Saturday, July 13, 2013

Inspector General reviews 5,500 e-mails, finds NO evidence of political targeting of Tea Party groups by IRS. Can this "scandal" finally be considered dead?

"I have an agenda, Stop trying to confuse me with the facts!"
Courtesy of Bloomberg:  

An inspector general’s review of 5,500 e-mails among Internal Revenue Service employees found “no indication” that their scrutiny of Tea Party groups was politically motivated, according to documents being released today by Democrats. 

An e-mail from a top investigator in the inspector general’s office bolsters Democrats’ claims that anti-tax Tea Party groups received extra scrutiny because of confusion and unclear direction, rather than an attempt to hurt Republican-leaning organizations. 

“The e-mail traffic indicated there were unclear processing directions and the group wanted to make sure they had guidance on processing the applications so they pulled them,” the investigator said in the e-mail, dated May 3, just 11 days before the inspector general’s report criticizing the IRS came out. “This is a very important nuance.” 

The partially redacted documents also contain information that supports Democrats’ contention that “progressive” groups were scrutinized and Republicans’ assertions that Tea Party groups applying for nonprofit status were treated differently. 

The documents are being released by Representative Elijah Cummings of Maryland, the top Democrat on the Oversight and Government Reform Committee, who is questioning the quality of the report from J. Russell George, the inspector general for tax administration.

I asked the question in the headline whether THIS was finally enough evidence to put this thing to rest and convince the Republicans that they  were beating the crap out of a clearly deceased horse.However sadly I already know the answer.

This from the Huffington Post: 

Internal Revenue Service officials from Washington and the Cincinnati office at the center of the controversy over IRS scrutiny of conservative groups are set to testify in Congress next week. 

The House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform said the not-yet-named officials will appear on July 18 before the panel, which is investigating the matter. 

"This hearing will examine why decisions to elevate cases to more senior levels of the IRS led to unjust delays and unfair treatment of Tea Party applications," Republican Committee Chairman Darrell Issa said in a statement on Wednesday.

I know, right?

My only assumption about this is that Issa is determined to keep this issue open as long as possible in the vain hope that while digging he will somehow uncover a REAL scandal that he can then focus on much like how the misguided Whitewater investigation against President and Hillary Clinton stumbled across Monica Lewinsky.

This is how the Republicans do politics these days.

And they have substantial help from Fox News, who just the other day reran their "Special Report" on Benghazi. Which of course was yet ANOTHER "devastating scandal" that was going to take down this President and his administration.

Just imagine how much we could be accomplishing if we had Republicans in office willing to work in good faith with the Democrats, rather than constantly on alert for possible conspiracy theories, and opportunities to damage the Presidents credibility.

8 comments:

  1. Anonymous10:25 AM

    Gryph. Might want to change your headline from "Attorney General" to "Inspector General.". Otherwise they'll be calling for the investigation of a coverup by Eric Holder next (or should I say again).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks. I guess I am just used to typing Attorney General.

      Delete
  2. Sally in MI10:30 AM

    My 50 year old sister got into a screaming fit this AM with my mom (who lives with her, unfortuantely) after my mom mentioned the Zimmerman trial and asked her to text her if the verdict came in. My sister screamed that Zimmerman was being railroaded, and somehow blamed Obama after a few minutes of yelling about the liberal media and every other Fox headline she could come up with. So yeah, I'm sure this is not going away no matter how many investigations come up with facts. Issa doesn't care.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous11:23 AM

      Ha. That's because business insider or one of those sites ran a story about how the justice department caused all the protests.

      Sadly, I think he'll walk. The prosecutor seemed to be half assing it.

      I'm more excited for the Great Big Birth.

      Delete
  3. Anonymous10:37 AM

    "Stop stepping on my partisan ideological witch hunt with all of your documented facts and evidence that prove I'm a political con man and a liar. We don't really care what the truth is. We've got a job to do, and that's to smear the President's name in any way possible. Ben Ghazi!!!..."

    Dan "Grand Theft Auto" Issa,
    Pathological Liar & Crook

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous11:21 AM

    What a waste of money this disaster was!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Well, of course not. Because the Inspector General must be biased.

    Face it.

    This thing won't die until the Republicans find someone, somewhere to support their already chosen belief that the IRS was biased. They'll continue to push their witch hunt meme until they have "proof" or until no proof is needed because they have finally brainwashed the public into believing their way.

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  6. Anonymous1:34 PM

    Republicans need to be voted out of the U.S. Congress in their upcoming election cycles. They could care less about the American people in that they've done ZERO about making jobs a probability since President Obama and VP Biden were elected the first time!

    Plus, they are proven to be liars - time and time again!

    ReplyDelete

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