In my previous post I mentioned how the IRS targeting political groups is an actual scandal and one that needs investigated and addressed. I also mentioned how the last thing we need is to turn something so serious into a run of the mill, beltway witch hunt. Well that’s exactly what some of the darlings on the right is planning on doing:
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) on Monday called on the IRS commisioner to resign in the wake of the agency’s admission that staffers in the Cincinatti branch targeted conservative political groups for extra scrutiny in the run-up to the 2012 elections.
“[I]t is clear the IRS cannot operate with even a shred of the American people’s confidence under the current leadership,” Rubio wrote in a letter to Treasury Secretary Jack Lew. “Therefore, I strongly urge that you and President Obama demand the IRS Commissioner’s resignation, effectively immediately. No government agency that has behaved in such a manner can possibly instill any faith and respect from the American public.”
But there is a big problem with Rubio’s statement here:
Commissioner Douglas H. Shulman, who was appointed by President Bush in 2008 and held by President Obama, left the agency in Nov. 9, 2012. Any pre-election misconduct would have had to occur on his watch. The current acting commissioner is Steven T. Miller — a permanent replacement has not been nominated.
That’s right. The man who let this happen under his watch was a Bush appointee and isn’t there anymore. To me this should mean that Rubio is disqualified from any hearings into the matter, because he is not aware of the facts. The fact is the commissioner at the time of the scandal was a Bush appointee. Oh and that’s not “blaming Bush” as Drudge and many on the right have claimed; that’s a statement of FACT, which is the basis of what we need in these hearings.