Chicago Journalist Describes Why IRS Scandal is Result of Obama's "Chicago Way" Politics

Why is anyone surprised that Obama and his team turned out to be as corrupt and incompetent as any other Chicago politician?

Chicago Tribune columnist John Kass is not a friend of Obama. Kass has seen the dark, seedy reality of Chicago politics and knew from the start that Obama's veneer of being some new kind of politician was all hooey.

Trying to explain the roots of the IRS scandal Kass goes back to what is known as "The Chicago Way" from the perspective of his own Chicago family, a group of Greek immigrants. On Sundays the family would gather and argue politics after dinner and one day, young John asked senior family members why they didn't get involved in politics. It was as if he had committed some gross indecency and his question was ignored but he repeated it:

We could support a political candidacy, we could donate or work for one or another politician that we agreed with.

This is America, I said.

"Are you in your good senses?" said my father. "We have lives here. We have businesses. If we get involved in politics, they will ruin us."

And no one, not the Roosevelt Democrats or the Reagan Republicans, disagreed. The socialists, the communists, the royalists, everyone nodded their heads.

This was Chicago. And for a business owner to get involved meant one thing: It would cost you money and somebody from government could destroy you.

The health inspectors would come, and the revenue department, the building inspectors, the fire inspectors, on and on. The city code books aren't thick because politicians like to write new laws and regulations. The codes are thick because when government swings them at a citizen, they hurt.

And who swings the codes and regulations at those who'd open their mouths? A government worker. That government worker owes his or her job to the political boss. And that boss has a boss.

The worker doesn't have to be told. The worker wants a promotion. If an irritant rises, it is erased. The hack gets a promotion. This is government.

Obama himself reiterated his belief in The Chicago Way when he told an Hispanic audience before the midterm elections in 2010 that "We’re gonna punish our enemies and we’re gonna reward our friends." This statement was made at the same time the IRS was doing everything it could to throw the rule book (and inventing a few new rules) at conservatives!

Sadly, we can't have a do over for the 2012 election but we can hold Obama and his corrupt, incompetent minions accountable. Congress can hold hearings and if the Obama Administration continues to obstruct those investigations a Special Prosecutor needs to be appointed. I say we get a prosecutor from Chicago. One who has experience with the kind of corruption we see all around us from the Obama Administration!