Saul Alinsky wrote Rules For Radicals to give direction to the left back in the 60's. The rules work both ways folks. Take rule 13:
13. Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.
Rule number 13 is all about ending the "dog chasing its tail pattern"
of entities shifting blame from one to another -- it's the CEO's fault; no,
I answer to the Board of Directors, so it's their fault; no, we answer to the
shareholders, so it's their fault, etc. Blame-shifting is an effective
stalling tactic and unless it is undermined it can quickly disorient an
organizing program. Alinsky says that when you "freeze" a specific
target, you not only end the blame-shifting game, but you also smoke out the
other targets as they come forward to defend your primary target. The target
must also be personal, not an ideology or some other abstraction.
It now appears that Obama was loaning the IRS out to target home builders in favor of the unions as well. But of course it was only a "couple of rogue underlings in Cincinnati" who were behind this and who will be quickly tossed under the bus.
Passing the buck is a fine approach if you can get away with it. Machiavelli described the process, which in Italy in the middle ages involved messy public executions.
Nixon's mistake was in not immediately tossing his agents under the bus.
In the Obama administration "rogue employees" are relieved of their duties and given a raise and promotion to another area.
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