GOP Playing Around With Scandals While Sequester Bite Increases

     I've said before that the Democrats may very well be able to use the scandals against the GOP rather than vice versa. While the country worries about jobs and the economy the GOP is trying to fan the flames of fake scandals for partisan gain.

    http://diaryofarepublicanhater.blogspot.com/2013/05/could-scandals-be-best-thing-that.html

    So far the GOP attempt to hurt teh President's popularity has failed miserably.

    http://diaryofarepublicanhater.blogspot.com/2013/05/on-fake-scandals-public-opinion-follows.html

    The public still holds the President in high esteem and actually holds the GOP in far lower esteem than the Dems. Meanwhile in actual news the sequester is continuing to increase its bite. Four agencies have been furloughed today.

    "If four federal agencies closed their doors, would anyone notice?"

    "This is no philosophical experiment Friday when, thanks to sequestration, the IRS, EPA, HUD and OMB turn a normal workday into an unpaid holiday for nearly all of their employees."

    "In all, about 115,000 people — roughly 5 percent of the federal workforce — won’t be on the clock for the day. Staffers for the Labor and Interior departments will also get an extra unpaid day for their Memorial Day weekend."

      http://www.politico.com/story/2013/05/furlough-irs-epa-hud-omb-91850.html?hp=l2

     This is what the GOP has called a big victory for the Tea Party. Today the conservative media has been giving wall to wall coverage of Fox New's Jason Rosen. All of a sudden Roger Ailes is a big proponent freedom of the press. It seems that Republicans are all for going after leaks as long as none of the reporters  being checked out work for Fox News-the Fox News Exception.

     http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/in-memo-to-employees-ailes-blasts-obama-admins?ref=fpb

     The selectivity and hypocrisy of this GOP ACLU moment is truly pathological as Jon Stewart does an excellent job of pointing out.

     http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/daily-show-mocks-right-wing-radio-hosts-hypocrisy

     The bite of the sequester is beginning to reach the public consciousness.

     "The number of Americans who say sequestration has harmed them is rising, according to a new poll."

     "In March, right after the $85 billion in across-the-board budget cuts went into effect, only 25 percent of Americans said sequestration had affected them. An ABC/Washington Post poll released Friday found that number had jumped to 37 percent, with half of them saying the impact was “major.”

     "And Americans who have been hit by the sequester are pessimistic about the economy. Only 36 percent of them believe the economy is recovering and 40 percent are optimistic about the economy’s prospects in 2013. Among the majority of Americans who have avoided the sequester’s harm, two-thirds said the economy is picking back up and 60 percent are optimistic about the economy in the coming year."

    "Personal experience overrides ideological preferences, with 66 percent of Tea Party members who report personal harm from the sequester opposing the cuts. Overall, 56 percent of Americans oppose the cuts and 35 percent support them."

    http://www.politico.com/story/2013/05/sequester-poll-91869.html?hp=l3

    If the GOP lived at all in the real world that most Americans live in maybe they wouldn't think that milking fake scandals is what's going to save them and actually do something to help the country.