Posted on 06/21/2013 12:29:15 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Mitch McConnell delivered a speech today at the American Enterprise Institute to officially signal that the IRS scandal has entered its post-fact phase. When the IRS first revealed that its Cincinnati office had attempted to enforce its nonprofit laws using a search function that disproportionately impacted conservatives, Republicans were certain it must have come from the White House. They were going to follow the facts. But all of the facts point in the same direction, which is that the Obama administration had nothing to do with it at all. That was the conclusion of the agency’s inspector-general report, as well as the House Oversight Committee’s own interviews, which the Republican majority tried to suppress and which (when the Democrats released them) showed the operation was an independent, well-intentioned effort to enforce the law led by an IRS official who happens to be a conservative Republican.
McConnell’s speech is an attempt to reframe the issue in a way that it can survive the utter absence of incriminating facts. One method he employs is to flip around the burden of proof: Now we have an administration that’s desperately trying to prove that nobody at the top was involved in any of this stuff, even as they hope that the media loses interest in this scandal and moves on …
Got that? Before Republicans were going to prove that Obama’s administration was involved. All of the evidence suggests it wasn’t. So now McConnell is framing the question as Obama trying to prove he wasn’t involved. Which, of course, he can’t. For that matter, McConnell can’t prove that he didn’t mastermind the IRS. You can’t prove a negative.
McConnell also argues that the scandal is larger than facts about illegality or misconduct — “what we’re dealing with here is larger than the actions of one agency or any group of employees.” By "larger," McConnell means the scandal is just the same nebulous suspicions they have always had about Democrats running the government: The attacks on speech that we’ve seen over the past several years were never limited to a few Left-wing pressure groups or the DISCLOSE Act. They extend throughout the federal government, to places like the FEC, the FCC, HHS, the SEC, and as all Americans now know — even to the IRS. These assaults have often been aided and abetted by the administration’s allies in Congress.
The “Disclose Act” is a proposed measure that would require unregulated political groups to publicly disclose their donors. Back when campaign finance reformers were trying to actually put limits on outside donations, McConnell was a fierce advocate of this idea. Since the Supreme Court killed spending limits, disclosure has become the best reformers can hope for, and McConnell has now turned against it and indeed portrays it as a sinister Nixonian attempt to suppress free speech.
The belligerent and borderline-paranoid tone of McConnell’s speech today is a kind of covered retreat, signaling the IRS scandal’s turn into a vague trope that conservatives use with other members of the tribe, the way liberals liked to say “Halliburton” during the Bush years, to signal some dark beliefs they don’t need to back up.
It wasn't a "report", it was an audit. There has not yet been any full investigation that names who actually ordered the illegal activities.
What a horrendous group of liars and creeps.
That being said, I would not believe this writer (Chait) any farther than I could spit our boat........
Why do you always find a way to defend big government? Don’t you realize that FR is a conservative site dedicated to fighting big government and its abuses? I think you’d fit right in on a GOP-e RINO site.
I said from the get go Issa would utterly screw this up. Guess what.
Oops, meant to ping you to my last post.
Bull cookies. The IRS was used as a weapon against this administration’s political foes. It doesn’t get any more felonious than that. Obama needs to be impeached, imprisoned and shamed for eternity. A lot of his fellow henchmen should go to jail as well.
The IRS scandal will be over when Sen. McConnell announces that Congress has discovered Justice John Marshall’s official clarification of Congress’s Article I, Section 8-limited power to lay taxes.
Post fact phase?
Isn’t that when it enters it’s indictment phase?
Over? Ha!
I wonder if Tom Delay has any opinion on the IRS targeting conservatives?
Oh, and McConnell can KMA! He acts like a prison trustee with his drawers around his ankles.
He’s quoting McConnell. This is not the only source. While the conclusions here mean little to me, it is absolutely clear Issa screwed it up and McConnell tossed it into the wind.
PLEASE tell me McConnell gets primaried?
And it will get so bad, that we will look back on this particular atrocity and think wow, what were we so upset about, that was nothing compared to what's going on now. I figure we'll be at that point in another two years. HUSSEIN is going to let out all the stops from now until 2016, he knows no one is going to stop him,,,,fast&furious, benghazi, IRS, AP, immigration, etc. he can do whatever he wants, dems won't stop him and republicans lack the testosterone.
At least when Amb. Stevens was sodomized by the terrorists, there was blood for all see in the video and pics.
With Mitch, we’re left to imagine the stains on his integrity and soul.
See ‘em nonetheless we do, Mitch!
HF
At least when Amb. Stevens was sodomized by the terrorists, there was blood for all to see in the video and pics.
With Mitch, we’re left to imagine the stains on his integrity and soul.
See ‘em nonetheless we do, Mitch!
HF
I’d appreciate being linked to another article. Jonathan Chait is a lefty liar. I wouldn’t trust him if he had a tape recording of an interview.
I agree.
WAHT AN ASS!!
Timeline bump for later.....
“Mitch McConnell Realizes IRS Scandal Is Over”
If the IRS scandal is over then that means absolutely NOBODY should donate to Republicans because we may be targeted by the IRS if we do.
amnesty’s a done deal, irs is cleared. keep calling the guy. his washington line was busy when i called yesterday. i hope all of kentucky is calling his local offices.
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