Reopen cases against corrupt leftists

In late November of last year, I cautioned against the dangers of letting loathsome leftists like Hillary Clinton and Lois Lerner walk free from the prospect of investigation by an administration which would not shamelessly shill for them. President-Elect Trump was trying to offer an olive branch, but any offer of peace to the left is sneered at as a sign of weakness, rather as President Carter's good faith gestures to the Soviet Union were snickered at in the Kremlin. The nadir of honesty in the federal government was reached in the hyper-politicized Obama presidency. The IRS was used shamelessly to punish conservative groups. The Department of Justice opened countless "cases" against utterly innocent groups whose offense was to challenge the orthodoxies of leftism. Indeed, it seemed at times as if the Obama administration viewed the whole federal government as little more than a scourge to be used against Americans who did not follow the party line.

That is the one thing no free government can stand. When government is the enemy of much of the people, then government has no moral ground upon which to exercise its power. Conservatives get that, and conservatives do not call for the federal government, when in the hands of Republicans, to persecute leftists. The recent appalling revelations detailed by Thomas Lifson in American Thinker that Susan Rice directed spy agencies to report on the conversations between Trump and his advisers creates an opening for President Trump, which he must seize if he wishes to have a presidency that is not nitpicked to death by petty leftists. President Trump should direct the cabinet secretary of the relevant federal agencies to review the actions of Clinton, Lerner, Rice, and others who held high positions in the Obama administration and who engaged in behavior that reeks of dishonesty, malice, and abuse of power to report whether their conduct appeared to violate federal law. If so, then Trump should ask the attorney general to open criminal investigations, with grand juries that would include a very broad net, particularly trying to force the small fish who lack the money to fight long legal battles and whose false or misleading statement could expose them to intimidating sanctions. The logical development of this would lead to dozens of indictments against corrupt former bigshots like Clinton, Lerner, and Rice. The trials of these creepy and unpleasant folks, none of whom is particularly bright, would become the news story for weeks or months. Convictions would become a major news story right up through the 2018 midterm. Beyond that, convictions would go a long way toward unraveling the myth that somehow Obama was an honorable president who did not abuse his power and who behaved nicely even to those who opposed him. The pattern of appointing and keeping crooks in high federal offices and then defending or excusing their misconduct would become an indispensable part of his legacy. While it is clear what President Trump ought to do, it is not clear what President Trump will do. As one egregious example, Joshn Koskinen, who has given huge campaign contributions to Democrats in federal elections and who shamelessly defended the indefensible actions of Lerner and her gang, is still the IRS commissioner. If a lifelong Democrat partisan like Koskinen, who misled congressional investigating committees and pretended that Lois Lerner and her cronies did nothing, still has a high post in the Trump administration, then why would any of these bad actors worry at all? Indeed, the macabre spectacle of a louse like Koskinen still the head of the IRS under Trump surely emboldens the left, including those small fry that hold the key to unraveling the crimes of big shots who served under Obama. President Trump talks bold. It is time for him to act bold. Draining the swamp was a central promise of his campaign. Now is the time to fulfill that promise.