For Barack Obama, speech isn't free when it criticizes him

This has a chilling affect on journalists. But it’s also the latest salvo in the Obama administration’s war on whistleblowers. Liberal writer Jane Mayer wrote in 2011 that Obama has used “the Espionage Act to press criminal charges in five alleged instances of national-security leaks — more such prosecutions than have occurred in all previous administrations combined.”

More than any of its predecessors, the Obama administration tells its underlings, “Watch what you say.”

All of these stories broke this month. But the Obama team has shown intolerance to dissent from the beginning. Remember during the Obamacare debate when the White House asked Americans to report any “fishy” emails about the health care bill? Linda Douglass, communications director for Obama’s Office of Health Reform, said at the time her job includes collecting “disinformation” about Obamacare — probably stuff like, if you like your health plan, you might not be able to keep it.

The three scandals of the past two weeks differ in their severity and in the White House’s level of culpability. But they all have the same message: “My fellow Americans, watch what you say.”