IRS Acting Commissioner Steven Miller First GOP Pound of Flesh

     While it may seem I'm not critical enough of the President this is one time I'm disappointed. This is total pandering to the rabid Republican scandal machine. Darrell Issa happily has an IRS hearing scheduled next week, but already it seems that it's almost unnecessary as everyone seems to know what happened already. 

     You have Boehner talking about people going to jail over the IRS 401(c)(4) hubbub, and now you have the President throwing Miller over board. 

    "President Barack Obama announced on Wednesday that Treasury Secretary Jack Lew requested and accepted the resignation of the acting commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, Steven Miller, following the agency's admission that agents improperly singled out conservative non-profits for additional reviews during the 2012 election."

    "I will not tolerate this kind of behavior in any agency, but especially in the IRS," Obama said at the White House. "Given the power that it has, and the reach that it has in all of our lives. And as I said earlier, it should not matter what political stripe you're from, the fact of the matter is that the IRS has to operate with absolute integrity."

   "Obama also said that his administration will implement new procedures to ensure the same kind of misconduct does not occur again, inviting lawmakers to assist in the effort."

  "I've directed Secretary Lew to ensure the IRS begins implementing the [Inspector General's] recommendations right away," Obama said. "We will work with Congress as it performs its oversight role."

   "An internal Treasury Department report conducted by the Inspector General's office found that ineffective management at the agency allowed employees to inappropriately single out conservative non-profit groups for additional reviews during in the run up to the 2012 election, focusing on such key words as “Tea Party,” ”Patriots” or “9/12 Project” in their applications."

   "In a resignation letter obtained by CNN, Miller said that he would not be leaving the agency immediately in order to facilitate a transition.

   "It is with regret that I will be departing from the IRS as my acting assignment ends in early June," Miller wrote. "This has been an incredibly difficult time for the IRS given the events of the past few days, and there is a strong and immediate need to restore public trust in the nation's tax agency. I believe the Service will benefit from having a new Acting Commissioner in place during this challenging period. As I wrap up my time at the IRS, I will be focused on an orderly transition."

     http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/irs-acting-commissioner-resigns-after-targeting-scandal?ref=fpa

     Yes, what does it matter that we've had no investigation yet to figure out exactly what wrongdoing-if wrongdoing there was, and at this point we have very little to go on-much less how Miller is personally responsible. Most of this went on before he was there anyway. On the other hand, he was scheduled to step down anyway. 

    The GOP loves this-their only pleasure is in causing others pain; just look at their jubilation in forcing the sequester, which as of today is responsible for over 8000,000 furloughs for federal workers already. 

   Obama is already appeasing them with sacrifices. Of course, they are so spiteful they can't even admit it, or throw the prostrate Obama a bone:

   "Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said Wednesday that Internal Revenue Service acting commissioner Steven Miller, who was asked to step down by the Obama administration, was "clearly a scapegoat" and that President Barack Obama was ultimately responsible for inappropriate targeting of non-profit groups."

   http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/priebus-fired-irs-chief-was-obamas-scapegoat

   To be sure, Priebus is right that Miller is a sacrificial lamb. Next their demanding Lois Lerner's head-it's already started. Is anyone ever going to go on offense against this absurdity? The fact is that the IRS did the right thing in scrutinizing many of these groups. How many Tea Party groups honestly are involved in no electoral activities? Why exactly do we have to give Tea Party groups a tax subsidy anyway? 

   Thanks to Citizen's United, there was a doubling in the number of applications for tax exempt status. How many of these Tea Party groups were even denied 401(c)(4)? Meanwhile some Democratic groups were actually denied. Until we get a lot more context we really don't know what happened exactly. It's vital to realize that it wasn't only Tea Party groups that were scrutinized but liberal groups were as well. If there were more Tea Party groups doesn't by itself show that this was undeserved. 

   I can't blame people like Greg-Nanute has said stuff like this before too-for wanting to leave the country if this is what we're going to be hearing about for the foreseeable future. 

   In a way this is natural for the GOP to go this way. After all, they are intellectually and morally bankrupt so they can't really win in the arena of ideas. Scandal fills an important vacuum. Ultimately I don't think they'll win. They didn't against Clinton. 

   It turns out that the GOP has a very limited range of moves-basically obstruct and if this hits a snag, investigate. While they lost against Clinton the American people also lost as most the Clinton's second term was about defense, even if he survived. 

   It's imperative that this be avoided. I don't see how Obama's feeding the beast will help us do that.