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The rapid pace of change in American life does not exempt politics. Witness how fast Democrats are cycling through scapegoats.

First came Hillary Clinton. When she emerged to gripe about all the reasons she lost last year, except herself, party activists told her to be quiet and go away. She has, for now.

Next came Nancy Pelosi. When Republicans won four contested special elections for House seats, disgruntled Dems turned their fire on their minority leader, telling Pelosi it was time to get out of the way. She refuses, for now.

And now comes Barack Obama. The former president, shredding what was left of his promise not to interfere with his successor, is joining the fight against the repeal of ObamaCare. He called the Senate bill an example of meanness, and pledged to campaign for the Democrat in the Virginia governors race.

For Republicans, luck cant get much better. While Clinton and Pelosi were hardly innocent bystanders in the historic rout of Democrats at every level of government, the main culprit was Obama.

It was Obamaism, more than Clintonism or Pelosism, that elected Donald Trump and gave the GOP both houses of congress. The former presidents coercive liberalism at home and appeasement abroad led to the greatest upset in American politics.

His two biggest achievements, ObamaCare and the Iran nuclear deal, were sold on the backs of lies. President Trump is Obamas legacy.

And now Dear Leader wants to help Dems again. Lets see how many Clinton and Pelosi critics have the courage to tell him No, thanks, youve done enough.

Obamas desire to re-litigate his tenure comes amid other signs that the siege of the Trump White House is lifting and the political momentum is shifting.

Suddenly, Dems are the fighting, fractured party with no agenda or leader while Republicans finally show signs of uniting their majorities to get big things done.

Indeed, Obamas return to the fray coincides with a belated congressional focus on his administrations misconduct on the Clinton investigation and his failure to counter Russian interference in the election.

Most ominously, the Senate Judiciary Committee has opened a probe into whether former Attorney General Loretta Lynch impeded the FBI investigation into Clintons private server, with members from both parties raising concerns about her role. They cited accusations by former FBI director James Comey and a published report that Lynch promised a top Dem that she would not let the Clinton investigation go far.

Its hard to believe Lynch wont be forced to testify publicly, an event that would revisit all the suspect twists and turns of the Clinton probe, including Lynchs failure to empanel a grand jury. She also should be asked what, if any, orders she got from a White House invested in a Clinton victory.

The role of politics also surfaced when Obamas former director of Homeland Security admitted that the administration decided to withhold public discussion about Russian hacking because of its possible impact on the campaign.

This was a big decision, and there were a lot of considerations that went into it, Jeh Johnson told the Senate. This was an unprecedented step.

He said the White House feared that accusing Russia of interference might have looked like an effort to help Clinton, especially given Trumps claim that results would be rigged.

Obamas decision to wring his hands and take no action until after the election, when he imposed minor sanctions on individual Russians, might explain his teams efforts to pin the collusion tag on Trump. Those charges, made mostly by anonymous leaks, are catnip to the Democratic media and distract attention from Obamas failure to respond to what has been described as a Russian act of war.

Taken together, last weeks extraordinary developments are injecting a dose of reality into the Washington scandal machine. For months, anonymous-sourced reports about various Trump associates having meetings with Russian officials painted a troubling picture and led to the appointment of a special counsel.

But when the Obama teams role is highlighted, it too, looks very troubling. The implications of the president being paralyzed because he didnt want to give Trump ammunition are almost as grave as the still-unexplained surveillance, leaks and unmasking of Trump associates.

From here, it all looks like the Obama White House is guilty of playing politics with national security.

The possibility is worthy of special counsel Robert Muellers attention, who is so far exclusively focused on Trumps team. That one-dimensional view must end.

Because Russian interference has been used only as a partisan club against Trump, the seriousness of the issue has not resonated with the public. This was indeed an attack on our democracy, and all Americans have a stake in making sure it doesnt happen again.

But public trust can be earned only when the partisan mud is scraped away and all the facts given a full and fair examination. That means no sacred cows from either party and either administration.

Can Washington handle the truth? Were about to find out.

The late Mayor Ed Koch was fond of saying that public service is the noblest of professions if it is done honestly and well.

He might have been talking about Joe Lhotas latest gift to New York.

Lhotas decision to come back to the beleaguered MTA and accept the part-time chairmans role is public service at its finest. For his trouble, he will reap the windfall of $1 a year and more headaches than any human can bear.

Time and circumstance, including aged infrastructure and surging ridership, have thrown the subway system into crisis mode. The assumption that riders can get from here to there safely and reliably threatens to become a thing of the past, and that is perilous to the regions economy and quality of life.

Lhota, agreeing to Gov. Cuomos request to return to the agency he left four years ago, has been careful not to promise a single, quick answer. While riders may be out of patience, Lhota deserves their thanks and trust as he begins the hunt for solutions.

Godspeed to him, and congratulations to New York for having such dedicated citizens.

Generally, its safe to assume the city is better off when Mayor de Blasio is out of town. There is less chance hell reward a donor, make a boneheaded decision or clog traffic with his SUV convoy.

But his taxpayer-funded trip to Miami is an exception. The Post reports he and First Lady Chirlane McCray took 12 city employees, including a photographer, for a conference. There is no legitimate excuse, especially for the entourage. Its a vanity junket. Period.

Block that metaphor.

An Upshot column in The New York Times includes this description of Democrats chances in 2018: The problem is theyre going uphill, even if the wind is strongly at their backs.

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Obama's liberalism paved the way for Donald Trump - New York Post

Times-Union readers want to know:

I was sent an email that said that former President Barack Obama have a bronze statue made of himself to leave in the White House. Is that accurate?

The emails have made their way across the internet. But reports that Obama ordered a $200,000 life-size bronze statue of himself to be permanently installed in the White House are totally false.

Conservative Flash News posted the story on May 21, FactCheck.org reported, and Facebook users flagged it as potentially fake. (FactCheck.org is one of several organizations working with Facebook to help identify and label viral fake news stories flagged by readers on the social media network.)

The phony story has actually been around a lot longer than May.

The earliest version found by FactCheck.org was published on Dec. 31, 2016, on EmpireNews.net, a site that says it is intended for entertainment purposes only Our website and social media content uses only fictional names, except in cases of public figure or celebrity parody or satirization, the site states on its About/Disclaimer page.

Since then, many more sites have republished the story, despite a line in the Empire News disclaimer saying its content may not be reprinted or re-transmitted, in whole or in part, without the express written consent of the publisher.

Only some of the posts included a link to the story on EmpireNews.net, FactCheck.org noted. And only some tagged the story as satire, making the intent clearer to readers.

The fake story claims that Obama ordered the statue with plans to have it permanently erected in the entryway of the White House, so that all who enter can remember me fondly. The president, according to the story, says that his legacy should not be diminished, and that this is the only way he can keep an eye over Trump, as well as future presidents.

It also says that the statue will not be allowed to be removed, citing a bogus White House tradition that every president is allowed to leave one thing in the White House that must never be touched by future presidents.

Some versions of the story included a photo of a statue of Obama supposedly in the White House Oval Office, but the photo is a fake, too.

The image looks to be a combination of two photos: one of a real statue of Obama outside of the Capitol building in San Juan, Puerto Rico, taken by Flickr photographer Paul Sableman in 2013 and the other of a replica of the Oval Office commissioned by a Texas man who collects presidential memorabilia, FactCheck.org and Snopes.com note.

The Oval Office didnt look like what the photo shows when Obama was president, and the image doesnt show the current decor, either, FactCheck.org reports.

Officials in Puerto Rico unveiled the bronze statue of Obama and one of former President Lyndon B. Johnson on Presidents Day in 2012. They were the latest additions to the Avenue of Heroes, which features statues of every president who visited the U.S. territory while in office, dating to Theodore Roosevelt.

The original story on EmpireNews.net featured the real photo of the Obama statue in San Juan, not a doctored image of the White House.

Carole Fader: (904) 359-4635

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Fact Check: Is Obama statue story true? - Florida Times-Union

Former president Barack Obama is making his first campaign foray of 2017, agreeing to stump for Democrat Ralph Northam in his bid to be Virginias next governor.

David Turner, a spokesman for Northam, said the former president agreed this week to hit the campaign trail for Northam, but would not say when or where.

An aide to Obama confirmed that the former president agreed to campaign for Northam during a congratulatory call, although no events have been planned.

The HuffPost first reported Obamas plans to campaign for Northam.

The Virginia governors race, one of just two gubernatorial contests this year, is shaping up as the next high-profile electoral contest in the era of President Trump. It follows a couple of Democratic losses in high-profile special elections to fill congressional vacancies, including a race in Georgia last week that became the most expensive in U.S. history.

Obama, who carried Virginia in 2008 and 2012, could help Northam improve his support among younger voters and solidify his already strong backing from African American voters. Northams strongholds in the Democratic primary were in the Urban Crescent, the heavily populated areas of Northern Virginia, Richmond and Hampton Roads.

Northam faces Ed Gillespie, a longtime Republican operative and party leader, in November. Gillespie spokesman David Abrams dismissed the potential appeal of the former president.

How many Democratic surrogates is it going to take to try to drag the lieutenant governor across the finish line? he said. Virginians deserve to hear from candidates directly, in their own voices, about their own ideas and proposals.

Gillespie recently campaigned with Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R).

Obama stayed out of the hard-fought Democratic primary this month between Northam and former congressman Tom Perriello. Northam, who beat Perriello, called former attorney general Eric H. Holder Jr. with an appeal to prevent Obama from endorsing in the race, according to a Democrat familiar with the call.

But Perriello, who lost his seat in Congress over his vote for the Affordable Care Act and then went on to work for the Obama administration, invoked the former president anyway, airing footage of him with Obama in campaign ads.

Since leaving office, Obama has stayed in the political fray, condemning President Trumps travel ban and decision to withdraw from the Paris climate accords, as well as Republican attempts to gut his signature health-care law.

(Amber Ferguson,Jorge Ribas,Dalton Bennett/The Washington Post)

But he did not campaign for Democrats in congressional elections this year, though he did cut a video endorsing Emmanuel Macron in the French presidential election.

Obama has said redistricting will be his primary cause. He says he wants to help rebuild Democratic strength by preventing Republicans from drawing legislative maps that are favorable to them and will define the political landscape for the next decade. The National Democratic Redistricting Committee, chaired by Holder, has made Virginias gubernatorial and House of Delegate races its first campaign targets.

At a Democratic fundraiser in Richmond this month, Holder said Virginia was at the epicenter of the political universe in 2017 and promised that his group would bring Democratic all-stars to the campaign trail.

[Holder says Virginia governors race is chance to send message to Trump]

Obamas predecessor, George W. Bush, largely kept a low political profile after leaving the White House, waiting seven years before he campaigned for his brother Jeb Bushs failed presidential bid.

Bush also has connections to the Virginia contest: He tapped Gillespie to serve as chairman of the Republican National Committee early in his presidential term, and later brought him into the White House as his counselor. The former president attended a March fundraiser for Gillespie in Dallas and wrote a $25,000 check for his gubernatorial campaign.

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Obama returning to campaign trail to stump for Northam in Virginia governor's race - Washington Post

"It is the hardest thing about my entire time in government to defend," the former senior Obama administration official told the Post. "I feel like we sort of choked."

The Post report details how the CIA's assessment that Putin was directly involved in a cyber campaign to disrupt and discredit the US presidential election in an effort to help Trump prompted the Obama administration to debate dozens of options for deterring or punishing Russia. Those included proposed cyberattacks on Russian infrastructure, the release of CIA-gathered material that might embarrass Putin and economic sanctions, the newspaper reported.

But President Barack Obama ultimately approved only modest measures: the expulsion of a few dozen diplomats, the closure of two Russian compounds, and narrowly targeted economic sanctions that some who designed them described as largely symbolic, the Post said. Another measure, the planting of cyberweapons in Russia's infrastructure, was still in the planning stages when Obama left office.

While some closest to Obama defend the response, saying that by late summer it was already too late to prevent troves of hacked emails from transferring to WikiLeaks and other groups, others expressed regret, the newspaper said.

Tony Blinken, Obama's former deputy national security adviser, said Friday that the administration took significant action to prevent Russia from interfering with the electoral system itself.

"We made massive efforts so they couldn't do that," Blinken told CNN's Kate Bolduan on "At This Hour." "This led to two things: President Obama issued a very stark warning to President Putin in September at the G-20 conference in China. What we saw, or thought we saw, after that, it looked like the Russians stopped their efforts. But the damage was already done."

The report, which features three-dozen high-level officials, confirms what many Democratic lawmakers already believed about Putin, Sen. Jeff Merkley said Friday on CNN's "New Day."

"Nothing like the extensive hacking effort and manipulation effort could occur without his involvement," the Oregon Democrat told CNN's Alisyn Camerota. "Now we actually know: Yes, Putin directed it."

"He had a specific goal to defeat (Democratic nominee) Hillary Clinton and that explains the huge coordinated effort from the botnets to the trolls," Merkley added.

Officials in the Post article suggested Obama struggled to find a way to respond to Putin without being so aggressive that he would be perceived as trying to influence the election in Clinton's favor -- a point Merkley echoed Friday.

"It is such a dilemma, because if he had acted aggressively, in a way that he had gone public and said, 'This is why we're doing this,' it would have been seized upon as an attempt to bias the election," Merkley said. "So, there was enormous bias in the election because of the Russians, but how do you balance that out without further damaging it? It is an extremely difficult problem."

Rep. Adam Kinzinger said Friday that he didn't find the Post report shocking.

"I think President Trump was legitimately elected by people who voted for him, but this is a very serious issue about defending democracy and our country and integrity of the election system," he told CNN's David Gregory on "New Day." "So we have to go back to countering Russia disinformation. Congress has to work with the White House to give them tools to push back. This is a very serious issue."

The Illinois Republican, who serves on the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, said Republicans must take the intelligence about Russia's involvement in the election very seriously to protect future elections.

"The reality is, in two or four years it will serve Vladimir Putin's interest to take down the Republican Party," Kinzinger said. "If we weren't upset about it, we have no right to complain in the future." Also speaking Friday morning on "New Day," White House counselor Kellyanne Conway dismissed the idea that Russia influenced the 2016 presidential election."I think it's very important to show no nexus has been proven between what Russia or any other foreign government tried to do in the actual election result," Conway said. "Really the only person making that case prominently is Hillary Clinton."

"You've got everyone saying that there is no nexus, that not a single vote was changed and we're going to stand by that," Conway added. "We know that Donald Trump won fairly and squarely 306 electoral votes. It had nothing to do with interference."

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WaPo: Obama admin 'choked' on Russia, former official says ...

A high-level group in the White House is stonewalling attempts by a government watchdog to obtain records about the Obama administrations so-called unmasking of people on President Trumps campaign and transition teams, according to Judicial Watch.

The government watchdog group told Fox News that the National Security Council, a White House group that advises the president on national security matters and foreign affairs, responded in a May 23 letter that the records have been transferred to President Obamas as-yet-unopened library in Chicago and wont be available to the public for five years.

Judicial Watchs efforts to obtain these documents comes as Fox News broke a story in April regarding National Security Council Adviser Susan Rice being among Obama appointees who during the last presidential election, asked for identities of U.S. citizens linked to the Trump campaign and transition teams who were caught up in U.S. intelligencesurveillance.

Disclosure of thenames of American citizensidentified in the course ofintelligence collection activities is known as unmasking.

Rices personal involvement in unmasking the identities of U.S. persons from [U.S. intelligence] collection activities is extraordinarily unusual and smacks of an unlawful domestic political intelligence operation being run out of the Obama White House, Chris Farrell, director of research and investigation for Judicial Watch, told Fox News.

The president, Congress and law enforcement can gain access to the records. Judicial Watch will fight for them, too.

The secrecy around these materials also is raising hackles for other reasons.

"Itcosts taxpayers over $100 million a year to support presidential libraries thatcan take as long as 100 years to release archival material on how a presidentreallygoverned, said John Fund, former Fox News contributor, and authorof Fraudstersand Bureaucrats Put Your Vote at Risk and Stealing Elections: How Voter FraudThreatens Our Democracy.

He added: Outrageous. Thisrepresentsa bad deal for taxpayers, awhitewashingof the historical record and a playpen for the politicallyconnected boosters of an ex-president. Reform is urgently needed."

Malia Zimmerman is an award-winning investigative reporter focusing on crime, homeland security, illegal immigration crime, terrorism and political corruption. Follow her on twitter at @MaliaMZimmerman

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Obama administration records on Trump team 'unmasking ...