Did Obama Use IRS Union to Target Tea Party?

New disclosure shows cozy relationship between Obama and IRS union!

The White House has been very clear that they exercised no improper, political influence over the IRS. Directly that is. Someone needs to ask Obama whether he did an end run around that standard of conduct by working with the IRS union to accomplish targeting of Tea Party groups?

Writing at the American Spectator Jeffrey Lord documents close ties between Obama and the IRS union head. White House visits went hand in hand with an Executive Order which granted "employees and unions to have pre-decisional involvement in all workplace matters."

Shortly after that Executive Order was signed in December 2010 the IRS began targeting conservative groups. Lord writes:

The very next day after her White House meeting with the President, according to the Treasury Department’s Inspector General’s Report, IRS employees — the same employees who belong to the NTEU — set to work in earnest targeting the Tea Party and conservative groups around America. The IG report wrote it up this way:

April 1-2, 2010: The new Acting Manager, Technical Unit, suggested the need for a Sensitive Case Report on the Tea Party cases. The Determinations Unit Program Manager Agreed.

In short: the very day after the president of the quite publicly anti-Tea Party labor union — the union for IRS employees — met with President Obama, the manager of the IRS “Determinations Unit Program agreed” to open a “Sensitive Case report on the Tea party cases.” As stated by the IG report.

The order for that change in procedure had to come from some where. This wasn't just a few rogue employees. Did the IRS union use it's new power under Obama's Executive Order, perhaps even at Obama's direction, to change IRS work procedures?

Lord goes on to point out Obama's curious answer at a press conference last week where he dodged a direct question: "Can you assure the American people that nobody in the White House knew about the agency’s actions before your Counsel’s Office found out on April 22nd?" Obama's answer: " I can assure you that I certainly did not know anything about the IG report before the IG report had been leaked through the press." Notice the disconnect?

What was the White House involvement with the IRS union? Did anyone at the White House know of the IRS targeting of the Tea Party prior to the Inspector General's report? Did Obama or White House staff direct the IRS union to effect changes in workplace procedure?

If Obama is unwilling to give direct answers to these questions then we must demand a Special Prosecutor to get the answers the hard way. If Obama used the IRS, however indirectly, it may well be a very serious matter indeed!

Where Was the Commander in Chief the Night of Benghazi Attack?

And why does the White House want to keep it a secret?

When Navy Seals killed Osama bin Laden the White House was only too eager to release photos showing Obama in the Situation Room and to discuss the raid in detail. When asked where Obama was during the time our people in Benghazi were being killed by Al Queda terrorists on September 11, 2012 the White House has refused to answer. The question is why?

On Fox News Sunday, host Chris Wallace repeatedly asked White House Communications Director Dan Pfieffer where Obama was during the attack. Pfieffer refused to answer [video] and claimed the information was "irrelevant," a word he used multiple times on Sunday news shows to dismiss the seriousness of White House scandals.

Why not answer a simple question?

What was Obama doing? Obviously if he had been in command of the crisis it would help their case to release the information so we can only conclude that he was occupied elsewhere. But what could be more important than to have the Commander in Chief in the chair during such a crisis. It's been thirty years since a U.S. Ambassador was killed in the line of duty. Didn't this situation warrant Obama's direct personal attention?

Was Obama upstairs in the residence having dinner with Michelle? Certainly the image of Obama dining while Americans were dying is not one the White House would like to promote.

Or,  it's possible that the White House goal here is to stir up conspiracy theories the same way they manipulated the "birthers" who thought Obama was born in Kenya. If so, it would be a damnable thing to willfully work to incite distrust and suspicion on the part of the American people.

I'm reminded again of this famous Obama quote: ‘The only people that don’t want to disclose the truth, are people with something to hide.”

Chicago Journalist Describes Why IRS Scandal is Result of Obama's "Chicago Way" Politics

Why is anyone surprised that Obama and his team turned out to be as corrupt and incompetent as any other Chicago politician?

Chicago Tribune columnist John Kass is not a friend of Obama. Kass has seen the dark, seedy reality of Chicago politics and knew from the start that Obama's veneer of being some new kind of politician was all hooey.

Trying to explain the roots of the IRS scandal Kass goes back to what is known as "The Chicago Way" from the perspective of his own Chicago family, a group of Greek immigrants. On Sundays the family would gather and argue politics after dinner and one day, young John asked senior family members why they didn't get involved in politics. It was as if he had committed some gross indecency and his question was ignored but he repeated it:

We could support a political candidacy, we could donate or work for one or another politician that we agreed with.

This is America, I said.

"Are you in your good senses?" said my father. "We have lives here. We have businesses. If we get involved in politics, they will ruin us."

And no one, not the Roosevelt Democrats or the Reagan Republicans, disagreed. The socialists, the communists, the royalists, everyone nodded their heads.

This was Chicago. And for a business owner to get involved meant one thing: It would cost you money and somebody from government could destroy you.

The health inspectors would come, and the revenue department, the building inspectors, the fire inspectors, on and on. The city code books aren't thick because politicians like to write new laws and regulations. The codes are thick because when government swings them at a citizen, they hurt.

And who swings the codes and regulations at those who'd open their mouths? A government worker. That government worker owes his or her job to the political boss. And that boss has a boss.

The worker doesn't have to be told. The worker wants a promotion. If an irritant rises, it is erased. The hack gets a promotion. This is government.

Obama himself reiterated his belief in The Chicago Way when he told an Hispanic audience before the midterm elections in 2010 that "We’re gonna punish our enemies and we’re gonna reward our friends." This statement was made at the same time the IRS was doing everything it could to throw the rule book (and inventing a few new rules) at conservatives!

Sadly, we can't have a do over for the 2012 election but we can hold Obama and his corrupt, incompetent minions accountable. Congress can hold hearings and if the Obama Administration continues to obstruct those investigations a Special Prosecutor needs to be appointed. I say we get a prosecutor from Chicago. One who has experience with the kind of corruption we see all around us from the Obama Administration!

Dem's Defense: Obama and Admin are Ignorant, Insular, Incompetent and Idiotic!

That's what his FRIENDS say about Obama and his team!

Last week saw an avalanche of commentary and news reports all painting Obama and his Administration in a less than favorable light. There are so many examples it would be difficult to cite them all but here's a sampling:

• “We’re portrayed by Republicans as either being lying or idiots,” said one Obama administration official who was part of the Benghazi response. “It’s actually closer to us being idiots.”
• David Rohde writes a column in The Atlantic titled "How Obama Has Contributed to His Own Aura of Scandal," in which he concludes "the president's biggest sin is being aloof and disengaged."
• "Obama, the uninterested president" by By Dana Milbank in the Washington Post says "President Passerby needs urgently to become a participant in his presidency."
• MSNBC's Chris Matthews says Obama is "a ship with the engine off."
• “‘It feel like they don’t know what they’re here to do,’ a former senior Obama administration official said. ‘When there’s no narrative, stuff like this consumes you.’” (Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei, “D.C. Turns On Obama,” Politico, 5/14/13
• “This White House’s Instinctive Petulance, Arrogance And Defensiveness Have All Worked Together To Isolate Obama At A Time When He Most Needs A Support System.” (Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei, “D.C. Turns On Obama,” Politico, 5/14/13)
•  "In the current atmosphere of multi-ring uproars, it is easier to make a case that a mindset of inattention to governing detail and excessive attention to politics was at work in the State Department on Benghazi, and the IRS on investigation of tea party groups, even if Obama isn’t shown to be directly involved.” (Alexander Burns and John F. Harris, “Obama’s Dangerous New Narrative,” Politico, 3/15/13)
• National Journal ‘s Ron Fournier Says He Doesn’t Know Whether Obama’s Late Realization Of The IRS Scandal Is Due To His Insulation Or Simply “PR Incompetence.”   (MSNBC’s “Hardball,” 5/14/13)
• “President Obama And His Insular Team Are Violating Almost Every Principle Of Crisis Management. Shoot Straight. Ditch The Spin. Don’t Feed The Fire. Restore Trust.” (Ron Fournier, “Does Obama Need Staff Shakeup To Manage Scandals,” National Journal, 5/14/13)
•  Democrats also criticized the president for not being more aggressive in responding to trouble within the government. Robert Gibbs, Obama’s former White House press secretary, said the president should have appointed a bipartisan commission of former IRS officials to look into the issue of targeting political organizations. And Gibbs gently chided his former boss for using passive language when he first addressed the political targeting during a White House news conference Monday.” (Julie Pace, “Obama Tries To Regain Control Amid Controversies,” The Associated Press, 5/15/13)
• "The Obama administration is making the case for conservatism better than Mitt Romney ever did."By John Dickerson Slate.Com 5/14/13
• "In Obama’s case, the narrative emerging from this tumultuous week goes something like this: None of these messes would have happened under a president less obsessed with politics, less insulated within his own White House and less trusting of government as an institution." Politico, 5/15/13

Then there were the hearings on Capitol Hill and Obama press conferences where either Obama or top Administration officials repeatedly deny nothing anything about much of anything. As former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said, "the only thing Obama will take responsibility for is killing bin Laden." When it comes to the everyday running of government he seems totally clueless.

Remember that just six weeks ago news outlets were running stories like "Obama Takes Control In The Second Term," and "no question who’s in charge." Now Obama's top campaign strategist, David Axelrod, is running around saying that the government is just too big and it's not possible to control it. Yet Axelrod, with the willing help of many of the media sources cited above gladly put out the myth of Obama in 2008 as some sort of superhuman who could do it all!

Well, I still remember the words of  Harriet Christian, a Hillary supporter from New York who delivered an angry rant in 2008 trying to warn us all that Obama as "inadequate" for the job. Her words seem mild in hindsight.

Ignorant, Insular, Incompetent, Idiotic. Obama's friends are describing him using many of the same words Republicans have for years!

Highlights of IRS Hearing

Hearing raises new questions about whether White House knew about plan to target conservatives!

Friday's hearing was a smackdown on the IRS chief brought to testify. However, despite being fired from his job (he planned to leave anyway) Acting IRS Commissioner Steve T. Miller was arrogant and largely uncooperative with Representatives who made no secret about their anger at the IRS.

The hearing opened with Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R-MI) saying that the IRS has lied to the American people about the scandal which top IRS officials knew about for more than a year. Camp went on to say that this was “just the latest example of a culture of cover-ups — and political intimidation — in this administration. It seems like the truth is hidden from the American people just long enough to make it through an election.”

Rep. Camp added: "Trimming a few branches will not solve the problem when the roots of the tree have gone rotten and that is exactly what has happened with our entire tax system - it is rotten at the core, and it must be ripped out so we can start fresh."

Video highlights of the hearings can be found here but I would like to highlight two for your special attention. The first is the questioning by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), the former GOP vice presidential nominee. Ryan laid out the case for the lies told by the IRS. Lies to Congress are a criminal offense:

RYAN: "How can we conclude that you did not mislead this committee?"

The second clip by Rep. Mike Kelly slams the IRS:

KELLY: "And when the IRS comes in, you’re not allowed to be shoddy, you’re not allowed to be run horribly, you’re not allowed to make mistakes, you’re not allowed to do one damn thing that doesn’t come in compliance. If you do, you’re held responsible right then.”...“This is absolutely an overreach and this is an outrage for all America!"

At that point the audience in the hearing rose to their feet in thunderous applause!

Also at the hearing we learned that at least one tax exempt applicant was asked to "detail the content of the members of your organization’s prayers." Doesn't that smack of a clear violation of civil rights and the separation of church and state liberals are constantly going on about?

From the Treasury Inspector General's testimony we also learned that Obama Administration officials were made aware of the probe last June which will only prompt more questions about what the White House knew and why this information was withheld from the American people until after the election.

Just like Watergate!

Roundup of the Latest News on IRS Scandal

The abuse of power is so widespread it's hard to imagine it happened without people at the top knowing about it!

• USA Today has the analysis of approvals of tax exempt groups. The first Tea Party group was approved in 90 days. After the mysterious change in policy, there wouldn't be another Tea Party group approved for 27 months. Meanwhile, approval for liberal groups sailed through.
• In all, about 471 conservative groups had their tax exempt status delayed and with unlawful scrutiny. Only three examples of similar scrutiny for liberal groups was found.
• In 2011 Conservative watchdog group Media Trackers filed with the IRS to achieve nonprofit status. The application got stuck in Obama-induced IRS limbo. In 2012 the same group changed its name and filed again with the IRS as “Greenhouse Solutions.” They were granted nonprofit status in 3 weeks.
  IRS agents in Cincinnati insist that "they simply did what their bosses ordered."
• IRS employees gave political donations overwhelmingly in favor of Obama. One of those at the heart of the scandal has a husband whose law firm has close ties to the Obama campaign.
• Another IRS employee in the division which oversaw this scandal was awarded a $103,390 bonus. She's now been put in charge of IRS implementation of ObamaCare!
• Karl Rove reminds us that it was Democrats in the U.S. Senate who constantly wrote the IRS demanding an investigation of Tea Party groups. Obviously those demands were not ignored.

Need further proof that the IRS under Obama is out of control? Another of those groups targeted for investigation was none other than Billy Graham, a revered Christian leader. That's right, they even went after Billy Graham!

Graham's son Franklin sent President Obama a letter (PDF). From the report in Politico:

Graham said that “in light” of the IRS admission that it targeted tea party groups for added scrutiny, “I do not believe that the IRS audit of our two organizations last year is a coincidence – or justifiable.”

“While these audits not only wasted taxpayer money, they wasted money contributed by donors for ministry purposes as we had to spend precious resources servicing the IRS agents in our offices,” Graham wrote in the letter, which was shared with POLITICO. “I believe that someone in the administration was targeting and attempting to intimidate us. This is morally wrong and unethical – indeed some would call it ‘un-American.”

Obama Dodges Question on White House Involvement

In the press conference Thursday Obama was asked "Can you assure the American people that nobody in the White House knew about the agency’s actions before your counsel’s office found out on April 22nd?" His answer was very curious. He did not answer the question but instead said "Let me make sure that I answer your specific question. I can assure you that I certainly did not know anything about the IG report before the IG report had been leaked through the press." How was that an answer to a "specific question" whether anyone in the White House knew about the IRS practice before the scandal broke? The reporter didn't even ask about the Inspector General's report that Obama referred to.

More questions will need to be asked, THEN ANSWERED! One political analyst in Washington put it this way:

Trey Hardin: “I will tell you this on the IRS front. I’ve worked in this town for over 20 years in the White House and on Capitol Hill and I can say with a very strong sense of certainty that there are people very close to this president that not only knew what the IRS were doing but authorized it. It simply just does not happen at an agency level like that without political advisers likely in the West Wing certainly connected to the president’s ongoing campaign organization.”

There are some Washington reporters still willing to carry Obama's water. Ezra Klein at the Washington Post has decreed that the scandals are over because Obama has spoken and told us there's nothing wrong. Corruption and stupidity still go hand in hand!

Finally, the evasions on the IRS scandal, like Benghazi, remind me of these words from an Obama radio address in August 2010:

 Obama: "The only people who don't want to disclose the truth are people with something to hide."

UPDATE: IRS Hid Investigation Until After Election!

• NBC's Lisa Myers reported this morning that the IRS  deliberately chose not to reveal that it had wrongly targeted conservative groups until after the 2012 presidential election. Did IRS officials lie to Congress when questions were raised in 2012?
• An Obama tax exempt group was approved in 34 days at the same time conservative groups were put on hold for months, even years.
• Senior Democratic Sen. Max Baucus, who recently slapped Obamacare as a "train wreck," believes that the IRS scandal is just beginning and that "a lot more" damaging information will be revealed, likely at congressional hearings."I have a hunch that a lot more is going to come out, frankly."
• CBS News Bob Schieffer: I mean, just all of a sudden you have this thing with the Justice Department where they’re getting all these phone records of all the reporters. The Attorney General, well he didn’t know anything about it. You get to the IRS, they don’t seem to know anything about the Tea Party thing. You come to White House, they don’t know anything about Benghazi. Somebody’s got to grab hold of this thing. It’s very, very disturbing what we’re seeing here.
• Kimberly Strassel at the Wall Street Journal traces years of Obama attacks on conservatives and concludes: "according to Mr. Obama, he is "outraged" and "angry" that the IRS looked into the very groups and individuals that he spent years claiming were shady, undemocratic, even lawbreaking." Obama didn't need to make the call ordering the IRS to investigate conservatives. They heard him loud and clear every day!
• John Fund describes Obama's weak management style and raises the question about Chicago pal Valerie Jarrett's possible role in all this.

When these scandals first broke I pointed to Obama's attack on conservatives at the commencement address at Ohio State University earlier this month. I'm glad to see the same theme repeated: