Video: Trey Gowdy says Petraeus will come before Congress (affair or not)

If, as Lt. Col. Ralph Peters seems to suspect, the news of David Petraeus' affair was released by the Obama administration in response to the former CIA Director getting cold feet about testifying in front of a Congressional committee is true, it may be in the process of backfiring.

Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC), one of the bulldogs in the Fast and Furious investigation appeared on Greta and said that either Petraeus will appear as a volunteer witness or he will be subpoenaed.

Via GWP:

How Barack Obama could lose the Media in his second term

In Lyndon Johnson's second term, it was his failures in Vietnam; Watergate broke in Richard Nixon's first term but took him down after reelection; Iran-Contra dogged Ronald Reagan; Bill Clinton was impeached for perjury and obstruction of justice late in his second term; and George W. Bush's second term was marred with failures in Iraq, a stalled agenda, and a mortgage crisis that hit just as he was leaving office. Taken together, these realities do not portend well for Barack Obama in the next four years. However, Obama has something none of the aforementioned presidents did - an unyieldingly complicit media.

Like Nixon, signs of scandal reared their heads toward the end of Obama's first term but unlike Watergate, disinterest throughout the mainstream media - save for a few exceptions - has been palpable. As Nixon was being sworn in for a second time, the likes of Woodward and Bernstein were doing all they could to get the truth out. Today, there is more than enough smoke - both literally and figuratively - when it comes to what happened in Benghazi, Libya on 9/11/12 for the media to replicate its success.

Yet, it seems collectively disinterested.

Economic realities may do to Barack Obama what legitimate journalism will not. The former could end up being the catalyst for the latter.

It's time for a self-evident truth. Liberal, socialist economic policies are doomed to failure and always have been. It is as predictable as the sun coming up, water boiling at 212 degrees, or an apple falling to the earth when you let go of it. This necessarily means that Barack Obama's economic policies will fail as well. They've failed already and although there is pain felt as a result of runaway debt, deficits, and unemployment, there is not enough for the media to do its job.

That could change (don't laugh).

Almost immediately after Obama was re-elected, companies began announcing layoffs. People have been getting out of the stock market and moving to cash and gold. Taxes are going up on everyone and talk of a fiscal cliff, which was largely ignored by the media before the election, is now being given more attention.

Let's face it. The United States is likely headed for economic collapse. We may have been headed there even if Mitt Romney had won. Much has been baked in to the Obama economy already. Talk of repealing Obamacare was just that - talk. Even among Republicans, there were discussions about keeping part of the law. Imagine a scenario whereby the economy Romney inherited was too much to overcome and it collapsed on his watch in a year or two; it would be his fault because it would have happened on his watch.

Fiscal signs are pointing to rising food prices, runaway inflation, and higher unemployment in the coming months and years. It will all happen on Obama's watch and it will all have been his doing (blaming Bush at that point could cause even his most sycophantic media allies to roll their eyes). Misery will befall many more Americans. At some point, reality smacks everyone in the face, including liberal media types who continue down the track, despite the whistle and headlight of an oncoming train getting closer.

As Benghazi-gate chugs along - now thanks to the added element of a sexual scandal involving the CIA Director - the economy will continue to get worse. Barack Obama will lose more and more Americans who will eventually realize that they have been foolishly duped, thereby making them even angrier. Like two elevators, as the economy descends, interest in what really happened in Benghazi could rise. People who have traditionally sat on the sidelines of the political playing field will start to take notice because their own lives will be affected, ironically because of their own indifference for so many years.

Moreover, once the truth about what happened in Benghazi is revealed, it could very well be worse than all of the other second term presidential scandals combined.

For years, one of Barack Obama's credos has been to never let a crisis go to waste. He used the mortgage crisis to push for the Stimulus package; he used the lie that is global warming to push for cap and trade and green energy, which has done nothing but line the pockets of his political cronies while bankrupting America; he pointed to the number of guns going to Mexico from America as evidence that tighter gun control was needed (never mind that his Justice Department was actually involved in facilitating that crisis).

Obama's ideological mentor - Saul Alinsky - taught that all events of a period should be used to one's own advantage. Another self-evident truth is that Obama very much groks that idea. Unfortunately for him, there will come a point when he will no longer be able to do that because a crisis will one day be created that - no matter how it is spun - will spin right back to him.

Though it would come at great expense to the nation, Barack Obama might just lose the media. It will have been a shame that it took them so long to do their jobs.

When the bells of two elevators sound, one could be the economy reaching the ground floor and the other could be Benghazi-gate reaching the top of the media's ivory tower.

Applying lessons learned from Fast and Furious investigation to Benghazi-gate

Attorney General Eric Holder recently told a class of law students that he may not be back for a second term. To say Holder's first term was scandal-ridden would be an understatement. Right out of the gate, after the Justice Department dropped charges against members of the New Black Panther Party (NBPP) related to voter intimidation, Holder was dogged by an investigation that just wouldn't go away for his first two years.

In November of 2010, the Civil Rights Commission found that Holder's Justice Department had created and implemented a policy that favored blacks over whites when it came to voting rights.

Approximately one month later, U.S. Border agent Brian Terry was gunned down in Arizona. Guns found at the scene were traced back to an ATF operation known as Fast and Furious. Whistleblowers came forward and informed the public through House Oversight Committee chairman Darrell Issa and Senate Judiciary ranking member Charles Grassley, that they were being told to let guns 'walk' into Mexico. What ensued was a nearly two year battle that ensnared the Justice Department. To this point, that investigation culminated with the Attorney General being found in both criminal and civil contempt of Congress for not honoring a subpoena for documents.

If not for the dogged pursuit of justice over Fast and Furious by a significant contingent of engaged Americans, conservative bloggers, and certain Republican members of Congress (particularly on Issa's committee), the scandal likely wouldn't have gotten as far as it did and Holder might not be mulling retirement right now.

To the extent that the Fast and Furious investigation was successful, it was hamstrung by a complicit media, a corrupt and hyper-partisan Democratic party, and Republican leadership that seemed disinterested in fighting the good fight. Speaker John Boehner rarely spoke about the scandal and when he did, his words were brief, measured, and virtually inconsequential. Mitt Romney, the Republican presidential nominee, rarely broached the subject when it would have been most effective; the third debate comes to mind.

Had Mitt Romney asked the president to explain why he asserted Executive Privilege to prevent the subpoenaed documents from being released to Congress, the mainstream media would have been forced to cover the story. Ditto if Boehner would have been more outspoken about the scandal. Any hopes that a Romney win would have given Republican leadership the opportunity to take the path of least resistance were dashed on November 6th.

Now that same Republican leadership has something much bigger and much more significant to deal with - an Obama second term and Benghazi-gate.

We're already seeing a willingness on the part of the mainstream media and the Democratic party to follow the same formula that either prevented or delayed justice in Fast and Furious. What we cannot afford is for Republican leadership to do the same. Benghazi is far worse than Fast and Furious. While Committee hearings appear to be in the offing - to include Issa's Oversight Committee - House leadership, to include John Boehner (assuming he's re-elected as Speaker), is more likely than not to attempt to avoid fighting that good fight again.

Some will say that Benghazi-gate will be dealt a blow as a direct result of the President's reelection. Again, however, had there been a responsible media to report on the scandal before the election, Obama likely would have lost.

Those of us who understand that 2+2=4 know that socialist, liberal economic policies are always doomed to fail. To the extent that they're implemented in Obama's second term, they will again. The United States is going to hit a very rough patch in the coming months / years. That, coupled with a very public, forceful, and united front from House Republicans and leadership on Benghazi-gate could lead to justice being done.

Getting to the bottom of Benghazi-gate will require much of what got us so close to getting to the bottom of Fast and Furious - whistleblowers, an informed and engaged public that demands answers, and committed Republicans on House Committees with fearless Republican chairmen. It will also require something we didn't have during the Fast and Furious investigation...

...a fearless Speaker.