Whether the topic is gun control or immigration reform, the White House is using taxpayer dollars for staff and equipment to promote Mr. Obama’s image and frequently to target his opponents in Congress for scorn through a series of e-newsletters.
“The president thinks Washington has largely taken its eye off the ball on the most important issue facing the country,” senior presidential adviser Dan Pfeiffer wrote in one such email last month. “Instead of talking about how to help the middle class, too many in Congress are trying to score political points, re fight old battles, and trump up phony scandals.”
Those irresponsible people in Congress are Republicans, of course, and the “phony” scandals involve the Internal Revenue Service’s targeting of conservative groups and the House’s probe of the lethal terrorist attack at the U.S. diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya.
In April, after gun control legislation failed to pass in the Senate, the White House sent supporters a mass email titled “Shameful.”
“A minority of senators blocked legislation that would have made America safer and better protected our kids,” said the message, which included a video and transcript of Mr. Obama lambasting the gun rights lobby and its allies in the Senate, mostly Republicans.
Some government watchdogs say the White House, by using federal employees and equipment to produce this partisan-themed campaign, is testing ethical boundaries.
