IRS scandal has legs...think centipede

[William Thornton]

Being several thousands of miles away the past couple of weeks caused me to miss a couple of things here:

1. IRS Director of the Tax-Exempts Division at the Internal Revenue Service Lois Learner did what, my politically lib brethren, last week while before a house committee? Took the Fifth Amendment? Uh huh. Legs.

2.The scandal is being investigated by a committee chaired by whom? Max Baucus, Democratic senator? Uh huh. Legs.

This is going to be good, though sad.

Nixonian, although Nixon only talked about targeting his enemies by using the IRS.

[Dave Roberts]

The biggest problem for the "right wing" is connecting the actions of IRS career civil service employees to the Obama administration. After all, these are not political appointees.

[William Thornton]

[Sandy]

Did you happen to catch George Stephanopolous this morning? It does indeed have legs, and many of them spread from none other than Karl Rove, who was behind the appointment of the IRS official who made the allowances to extend 501C-3 status to groups with political purposes in the first place. Why would Rove be behind something like that? Because he is a multi-million dollar contributor to his own PAC, and got a huge tax deduction for it, even though it doesn't meet the standards of being a "social welfare organization." Good job, Ariana Huffington, for pressing the point and calling him out on it, and opening up a huge can of worms that the tea partiers and their ilk don't want opened. I'll bet, if the results of those investigations are opened, we will find that none of those organizations meet the 501C-3 criterion, and they and their contributors will wind up owing billions in taxes. And it was a Bush administration official who signed off on most of it.

As far as Holder goes, here's the bottom line. There have been absolutely no prosecutions related to any of the investigations he initiated involving reporters. None. No laws were broken. None. Therefore, Holder can't be guilty of what the GOP is accusing him of, and there can be no perjury. Dig into that Quinipiac poll and you'll find that 76% of the respondents, 76%, feel that the GOP is just looking for political fodder. This is going to bite them as big as the Clinton impeachment did in '98. Remember that? That helped the Democrats gain seats in Congress, the first time the party in power gained during a second term mid-term. This is going to do the same.

[Sandy]

[William Thornton]

I do sometimes wishi were a betting man. I could easily supplement my retirement income by persuading my friend Sandy to put some money where his cyber mouth is.

Alas, I haven't made any real bets since around 1972 at a dog race. I'm afraid Holder and the IRS scandal is a dog for Sandy.

[Haruo]

William, in 1972, did you win or lose?

[Sandy]

[William Thornton]

[William Thornton]

[Hal Eaton]

I have just sat through a couple of hours of Fox news and coverage of Congressional committee action on the "Targetting" "Scandal".

It is interesting to observe some of our leaders (those identifiable with an "R" in front of their names) as they follow a tortuous path seeking evidence that one or more of their "targets" in the IRS (.org) said some words before (or after) such-and-such a date regarding just how much they knew about how some far-distant (Cincinnati!) employees worded their attempts to acquire definitive knowledge concerning requests (demands?) by applicants to obtain tax-exempt approval for their politcally-based contributors. (Now THERE is a sentence!)

Howsabout the claims by the (social welfare) Tea Party enthusiasts that they were responsible for electing their favorites to office?

It calls to mind my favorite cartoon: The hand, disappearing down the terlet, with the caption, "I'm right! I'm right! . . .Glug!"

[KeithE]

The ”legs” have just been cutoff (as I previously reported .)

.

Face it, virtually all 501(c)(4) were violating the law.

We must have campaign finance reform where media outlets grant equal time for all declared candidates. Ideas not money should rule. Right now positions are being bought with strings attached. We are not a democracy or republic. We are a plutocracy (aka as as our foremost media expert Robert McChesney and one of our best political analysts John Nichols say in the book by this title)

[William Thornton]

[KeithE]

[William Thornton]

Perhaps we could get a gummit grant and that money cold be made available by deep sixing the duck penii study. Several hundred thou ought to be enough.

[KeithE]

[Dave Roberts]

CNN reports that a member of Congress is not reporting that the IRS was also targeting "liberal" and "progressive" groups. It appears that the IRS may be an "equal opportunity offender. Here's the link:

[KeithE]

[Sandy]

Apparently they have questioned hundreds of IRS employees, of whom many have been conservative Republicans, and there's still no evidence of any real wrongdoing, policy violations, and not even anything close to the category of scandal. These things are going to backfire big time, especially if the Republicans keep pressing them. Their house speaker and Congressional members are down to a 9% job approval rating, the lowest in history.