Making mistakes is part of being human, but the ever-increasing deception that is necessary to cover those mistakes when honesty is abandoned is evil. Those willing to ignore evil for political reasons should question their fitness for leadership of our nation. In this case, a blatant falsehood was promoted — namely that the Obama administration had international terrorist activity directed at America under control and that the Benghazi incident was a spontaneous action resulting from the outrage of locals who had viewed an offensive anti-Islamic video. Undue importance was placed on promoting an image of U.S. strength during the weeks immediately preceding the presidential election of 2012.

Again, I must emphasize that if we, the American people, the American press, and the American political class, participate in the cover-up or ignore such an important story, we contribute to the demise of honesty and truth as pillars of our governing structure. In the book of Proverbs, King Solomon put it this way: “If a ruler listens to lies, those who serve him will be wicked.”

We also should be concerned about the attempt by some to ignore or downgrade the significance of the Internal Revenue Service scandal. The fact that something this contrary to the concept of freedom can happen in a country based on constitutional values and be characterized as a “phony scandal” by people who supposedly have the best interests of this country at heart again points to the danger of placing partisan politics above truth and honesty.