Flogging the Dead Horse Watch

The scandals are falling apart, writes Ezra Klein. He takes apart all three — Benghazi, the IRS, and the AP/DOJ mess. Regarding Benghazi, Steve Benen is Watching a ‘scandal’ evaporate before our very eyes. He adds,

There’s just nothing left. Trying to characterize this as a genuine political story worthy of attention has been a misguided partisan exercise for months, but now, it’s reached the point of ridiculousness.

But there is no sign that the Right is letting up. A Fox News guest has even compared the IRS non-scandal to Nazi Germany.

One of the many charming traits of today’s conservatives is that they never stop flogging the dead horse. There might be nothing left of the beast but hide and bones, but the Right will keep flogging, hoping to wring some more life out of it.

Greg Sargent considers who the horse flogging will hurt more, the GOP or the President.

It’s always possible that the scandal pile-up will undermine confidence in Obama’s leadership or feed a negative storyline about Obama and bigger, intrusive government, a point made by Karen Tumulty today. But it’s also possible that the scandals will be perceived as inside-the-Beltway noise and that voters won’t blame them on Obama or see in them any larger storylines about his leadership or vision. Indeed, a glance at Mike Allen’s Playbook suggests the narrative is already shifting: “OBAMA ACTS ON THREE FRONTS to calm storm.” And predictions that suddenly the voters will come to see Obama’s vision of government as dangerous, out of control, and radical have been made for literally years.

I can think of a third possibility — that most people outside the Beltway will be even more disgusted with Congress than it is already, for wasting time on this nonsense rather than addressing real issues.