As I was watching the Super Bowl and saw the opening coin toss, I was reminded that conservatives had better be careful about the White House’s offensive game. This administration is constantly on the attack. It’s very good at manipulating events to its advantage and changing the rules mid-game.

For example, President Obama talked about healthcare reform during a pre-game interview with CBS’s Katie Couric. He said, “I want to … have a large meeting — Republicans and Democrats — to go through, systematically, all the best ideas that are out there and move it forward.” Yesterday, the White House announced plans for a “healthcare summit” on February 25th. According to various reports, the president has promised that this summit will be televised live, presumably on C-Span.

Last week I wrote that the administration and congressional Democrats had totally ignored any ideas conservatives put forward during last year’s healthcare debate. In his statement to Couric, Obama essentially admitted as much. If they had been receptive to conservative ideas and input all along, then they never would have attempted a Big Government takeover of the healthcare industry and this summit would not be necessary.

But when conservatives said they were willing to work with the president, they weren’t talking about TV shows. As we saw from last week’s televised Q&A between the president and House conservatives, the entire event was staged for Obama’s benefit. Conservative members of Congress were faceless, off-camera voices, while the president stood behind the podium like a smug college professor lecturing his pupils. He wasn’t there to negotiate in good faith; he was there to score points with his leftwing base and convince the public that he was “reaching out.”

When conservatives said they wanted discussions to be televised, they didn’t mean choreographed Obama campaign rallies. They meant, as Candidate Obama promised, all key meetings in which substantive decisions were being made.

Call me skeptical, but I expect this summit is just another sham attempt to give Obama the appearance of bi-partisanship. The media will sing his praises and give him as much cover as possible. But the differences between the two parties are tremendous and can’t be glossed over in one made-for-TV “summit.” I suspect the president knows that, and all this is just for show – a play fake that allows Obama to say “I tried” and sets the stage for liberals to “go nuclear,” ramming ObamaCare through using budget reconciliation rules.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell isn’t falling for it. In a statement this weekend, Sen. McConnell responded to the summit suggestion by saying, “If we are to reach a bipartisan consensus, the White House can start by shelving the current health spending bill, and with it their goal of slashing a half trillion dollars from Medicare and raising a half trillion in new taxes. The American people want lower costs, not Medicare cuts and tax increases. Setting these proposals aside would be a sign that the administration and Democrats in Congress are listening to the country and are truly interested in a bipartisan approach.” Stay tuned.

Every year, the federal government disperses hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars – your tax dollars – to various projects and programs. In order to ensure that your money is not wasted, each department has an office of independent auditors known as inspectors general or IGs. Last year, Congress passed a law designed to strengthen their independence from political pressure. Then Senator Obama was one of the co-sponsors of that legislation. But now it appears as though President Obama has run afoul of that very law and a scandal is brewing that has yet to be noticed by the “mainstream media.”

In a move denounced by both Republicans and Democrats as a violation of the new protections for IGs, President Obama recently fired Americorps IG Gerald Walpin. Walpin’s work was getting very close to some very big Obama supporters and he recently received a call from the White House telling him he had one hour to resign or be fired. Walpin refused to go and was sacked. The White House responded to the controversy with wild accusations suggesting Mr. Walpin suffered from dementia. Today there is breaking news that Walpin isn’t the only IG to be fired. But there’s another story here too.

When Bush fired eight political appointees it was front page news, and, believe it or not, Congress is still investigating that. But when Obama fires not one, but now three inspectors general, just as the administration is getting ready to spend billions of stimulus dollars even faster, liberal politicians and the media are silent. As one commentator observed, “WHERE ARE THE WATCHDOGS of the establishment media? Oh, that’s right: They are no longer watchdogs but lapdogs, and particularly slobbering ones at that….”

- Excerpt from Gary Bauer’s Daily Report
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