This week the "phony" scandals stopped seeming phony. CNN aired an interview Wednesday (7/31) with Ahmed Abdu Khattala, who Libyan officials think was one of the ringleaders of the attack on our consulate in Benghazi on 9/11/2012. Khattala said he'd be happy to talk to American investigators about what happened that night, but nobody in the FBI or the Libyan government  has asked him about it.  There were "dozens" of CIA operatives on the ground at the annex during the attack, CNN said in a report Thursday (8/1). What were all those guys doing there?  The answer to that question is the key to the Benghazi coverup, says Joe Curl's source in the CIA. * * * * Lois Lerner, the IRS official at the epicenter of the targeting of conservative groups, passed confidential information to a lawyer at the Federal Elections Commission in an apparent effort to keep a conservative group from winning a case pending before the FEC, emails obtained by the House Ways & Means Committee indicate. "This means more than just an expansion of the probe to the FEC," said Kim Strassel. "It's a new link to the Obama team."

There's a dreary similarity to how Republicans blow opportunity after opportunity, because they all stem from the disdain and distrust the GOP's major factions have for each other. It's conservative insurgents vs. moderate pros; flyover country vs. the D.C. beltway, or -- as they're viewed by their antagonists -- the Hicks in the Sticks vs. the Establishment Squishes. The Hicks propose rash courses of action and make unreasonable demands because they haven't a clue about how government works, the Squishes think. In battles with Democrats, Squishes often raise the white flag before the first shot is fired, think the Hicks. Today, there's a bitter struggle between the Hicks and the Squishes over Obamacare.  One faction offers a hopeless kamikaze charge.  The other, doing next to nothing in the face of a grave threat to liberty and to the economy.  There's another choice.  Here it is.

There has been much discussion about which banks and other financial institutions are "too big to fail." In reality, no institution is too big to fail, including any private company or political entity, whether it is Detroit or the former Soviet Union. The more relevant question is, which institutions are "too big to succeed"? When asked about President Obama's slew of recent troubles, former presidential adviser David Axelrod correctly noted that the U.S. government is too big to manage. It is not only true of the government as a whole, but also true of some of its parts, notably the Internal Revenue Service. Which is why the IRS is in the process of failing.

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a potential presidential candidate in 2016, took a shot "libertarian foreign policy" over the weekend, and at its principal advocate, Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky, another potential 2016 GOP presidential candidate. So did Rep. Peter King, R-NY, compared GOP libertarians to "the anti-war, left-wing Democrats of the 1960s that nominated George McGovern."  But the libertarian Republicans they attacked are more closely aligned with public sentiment, and more nearly in accordance with the warning President Eisenhower gave in his Farewell Address.

For most in the bigfoot media, the big story this week was another texting scandal for New York Mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner.  Which was a godsend for San Diego Mayor Bob Filner, because it distracted attention from all the women who say he's sexually harassed them.  Eliot Spitzer, who resigned as governor of New York after his affair with a prostitute was disclosed, was back in the news, too.  This week it was hard to remember it's the Republicans who are supposed to be waging a war on women. * * * * There was real news, too, but the bigfoot media have little interest in covering it.  Perhaps most important was the surprise scare the Surveillance State received Wednesday. * * * * For the 9th, or the 19th time, depending on who is counting, President Barack Obama has "pivoted" to the economy.  His speech at Knox College bombed, said liberal as well as conservative journalists, but, warns Matt Continetti, his political goals may have been achieved. * * * * Dr. Ben Carson has given us yet another reason for hoping he'll be on the GOP ticket in 2016.