Yesterday news broke that the IRS had also been targetting progressive groups, as well as others:
George’s report criticized the IRS for using “inappropriate criteria” to identify tea party and other conservative groups. It did not mention more liberal organizations, but in response to questions from lawmakers at congressional hearings, George said he had recently found other lists that raised concerns about other “political factors” he did not specify.
Democratic staff on Ways and Means said in a press release that they had verified that of the 298 groups seeking tax-exempt status that George’s audit had examined, some were liberal organizations — something George’s report did not mention.
So the whole “targeting conservatives” thing is now moot. But how come the IG report didn’t talk about other groups being targeted. How could such an oversight, that sent Darrell Issa into a a warpath against the administration, occur?
Well, as it turns out, it occurred because of Darrell Issa:
The Treasury inspector general (IG) whose report helped drive the IRS targeting controversy says it limited its examination to conservative groups because of a request from House Republicans.
A spokesman for Russell George, Treasury’s inspector general for tax administration, said they were asked by House Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) “to narrowly focus on Tea Party organizations.”
Now when reading that, remember that last month I reported that Darrell Issa knew this targeting was happening over a year ago. So what Issa has done here is use government resources in an attempt to drum up false evidence that the big, bad Obama was stomping on the rights of conservatives.
Issa MUST be forced to answer for this. Not only should Democrats be pissed off at this apparent malfeasance by Issa, but Republicans should as well. I believe some sort of reprimand and a loss of his spot as chairman should be the minimum that happens to him. The same would happen to a prosecutor that manufactured evidence to try and get a conviction.
So we need to call on John Boehner and Eric Cantor to take their colleague to the woodshed. Let the House open a full investigation into this and if what is being reported turns out to be true, Darrell Issa must be made to answer. If not, then the very same thing could end up happening to a Republican administration in the future.