Recent charges that the Internal Revenue Service had singled out Tea Party-affiliated groups for vetting had seemingly been debunked. But Congressman Darrell Issa (R - CA) is a Man With a Mission, by crackey! As chairman of the Government Oversight and Reform Committee, he'll leave no stone unturned, even if it entails beating a dead horse, burying it, then digging it up and beating it some more.
Yes, it may be true --- to an extent --- that the IRS office in Cincinnati had singled out Tea Party organizations for special scrutiny at the behest of Lois Lerner, the since-retired head of the Exemptions Department. And why not? In the wake of the 2010 Supreme Court decision, Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission, a mass of such groups materialized within a short period of time. Many were financed by extremely generous benefactors such as the Koch brothers.
But over time, the entire vetting effort included 298 groups overall, spanning the entire political spectrum. Does 96 out of 298 seem out of proportion? If so, maybe it's because of the Tea Party donors' bottomless pockets.
What was to be gained by subpoenaing Ms. Lerner? The fact that she invoked the Fifth Amendment became an issue. I can only assume that that's what her counsel advised her to do. Chairman Issa has been known to play loosey-goosey with such inconveniences as facts, mainly by presenting evidence out of context, as he had done in the past with this IRS affair.
I can well understand Ms. Lerner's desire to avoid having to face undue stress brought on by Chairman Issa's spurious accusations. It shouldn't always be assumed that pleading the Fifth automatically implies guilt.
Once it became painfully apparent to the Good Chairman that he wasn't going to have his way with Ms. Lerner, he staged a magnificent tantrum and ground the proceedings to a shrieking halt. But Congressman Elijah Cummings of Maryland, the ranking Democrat on the committee would have none of it.
More on this saga in a day or two.
Yep, this is sad and ridiculous, but no more so than the "brown bag school lunch" saga created by Paul Ryan of Wisconsin--this episode validating the wisdom of hearsay being generally disallowed in courts of law...that, and he based a whole opinion on one story, couching his opinion in a fatuous, insincere "warm and fuzzy" when his Ayn Rand philosophy just doesn't allow him to care about poor kids. --Yuck! Decent Republicans had best wrest control from these fringers, and soon....
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