Throwing Good Players out of the Dugout

 The President’s Disappointing Dismissal of Acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller.

Summary:  The forced resignation of Acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller leaves us wondering about the extent to which the Obama administration is prepared to go to bat for its servants.  We’ve seen this before, with Van Jones and Shirley Sherrod.  It appears that all Republicans have to do to rid themselves of dedicated public servants whom they have targeted is to yell “boo!”  The administration’s disturbing willingness to throw good people as sacrificial lambs to right-wing coyotes is craven at best and cowardly at worst, and is not sitting well with an otherwise-supportive Democratic base.  We support the President and want him to succeed; we think he has done a very good job, even if he has been too self-effacing, but we do take exception to throwing dedicated and honorable members of his team out of the dugout because the right does not want them there.
 
By: Paul S. Marchand

Van Jones, Shirley Sherrod, Steven Miller.  All of them were relatively senior Obama administration officials who were forced out by the White House when Republican ideologues yelled “boo!”
I consider myself a strong supporter of the President, and I consider that he has done a far better job than the Obamanators on the right would ever give him credit for.  Nonetheless, I can, and do, fault the President for being too willing to throw loyal public servants under the metaphorical bus.

The White House should have resisted the organized campaign from the right to force Van Jones out of the administration.  Its failure to stand up for Mr. Jones against such orchestrated assaults from the likes of Glenn Beck and the right-wing blogosphere not only set a dangerous precedent but also gave pause to supporters of the administration who had hoped for a greater degree of testicular fortitude from the White House.

When the late, unlamented, Andrew Breitbart took out after Shirley Sherrod, the administration and even the NAACP engaged in a disappointing set of cowardly panic behaviors.  As we now know, Ms. Sherrod was canned by text message sent to her cell phone while she was driving home from work.  Way to stay classy, Department of Agriculture.

Now, in the so-called IRS scandal, triggered by what appears to have been a decision from mid-level managers to undertake heightened scrutiny of income tax exemption applications for right-wing groups, the Obama administration has once again thrown a sacrificial lamb to Republican coyotes, giving acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller the bum’s rush to the door.  His dismissal was craven, cowardly, and classless.

Sacking Steven Miller accomplished nothing constructive.  What it did accomplish was to again embolden Republicans to set their sights on any senior Obama administration official who may appear to represent an easy and viable target.  Can Treasury Secretary Jack Lew be far behind?

The disturbing conclusion we may draw from these three examples is that the Obama administration seems curiously unwilling or unable to mount a spirited defense of loyal public servants who have given generously of their time, toil, talent, and frequently, treasure to serve in government.  It certainly appears as if every time the right yells “boo!” the administration jumps.

For the administration to continue to sacrifice good people on the altar of trying to find some kind of unattainable common ground with the right is poor policy.  It conveys to the nation, to say nothing of the Democratic base, that the Republicans and their fellow travelers can get whatever they want simply by bullying this administration into surrender.  For while the victories of this administration have been manifold, the administration has been curiously reticent in educating the American public about the extent of President Obama’s accomplishments, and far too ready to try to meet the President’s political adversaries halfway.

To the extent that the administration is seen as being willing to let loyal servants twist slowly in the wind, it will harm its standing not only with the Democratic base, but also with swing voters who expect more balls from the White House.  

Firing Van Jones was a mistake.  

Firing Shirley Sherrod was a mistake.  

Firing Steven Miller was a mistake.  

In each case, the administration rushed to judgment and reacted like a flustered, frightened schoolgirl swooning over the lascivious oglings of the overprivileged, testosterone-addled jocks on the lacrosse team.

Put simply, the administration needs to show a more Churchillian degree of fortitude.  Riffing on Earl St. Vincent’s famous dictum “I do not say Napoleon cannot come to England, I merely say he cannot come by sea,” Churchill is reputed to have declared that he did not say the Nazis could not come to the Island of Britain, he merely said they could come neither by air nor by sea.  Such fortitude defied the worst that Adolf Hitler could throw at the British in their Island, and ought to be a model for the way in which the Obama administration faces its political enemies.

I do not propose to fall into the trap of some of my fellow progressives who spend far too much time lambasting the President because he has not established utopia in a day, but I do feel that I must criticize this administration for its lack of spunk and gumption, and for its disturbing willingness to allow its political adversaries to decide who gets to be on the President’s team. 

As much as we don’t let Red Sox Nation decide the Yankee lineup, the administration should take a similar line against Congressional Republicans and the right-wing blogosphere.

Mr. President, we your supporters urge you not to let the other team decide who gets to be in your dugout.

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Paul S. Marchand is a Democrat and an attorney who lives and practices in Cathedral City, California.  He is corresponding secretary and 56 Assembly District Vice Chair of the Riverside County Democratic Central Committee.  The views set forth herein are his own, and not necessarily the views of the Democratic Party or any other entity, and they are most certainly not to be taken as legal advice.