A U.S. Internal Revenue Service manager, who described himself as a conservative Republican, told congressional investigators that he and a local colleague decided to give conservative groups the extra scrutiny that has prompted weeks of political controversy.
In an official interview transcript released on Sunday by Democratic Representative Elijah Cummings, the manager said he and an underling set aside "Tea Party" and "patriot" groups that had applied for tax-exempt status because the organizations appeared to pose a new precedent that could affect future IRS filings.
So just like that EVERYTHING the Right Wing has imagined about this situation turns out to be bullshit.
So that's it right? I mean if this was started in Cincinnati, by a conservative, who was only trying to do his job, and certainly had NO agenda to punish the Tea Party, then there is no reason for further inquiry, right?
Nope, not right. Not if you are Darrell Issa.
Issa vowed to press ahead with the investigation and said the IRS manager's comments "did not provide anything enlightening or contradict other witness accounts."
"I strongly disagree with ... Cummings' assertion that we know everything we need to know about inappropriate targeting of Tea Party groups by the IRS," the California Republican said in a statement released by his office.
God I hate this little shit!
Gryphen, you're forgetting that anything a black man does is suspect.
ReplyDelete... not only that, Gryphen, Issa is no "little shit", he is a gigantic one. That is what bloats what he thinks of as his brain. (So sorry, I don't usually get scatological, but...)
DeleteRep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD), the ranking member on the House of Representatives Oversight and Government Reform Committee, released on Sunday an interview transcript in which the manager said that he and a subordinate scrutinized "Tea Party" and "patriot" groups that had applied for tax-exempt status.
ReplyDelete"He is a conservative Republican working for the IRS. I think this interview and these statements go a long way toward showing that the White House was not involved in this," Cummings said during an appearance on CNN's "State of the Union." "Based upon everything I've seen, the case is solved. And if it were me, I would wrap this case up and move on."
Cummings made the remarks on CNN’s State of the Union, a week after Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) appeared on the program and insinuated that the White House directed IRS agents to single out tea party and patriot groups for additional scrutiny. Issa has refused to provide evidence that substantiate that claim.
ReplyDelete“I wrote Chairman Issa on Thursday and I wrote to him this morning. I want those transcripts to be released,” Cummings said. “I’m willing to come on your show next week with the chairman with the transcripts if he agrees to do that. If he doesn’t, I’ll release them by the end of the week.”
Cummings insisted that the interviews will prove that “the White House was not involved in this,” pointing out that the Cincinnati IRS manager of the screening group, a career veteran at the agency who identified himself as Republican, told investigators that Washington did not direct the targeting. “I do not believe that the screening of these cases had anything to do other than consistency and identifying issues that needed to have further development,” the individual told investigators according to portion of the transcripts released by the Democratic staff on the House Oversight Committee.
Rather, the scrutiny began in 2010, after an IRS screener identified a tea party group applying for nonprofit status as “high profile” and asked his boss, the conservative Republican, for additional guidance. That individual, Cummings said, sent the case to the Washington technical office so that it can be treated consistently.
“Based upon everything I’ve seen the case is solved,” Cummings said. “And if it were me, I would wrap this case up and move on to be frank with you.”
http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2013/06/09/2126151/irs-staff-undermine-gop-claims-that-washington-directed-targeting-of-conservative-groups-top-democrat-says/
Fox Host Explodes At Guest For Disagreeing With His Scandal Coverage: ‘Cut His Damn Mic’
ReplyDelete...On Friday, Cavuto attempted to link the recent revelations about the extent of the National Security Agency’s collection of American’s cell phone metadata with several other scandals that the Obama administration has had to face in recent weeks. “You see one incident after another that comes up, and it all comes back to the same basic issue,” Cavuto said. “Privacy is invaded or potentially invaded, institutions of all sorts doing pretty much the same thing. There is a pattern,” he went on to say.
His guest, liberal commentator Julian Epstein, attempted to counter the idea that all of the issues Cavuto listed — including the Department of Justice’s probe of news agencies tied to national security leaks and the IRS’ heightened scrutiny of conservative groups — were exactly the same as the NSA issue. “If you want to conflate or combine all of these issues, then make these general statements you can do that,” Epstein said. “I just don’t think that’s a very thoughtful way of approaching it.”
Cavuto exploded over Epstein’s comments, calling on Epstein to “drop the liberal thing, focus on the reality thing.” Epstein tried in vain to inform Cavuto that it was worth taking each of the issues separately rather than lumping them all together:
EPSTEIN: Because I want to talk facts, and you want to make these general broadsides, Neil.
CAVUTO: Julian, you’re saying nothing and it’s offensive! Because Ben Stein —
EPSTEIN: Okay, why don’t we speak about them specifically?
CAVUTO: Julian, why don’t you talk facts? It’s annoying how obnoxious you can be on the reality.
EPSTEIN: I am talking the reality.
CAVUTO: I’m not going to play this game with you, Julian. You play the same damn game dismissing.
EPSTEIN: Neil, you’re playing the game too and —
CAVUTO: Cut his mic! Cut his mic, he’s going nowhere fast. Cut his mic! Ben, I want to be very clear to you — cut his damn mic!
Watch the full freak-out here:
http://thinkprogress.org/media/2013/06/09/2126621/cavuto-scandals-cuts-mic/
I watched this from a link on another blog. Epstein is Fox's go-to "librul" to knock around to make their point. Everyone should watch the entire clip, Cavuto and Ben Stein can't take dissent or even reasonable dialogue. It's almost comical because they're proving his point for him, cut mic or not.
DeleteAnd I say let Issa have all the rope he wants
ReplyDeletebecause he and his cronies just look worse and worse as they press on further and further.
And meanwhile, despite the GOP efforts to ruin our economy, our credit rating is up, deficits are down, and debt is down. So the GOP, by next fall, is going to look like aq bunch of petulant children who didn't get the ice skates they wanted for Christmas. Their multi-year effort to pin something, anything, on this administration is proving to be a gigantic waste of time and tax dollars. And they look like the fools they are.
DeleteAnd here in MI, Dave Camp says he will not run for an 11th Congressional term (after spending 10 terms on nonexistent tax reform) and yet, is still holding a fund-raising 'Family Picnic" here in Midland, to support his campaign. Let me guess. He was such a stellar Congressman that now he thinks he's earned the title of Senator.
Republican Deficit Hawks Go Silent After S&P Upgrades America’s Credit Outlook
DeleteRemember back when every conservative ran to their mother hen media outlet, Fox News to attack President Obama and progressives when the United States’ credit rating was downgraded. Well, S & P (Standard and Poor’s) issued their latest outlook for America and stated they are upgrading America’s credit outlook from negative to stable. So where are the conservatives applauding this? Nowhere! You would think that being the patriotic politicians and people they are they would view this would be great news for our country.
According to the report by Reuters,
'Standard & Poor’s on Monday revised its credit outlook on the United States government to stable from negative, citing Congress’s avoidance of the year-end 2012 “fiscal cliff” and the higher-than-expected tax receipts that followed.
Additionally, the ratings agency, the only one to have cut the United States from the coveted AAA status, said it does not expect the debate later in 2013 regarding a raising of the debt ceiling to result in “a sudden unplanned contraction in current spending – which could be disruptive – let along debt service.”
The latter part of the paragraph above regarding contraction of spending is particularly interesting, and may be why conservatives don’t want to talk about this news. S&P doesn’t want austerity spending contraction because it would have a negative effect of the economy which is steadily growing and in turn increasing tax revenue.
America’s deficit has been steadily declining, the treasury is reporting multiple months of surpluses this year already because the economy is substantially stronger, more people are working, and taxes on income above 400,000 dollars are up.
The bottom line is this disrupts the conservative narrative about out of control spending that Republicans used as the reason for the downgrade in the first place.
http://www.politicususa.com/2013/06/10/republican-deficit-hawks-silent-sp-upgrades-americas-credit-outlook.html
Darrell Issa Won’t Release IRS Transcripts Because They Prove Him Wrong
ReplyDeleteDarrell Issa (R-CA) is going to ignore facts once again, and forge ahead, even though he was called out Sunday by Representative Elijah Cummings (D-MD), the top Democrat on the House of Representatives Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
Cummings released a partial official interview transcript to Candy Crowley on CNN’s State of the Union Sunday, and it was revealed that the IRS manager behind the extra review of Tea Party groups described himself as a conservative Republican during the interviews.
This fact kills Darrell Issa’s entire premise that there was a political agenda behind the reviews. But Issa said in a statement released to the press that the IRS manager’s comments “did not provide anything enlightening or contradict other witness accounts.” No? They sure contradict Issa’s accounts to the press.
Issa’s office released a statement in which Issa danced quickly to avoid commenting on the actual fact that a conservative Republican was behind the “targeting”, “I strongly disagree with Ranking Member Cummings’ assertion that we know everything we need to know about inappropriate targeting of Tea Party groups by the IRS and the case is, in his word, ‘solved,’. His extreme and reckless assertions are a signal that his true motivation is stopping needed Congressional oversight and he has no genuine interest in working, on a bipartisan basis, to expose the full truth.
...Darrell Issa is great at spin, but here’s the thing. If he really is committed to exposing all of the facts, why doesn’t he release the full transcripts for the public? This is very similar to his insistence that testimony that contradicted the Republican version of Benghazi gate be relegated to behind closed doors, when the cameras were no longer rolling.
Cummings demanded that Darrell Issa release all of the transcripts from the IRS hearings, and was so confident that the full transcripts would prove his point that he threatened to release them himself if Issa won’t by the end of this week.
http://www.politicususa.com/2013/06/10/darrell-issa-wont-release-irs-transcripts-prove-wrong.html
Fox News Won’t Tell Their Viewers That A Republican Was Behind IRS Targeting
ReplyDeleteFox News is playing editing clips of Rep. Elijah Cummings, and refusing to tell their viewers that a Republican was behind the IRS targeting of tea party groups.
Video via Media Matters:
http://www.politicususa.com/2013/06/10/fox-news-viewers-republican-irs-targeting.html
Congressman Calls Out Darrell Issa And Proves Obama Wasn’t Involved In IRS Scandal
ReplyDeleteRep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) called out Darrell Issa today, and proved that President Obama was not involved in the IRS scandal by using transcripts that Issa refuses to fully release.
Video:
t is time to apply a little common sense, and ask why the Democratic ranking member of Issa’s own committee wants these interview transcripts released? If there was anything bad in these interviews for the White House and President Obama, wouldn’t Issa have released them by now? The reality is that the IRS scandal will dry up and go away when the full transcripts are released. This is why Rep. Issa won’t release them.
As soon as the IRS scandal goes away, the Republican argument that the Obama White House is riddled with scandal and a “culture of corruption” will also vanish. Darrell Issa has been caught once again trying to cherry pick his way to Obama impeachment. Issa has the evidence that will disprove his own IRS/Obama conspiracy, so he refuses to release it.
When is the media going to stop giving airtime to Darrell Issa? He lied about Fast and Furious. He lied about Benghazi, and now he is lying about the IRS scandal. Last week, when Crowley pressed Issa for evidence to back up his claim that the White House directed the IRS scandal, he fell apart and called Jay Carney a paid liar.
Most of the media went with the paid liar headline, and ignored the fact that Issa couldn’t provide any proof that Obama was involved in the IRS scandal.
Rep. Cummings is calling out Issa, and demanding the full interview transcripts. It’s make or break time. If he fails to back up his allegations with evidence, the world will soon see that the real paid liar has always been Darrell Issa.
http://www.politicususa.com/2013/06/09/congressman-calls-darrell-issa-proves-obama-involved-irs-scandal.html
Issa is locally known as one of those "Don't you know who I am?!" types. A small-minded jackass trying to keep up with the big horses.
ReplyDeleteI moved to get out of his district and wound up with Duncan Hunter. *sigh*
If I had won that $590 million lottery jackpot Darrell Issa would be defeated the next time he was on the ballot.
DeleteSeriously.
He is an embarrassment to California.
Now Republicans are going to have to ask why REPUBLICANS would single out the TEA PARTY for scrutiny.
ReplyDeleteWell, we all kinda know the answer to that one.
And it's a two-fer. Strangle the tea party and blame the president.
Darrell P ISSA NT
ReplyDeleteKeep digging, Darryl! When Rep. Cummings releases the full transcripts, I'm sure you'll find a word saldady way to politicize this non scandal.
ReplyDeleteRepeating the same thing and expecting different results has worked so well for the RWNJ's!