As Elizabeth Drew argues he may have unwittingly boxed himself in already.
"Obama, anxious not to be seen defending everybody’s punching bag, the IRS, quickly ceded ground on what could be perfectly defensible actions. He may come to regret taking what seemed a trigger-happy decision to order a criminal investigation of the Internal Revenue Service, a sure way to drag people who may have—may have—simply made errors of judgment through a long and expensivelegal process that is likely also to keep the agency from examining the validity of the application for tax-free status of any group with powerful allies. If, following the Citizens United decision, there is a sudden doubling of the number of new organizations with similar names and missions, and these organizations apply for tax exempt status—and also the right to hide the names of their donors—might it not make sense to use a search engine to find them? This what the just-fired sacrificial acting IRS commissioner, testifying before a congressional committee on Friday, termed a “grouping” of the cases that had already been almost universally condemned as “targeting,” which he insisted it wasn’t. But this simple explanation wouldn’t do, didn’t warrant the term “outrage” routinely conferred on the IRS case. Could it just possibly be that the Tea Party and their allies see a great benefit in making a stink over this? How better to freeze the IRS examinations of these groups?"
http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2013/may/18/why-obama-is-not-nixon/
That we have to say we actually have to waste time saying that Obama is not Nixon shows you how degraded public discourse has gotten over the last week-thanks, by the way, to a false story by John Karl that he has yet to be honest about. I know the IRS story was there in any case but Karl's story really gave us the narrative of a scandal ridden Administration and it's proven entirely baseless but the narrative has remained.
http://editors.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2013/05/the_latest_turn_of_the_screw.php?ref=fpblg
As to the idea that the Tea Party and friends could be making a big stink of this just to benefit themselves well listen to this read meat that's being served up for Tea Party crowds in the aftermath.
“By being here today, every one of you has just signed up for an audit by the I.R.S.,” Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, a potential 2016 presidential candidate, said in a keynote speech. “You are officially now on the White House enemies list.”
"Obama, anxious not to be seen defending everybody’s punching bag, the IRS, quickly ceded ground on what could be perfectly defensible actions. He may come to regret taking what seemed a trigger-happy decision to order a criminal investigation of the Internal Revenue Service, a sure way to drag people who may have—may have—simply made errors of judgment through a long and expensivelegal process that is likely also to keep the agency from examining the validity of the application for tax-free status of any group with powerful allies. If, following the Citizens United decision, there is a sudden doubling of the number of new organizations with similar names and missions, and these organizations apply for tax exempt status—and also the right to hide the names of their donors—might it not make sense to use a search engine to find them? This what the just-fired sacrificial acting IRS commissioner, testifying before a congressional committee on Friday, termed a “grouping” of the cases that had already been almost universally condemned as “targeting,” which he insisted it wasn’t. But this simple explanation wouldn’t do, didn’t warrant the term “outrage” routinely conferred on the IRS case. Could it just possibly be that the Tea Party and their allies see a great benefit in making a stink over this? How better to freeze the IRS examinations of these groups?"
http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2013/may/18/why-obama-is-not-nixon/
That we have to say we actually have to waste time saying that Obama is not Nixon shows you how degraded public discourse has gotten over the last week-thanks, by the way, to a false story by John Karl that he has yet to be honest about. I know the IRS story was there in any case but Karl's story really gave us the narrative of a scandal ridden Administration and it's proven entirely baseless but the narrative has remained.
http://editors.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2013/05/the_latest_turn_of_the_screw.php?ref=fpblg
As to the idea that the Tea Party and friends could be making a big stink of this just to benefit themselves well listen to this read meat that's being served up for Tea Party crowds in the aftermath.
“By being here today, every one of you has just signed up for an audit by the I.R.S.,” Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, a potential 2016 presidential candidate, said in a keynote speech. “You are officially now on the White House enemies list.”
"State Senator Mark Obenshain, who won the party’s nomination for state attorney general, drew a burst of applause by issuing a personal challenge to the administration. “President Obama, the next time your rogue I.R.S. targets the Virginia Tea Party, you’re going to have to deal with me.”
"One of seven candidates competing for lieutenant governor, a retired Army colonel named Scott Lingamfelter, who was introduced by Allen B. West, a former congressman from Florida and a Tea Party favorite, wove military themes through a blistering attack on federal overreach."
“This assault of theirs on the Tea Party and the assault of the Justice Department on our liberties must stop,” Mr. Lingamfelter said as a supporter waved a “Don’t Tread on Me” flag large enough to lead a cavalry charge. He added, “I will stand on the banks of the Potomac and say, ‘Not another step!’ ”
Yeah, big words. Of course, the reality is that in the last 13 months we've seen an explosion in 401(c)(4) exemptions given to Tea Party groups following a hectoring letter by David Camp. The likely effect of all this-not least the criminal investigation- is to have a further chilling effect on low-level IRS agents doing their jobs.
What this will likely lead to is a further privileging of Tea Party applications for tax exempt status.
In light of this one has to agree with Zogby-it's really hard to believe the Republicans are operating in good faith here and an honest desire for truth in the public interest. He made this comment about their Benghazi fixation but it applies to the IRS case where you already have people trying to with no evidence link it to the President.
"Even if I wanted to ascribe the best of intentions to the Republicans who are pushing the Benghazi story, I find it difficult to do so. If they were truly concerned about "lies" that were told by government officials, the failure of an Administration to protect American lives, and the need for responsible government officials to be transparent and accountable for their actions, the place for Congress to begin would be with the Iraq war or with the Bush Administration's systematic use of torture, rendition, and other practices that violate our own and international laws."
"But, of course, this entire enterprise of "getting to the bottom of Benghazi" has nothing to do with truth, lives, or accountability. The Obama Administration's release of interagency communications, if anything, establishes nothing more than the somewhat banal practice of language vetting that, while annoying at times, has become rather standard practice."
"No, in the end, this is not about truth or governance. It is, in fact, nothing more than a continuation of the five year long effort to weaken and distract the president, in order to gain advantage over Democrats, and, in this instance, to wage a preemptive strike against former Secretary of State Hilary Clinton's presidential aspirations (should she have any)."
That's all any of this is about-hamper the President and now as an added bonus maybe hamper Hillary for 2016-assuming she's running. Getting at the truth is not the point. Scandals are not about truth. At least in Benghazi, there was a genuine tragedy. The IRS case is about some well-heeled Tea Party groups having to wait a little extra time for tax exempt status-and in the mean time they still didn't have to pay any taxes. The way it works is that you can right away declare yourself tax exempt and not pay but later on you apply for official status. Even in cases which the IRS made a group wait 2 years, they weren't paying any taxes in the mean time anyway.
The President may regret that opening of a criminal investigation so fast-how do we know anything criminal happened? It actually seems unlikely that it did. George Miller-the first sacrificial lamb for Republican bloodlust-argued on Friday that nothing illegal was done. Yet GOPers can always just point to the fact that the President himself has said it did-impicilty anyway by beginning a criminal investigation.
His Administration must understand that this is just about politics. The Republicans are intellectually and morally bankrupt and hope that these phony scandals will save them in the short term-they prefer not to even think about the long term as it's too hard.
White House Senior Adviser got it right on Sunday:
"While acknowledging there is a “very real problem at the IRS,” Pfeiffer also blasted the GOP as attempting to make it a partisan issue to “try to drag Washington into a swamp of partisan fishing expeditions, trumped-up hearings and false allegations.”
“We’ve seen this playbook from the Republicans before,” Pfeiffer said on NBC's “Meet the Press.” “What they want to do when they’re lacking a positive agenda is try to drag Washington into a swamp of partisan fishing expeditions, trumped-up hearings and false allegations. We’re not going to let that happen. The president’s got business to do for the American people.”
“There is no question that Republicans are trying to make political hay here,” he said.
There is some talk that the Dems are worried going into 2014-clearly as the above quotes show, this certainly can be used to fire up the Tea Baggers. Still at the end of the day it's a double edged sword. The Dems can run against the scandal obsessed GOP that doesn't care about the economy just sticking it to the President:
"Politico talks to Dem strategists (some unnamed) who worry that the IRS scandal could damage House candidates in 2014, particularly among independents. The core question is whether Republicans can turn the IRS scandal into a symbol of everything that’s wrong with the Dem embrace of Big Government. The counter-argument:
Democrats do have a plan to fight back. As congressional investigations kick into high gear in the coming weeks, they plan to brand Republicans as obsessed with going after Obama and uninterested in what really matters to everyday Americans — resuscitating the battered economy.
"This is where potential GOP overreach could come in."
Running against the scandal obsessed Republican party sounds like a winner to me. Already they seem to think that this gives them carte blanche to ignore actual policy questions-it's all just one long campaign spot.
Im not sure how you could further privilege the Tea Party applications for C4 status seeing as virtually none have been rejected. The IRS is a joke. It doesnt do its real job any more than the SEC or DOJ does. Its only regular citizens who really get hassled, its never the big fish.
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