Not to get too far off topic, but on the fact-based reality side of things...
Did Susan Rice Commit A Crime? It's Starting To Look That Wayhttp://www.investors.com/politics/editorials/did-susan-rice-commit-a-crime-its-starting-to-look-that-way/ObamaGate: In a TV appearance, Susan Rice remains adamant that the Obama administration didn't spy on the incoming Trump administration. Really? A growing body of evidence suggests just the opposite, and that a crime was likely committed.
"The allegation is that somehow, Obama administration officials utilized intelligence for political purposes," Rice told MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell. "That's absolutely false. ... There was no such collection or surveillance on Trump Tower or Trump individuals, it is important to understand, directed by the White House or targeted at Trump individuals."
As denials go that's pretty categorical, but it falls apart on even superficial scrutiny.
Let's start with the wording. As we've noted before, this is clever, lawyerly evasion, not truth-telling. She's right, in one sense: They designed this intel operation so that "Trump individuals" wouldn't be targets, but "incidental" to gathering information about foreigners.
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Yet Rice, who has lied repeatedly in public before — Benghazi is a clear example of this — now suggests that it was all done out of a desire to find out about Russian meddling in our election. It would be legal, if true.
But, in fact, the unmasking of intelligence involving Trump people appears to be part of a campaign by the Obama administration that started late last year to delegitimize Trump and to render his presidency null and void. Why else would this information be so widely distributed? This is political espionage, using the U.S. intelligence apparatus to do the spying on someone who had just won the presidency.
Sorry, but this looks like a crime. At bare minimum, it is an abuse of power, which Wikipedia defines as "the commission of an unlawful act, done in an official capacity, which affects the performance of official duties." That pretty much sums it up.
The only question now is did President Obama know that unlawful acts against his political foe were being committed in his name? And did he actually approve them? If so, Obama, the former University of Chicago lecturer in constitutional law, may soon find out that even a president isn't above the law, but is subject to it just as the rest of us are.
Only a congressional investigation can get to the bottom of this, just as during Watergate. Let's get going.
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