the radical pro-abortion and
pro-tax funded contraception official was guilty
of violating the Hatch Act by campaigning for the president in her
official capacity. Violators are normally fired, but Sebelius
got off without punishment after claiming she “got a little caught
up in the notion that the gains which had been made would clearly
not continue without the president’s reelection.”
Congress, one of the most unpopular institutions in America based on
recent polls, also had its share of corrupt officials on both sides
of the aisle. Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.), Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.
(D-Ill.), Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), and Rep. David Rivera
(R-FL) all made the 2012 list. Each of them was involved in their
own scandals, but based on the evidence offered by Judicial Watch,
it appears that all four of them have been implicated in major
corruption.
There were also a few lawmakers from both sides of the aisle who
earned a “dishonorable mention.” Along with them were disgraced
general and former CIA chief David Petraeus, who was caught in an
affair, and Obama’s Homeland Security boss Janet Napolitano, known
to critics as “Big Sis,” who earned a mention by violating her oath
of office to advance Obama’s unlawful amnesty agenda.
Sen. Harry Reid, meanwhile, who leads the majority party in the
Senate, was among the top ten most corrupt politicians, too — again,
being described by Judicial Watch as “a repeat Top Ten offender.”
This year, he made the cut thanks to a variety of corrupt
influence-peddling scandals — often benefiting his sons — exposed by reporters in
Nevada. However, as multiple sources attest, the latest schemes are
hardly the first time Reid has been embroiled
in corruption scandals.
Considering the sheer volume of dirty deals, influence peddling,
lawlessness, scandals, and outright violations of the Constitution
emanating from the capital, it takes quite a bit for somebody to end
up on the top ten most corrupt list. It appears, however, that
unless concerned citizens take action, the Obama administration and
members of Congress in both parties intend to continue operating a
corrupt government regardless of the law or even the Supreme Law of
the Land, the U.S. Constitution. And
now they want your guns.
Photo of President Barack Obama: AP Images
Alex
Newman is a correspondent for The New
American,
covering economics, politics, and more. He
can be reached at anewman@thenewamerican.com.