This what you call "puttin lipstick on a pig." In other words, it looks good but it still digs in the mud and stinks to high heaven! If Obama thinks that this will end the investigation, he is seriously deluded. Those harmed by this outrageous abuse of power will not rest until they get their pound of flesh. And they should not!
Not since the days of Richard Nixon has there been such an abuse of American citizens. There will be many more revelations in the days to come and most will reflect very poorly on the White House and its current occupant. Will it cause a resignation? Doubtful. As Rush Limbaugh said yesterday on his program, (we paraphrase) "in today's world of political correctness, no sitting black Attorney General will ever be asked to resign nor will any black President be impeached." It might not be the exact words, but it is the general tone of his comments. We agree.
We are resigned to the fact that we have to put up with Obama and his gang of thieves and criminals for another three and a half years. Hopefully at that time they will leave! If not, then we really have a problem.
Conservative Tom
Not since the days of Richard Nixon has there been such an abuse of American citizens. There will be many more revelations in the days to come and most will reflect very poorly on the White House and its current occupant. Will it cause a resignation? Doubtful. As Rush Limbaugh said yesterday on his program, (we paraphrase) "in today's world of political correctness, no sitting black Attorney General will ever be asked to resign nor will any black President be impeached." It might not be the exact words, but it is the general tone of his comments. We agree.
We are resigned to the fact that we have to put up with Obama and his gang of thieves and criminals for another three and a half years. Hopefully at that time they will leave! If not, then we really have a problem.
Conservative Tom
Acting Chief of I.R.S. Forced Out Over Tea Party Targeting
Drew Angerer for The New York Times
President Obama arrived in the East Room of the White House to announce that the acting commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service had resigned at his request.
By JONATHAN WEISMAN
Published: May 15, 2013
WASHINGTON — President Obama announced Wednesday night that the acting commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service had been fired, and he pledged that his administration would cooperate with Congressional investigations into the targeting of conservative groups.
Multimedia
Related
At Hearing, Holder Calls Issa’s Accusations ‘Shameful’ (May 15, 2013)
Management Flaws at I.R.S. Cited in Tea Party Scrutiny(May 15, 2013)
Speaking in the White House’s formal East Room, the president said Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew had asked for and accepted the resignation of Steven Miller, who was aware of the agency’s efforts to single out conservative groups for special scrutiny as a deputy I.R.S. commissioner.
Mr. Miller is scheduled to testify on Friday before the House Ways and Means Committee in the first of a series of hearings on the I.R.S. targeting scandal.
“Americans have a right to be angry about it, and I’m angry about it,” the president said. “It should not matter what political stripe you’re from. The fact of the matter is the I.R.S. has to operate with absolute integrity.”
He vowed that the Treasury Department would ensure new safeguards were in place to prevent a similar incident from happening in the future, and he promised to work “hand in hand with Congress as it performs its oversight role.”
“We’re going to hold the responsible parties accountable,” Mr. Obama said.
Earlier Wednesday, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. warned top officials at the Internal Revenue Service that criminal laws on false statements could come into play in a Justice Department investigation on the agency’s targeting of conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
Appearing at a hearing of the House Judiciary Committee, Mr. Holder said the investigation would examine whether groups of individuals had their civil rights criminally violated and whether statutes governing I.R.S. conduct were violated.
After repeated accusations from senior lawmakers that top I.R.S. officials had lied to them, Mr. Holder also issued a warning: “False-statement violations might have been made, given at least what I know at this point.”
Three Congressional committees already have hearings planned to investigate the agency’s activities, and an early focus appears to be on whether I.R.S. officials lied to members of Congress.
Representative Darrell Issa, Republican of California and the chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, which has a hearing scheduled for next Wednesday, and Representative Jim Jordan, Republican of Ohio, sent a nine-page letter accusing Lois Lerner, the head of the I.R.S.'s division on tax-exempt organizations, of providing false or misleading information to the committee four times in 2012 as the scope of the targeting effort became clear ahead of the presidential election.
Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah, the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, which also has opened an investigation, said he was “purposely misled” by the acting I.R.S. commissioner, Steven Miller, when he and other Republican senators were told that no targeting of conservative groups had taken place.
Ahead of a public hearing on Friday with Mr. Miller, the bipartisan leadership of the House Ways and Means Committee requested all I.R.S. documents on the targeting of conservative organizations. Mr. Miller met privately with Senator Max Baucus of Montana, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, as four Republican senators, including the top two leaders, demanded his resignation.
Mr. Holder made it clear that the criminal investigation he said he ordered on Friday was only the beginning. But he said it would be based in Washington to give it the broadest possible scope and would not be concentrating solely on the service’s field office in Cincinnati, where the political targeting was largely based.
“The facts will take us wherever they take us,” he said, adding: “This will not be about parties. This will not be about ideological persuasions. Anyone who has broken the law will be held accountable.”
The other area of particluar interest to House and Senate investigators is whether top officials in the I.R.S. shared information about the targeting efforts with the Obama administration.
That Lerner woman must resign immediately. If she won't do it voluntarily, then she should be fired. If the lower-level people doing this are still at the IRS, they should go also. Then, Obama should appoint a well-respected Republican as the new acting commissioner.
ReplyDelete--David
Werfel comes in with an endorsement from George Bush's chief…
ReplyDeleteJoshua Bolten, who served as OMB chief and White House chief of staff for George W. Bush, said Werfel has a reputation as a nonpartisan problem-solver.
“He’s completely a career guy, and somebody who had an excellent reputation which I came to understand he deserved,” Bolten said.
“I think he’s a smart choice because the IRS is clearly an agency that has been badly mismanaged, with the insertion of extremely inappropriate political considerations and gone badly awry,” Bolten said. “He’s a guy who is a nonpartisan professional who has dealt with tough management situations and should rapidly earn the respect of career folks there.”
------------
That's fine, but I still want to see how long it take him to fire Lerner.
--David
I just heard that Lerner is going to plead the 5th amendment when she is called to testify. She is afraid that DOJ is going to charge her with criminal behavior. She MUST be fired!!!!
ReplyDelete--David
Lerner will not be called as she made it clear that since the Justice Department is investigating, she would have to plead the 5th to Congress. Her testimony will not be in front of Congress but probably in the courts. She will probably be the "fall-guy" for Obama.
ReplyDelete"Fall-guy?? You realize, of course, that if she is charged with a federal crime, the charges and prosecution will be executed by the Dept. of Justice headed by "stooge" Eric Holder? If she is not going to risk incriminating herself in this congressional hearing, her lawyer is not going to allow her to testify in court, either. She would be asked the same incriminating questions in court as by the committee, and she would get trapped into perjury charges when she denies her previous lies.
ReplyDelete--David
She has been put on administrative leave. At least she can't do any damage. I heard that there is a whole administrative procedure which takes months they must follow to fire her, but this is a good start in the right direction.
ReplyDelete--David
The firing (it is coming) of Lerner may turn out to be a pivotal moment in the Obama Administration. She may become the person who brings him down. It is part of government rules, if you fail to testify in front of Congress, invoke fifth, you can be terminated.
ReplyDeleteShe was only carrying out the instructions of the White House, so yes, she is the fall guy. It is an attempt to deflect the charges from obama.
Has it ever crossed your mind that she might be taking the 5th for some other reason? I am just curious how your mind processes information.
ReplyDelete--David
She is a liberal political hack who was on the Federal Election Commission and in that capacity also went after conservative groups.
ReplyDeleteFor whatever reason she took the fifth, she cannot as a government employee!