>Jumping in here because it's as good an anywhere. This was in my local paper today. I thought his point was quite valid.
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http://www.theintell.com/opinion/op-ed/be-suspicious-of-pols-accusing-others-of-lying/article_ae2888de-6b6e-5301-9e67-a47aeaf44263.htmlTamar, I'll grant you that the behavior of Paul Ryan, Daniel Issa, and Jim Jordan were terrible. That's the one valid point in this article (though not exactly an original observation). Putting them in charge of oversight is like watching a relief pitcher blow a 10 run lead. I'll contrast their behavior with Trey Gowdy's. Gowdy was very tough on Koskinen, but no one can say Gowdy behaved badly. What critics of Ryan and Issa miss is how badly Koskinen doesn't even understand what's been happening.
But the rest of the article is just horrible analysis and horrible journalism and is one more example of a supine press ignoring key data points and trying to chalk this all up to an under-funded IRS (in other words, he got his talking points from MSNBC). Just because members of the Oversight Committee have screwed up (and they HAVE screwed up) does not mean the original issue isn't there. It IS there.
To the degree that you believe the author's premise that, "After all, sometimes people just mess up. Incompetence is more common than conspiracy in this life and requires less intelligence", I'd like to ask you the following and whether these constitute "messing up" or a systematic approach:
1) Two days before the IRS Chief Counsel (an Obama appointee) ordered Lois Lerner to send him all 290+ tea party/conservative applications for a new review process, he met with the President and about a dozen others for 6 hours at the White House. (By the way, this in itself was a violation of federal law - they were supposed to notify the Taxpayer advocacy service of any new review processes.)
2) This week the IRS just acknowledged wrongdoing in providing confidential information from a conservative group to a rival liberal group, the latter of whom admitted they had an unnamed "conduit" at the IRS feeding them information. (Sadly, Eric Holder refuses to criminally prosecute). The president of the liberal group that received (and broadcasted) the confidential information (which included information on Mitt Romney) was part of Obama's campaign in 2012.
3) Related to #2, there are several additional lawsuits brought by conservative policy foundations against the IRS for sharing their confidential donor information with other liberal groups...or for flat-out harassing the foundations for their political views (such as asking why they would pray outside an abortion clinic).
4) Lois Lerner herself acknowledged she received pressure from Democratic Senators about the rise of the Tea Party and the Citizens United Decision, and stated on record that perhaps the Federal Election Commission could save the day. She also gave a speech at Duke University that the power of the audit during times of political hostility.
5) To date, seven Democratic Senators have corresponded with the IRS to shake down different conservative organizations (including Carl Levin and the office of Elijah Cummings). In one instance, Carl Levin demanded the IRS provide so much information on a Voter Reform group that the IRS had to break down and tell Levin that what he wanted was illegal!!!
6) Emails discovered through FOIA requests showed that Lerner had been working with senior people in the DOJ about possible criminal prosecution of those whom the IRS deemed were not honest on their 1024s about political activity. Lerner even admitted later that the context of the discussions was only on conservative applications. And yet she continues to plead the Fifth on this.
7) A dark horse case that might wind up being the biggest part of all - the Z-Street case where the IRS is being charged with delaying application approvals because the IRS openly communicated that Z-Street (a pro-Israel group) held views not consistent with the administration. Federal judges denied IRS attempts to drop the case on grounds of sovereign immunity - and since the lawsuit was brought after 2010, so the IRS is under new legal obligations regarding record keeping, and Z-Street might be able to bust this wide open.
There are actually more points than these, but right now they are the biggest ones. I'll grant that conservative reaction to this hasn't always hit the nail on the head. But the bigger issue right now is the IRS and what other direction they received. Here's the thing - every new month of research, while we (sadly) see more bad behavior from Issa, we ALSO learn more. And on the "we lost the emails, her hard drive died", that is pure crap, and you (the royal you) will have a hard time convincing otherwise.
This isn't just a case of the IRS using delay tactics on Tea Party applications. That in itself would be very bad. The entire picture here is worse. This is about the DNC and the White House screaming bloody murder over Citizens United, and certain members of the Democratic party pressuring the IRS to target conservative/tea party groups. They knew Obama was vulnerable in 2012 and wanted to make sure he'd be re-elected. Whether the White House was directly responsible for the targeting is no longer relevant - at the VERY least they are guilty of allowing criminal behavior to be downgraded to "bone-headed mistakes".
I hate to say this, but at the very least, it is incredibly naive to miss a highly plausible context that all the President needs to do is expressed anger over a decision and make an open rally cry against "enemies of freedom", and his supporters and foot soldiers will respond.
I'm not religious and I'm pro-choice. So someone might say, "if you don't like the politics of these groups, why are you so worked up?" The answer is that unlike most liberals in this country, I despite hypocrisy and I believe in freedom of expression for all. I don't believe political leaders should use the IRS (or any other govt agency) to target and harass individuals or groups, period. Quite candidly, I'm very disappointed with about 99% of the political left. They talk about freedom of choice, but are dangerously silent on this issue. If this were a Republican president and the IRS were targeting defenders of Planned Parenthood, the left WOULD BE SCREAMING. But show them information about the other side and many just put their hands over their ears and loudly sing, "LA LA LA LA"
