The White House does federalism wrong in the Oregon standoff.

This is not how this works.

The White House on Monday referred to an armed occupation of a federal wildlife refuge in Oregon as a “local law enforcement matter.”

Spokesman Josh Earnest’s comments come even though the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has taken charge of the response to the incident along with state and local agencies.

This is not how any of this works.  These fellows are squatting in a federal building and making noises about starting a country-wide organized opposition to the federal government. So they certainly think that it’s a federal-level matter, and whether or not you think that the squatters are justified (or even particularly sane) you should still at least concede that you can, ah, make a federal case out of it.

Mind you, the White House may have inadvertently done the right thing, here.  There’s this to be said for the administration’s decision to go hide; at least this way they won’t actually do anything vis a vis the situation. Which means that the situation might even get resolved peacefully, after all…

Via Hot Air.

3 thoughts on “The White House does federalism wrong in the Oregon standoff.”

  1. In other words the White House doesn’t want #OccupyGiftShop to get in the way of their anti-gun message by having people who won’t act according to the script on the same stage. That’s okay, Obama’s pretty much checked out of everything that isn’t a Royal Progress anyhow, so leaving things in the hands of the locals might be best.

  2. Huh. That’s special. How many times has this White House interfered in what was clearly a local matter?

Comments are closed.