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Mitch McConnell Realizes IRS Scandal Is Over
New York Magazine ^ | 6/21/2013 | Jonathan Chait

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.


TOPICS: Extended News; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: Kentucky
KEYWORDS: 113th; bhoirs; chait; discloseact; dnctalkingpoints; gettherope; howtostealanelection; impeachnow; irs; irscorruption; irsmeetingatwhitehut; irsrico; irsscandal; irsscandalover; jonathanchait; kentucky; loislerner; mcconnell; mcconnellcoverup; mcconnellvsamerica; mitchmcconnell; obamascandals; partisanmediashill; partisanmediashills; randsconcerntrolls; rico; typicalrinocoverup
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1 posted on 06/21/2013 12:29:15 PM PDT by nickcarraway
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To: nickcarraway

Adios Republicans!


2 posted on 06/21/2013 12:30:21 PM PDT by FlingWingFlyer (McCain and "The Flake" have got to go.)
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To: FlingWingFlyer

At least Mitch will go down with the party.


3 posted on 06/21/2013 12:33:11 PM PDT by stephenjohnbanker
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To: nickcarraway

As Dandy Don used to sing, “turn out the lights, the party’s over...”.


4 posted on 06/21/2013 12:33:16 PM PDT by Resolute Conservative
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To: nickcarraway
entered its post-fact phase

God I hate these awful people.

5 posted on 06/21/2013 12:33:28 PM PDT by DManA
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To: nickcarraway
Since this wasn't dealt with now, IRS intimidation is going to become an entrenched practice.

The next democratic administration will be able to get away with this, and the media will have a "ho-hum been-there-seen-that" attitude.

6 posted on 06/21/2013 12:33:29 PM PDT by ClaytonP
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To: nickcarraway

Ol’ Roll-Over McConnell


7 posted on 06/21/2013 12:34:12 PM PDT by NormsRevenge (Semper Fi --)
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To: nickcarraway
Well, if New York Magazine says the scandal is over then it must be over.

Just like any other organized crime investigation, you have to start at the low level workers and get them to provide evidence against those higher up who ordered them to commit their crimes. Maybe it didn't come from Obama directly but instead from some Obama loyalist who took it on him- or herself to try to crush Obama's political opponents. But we haven't really climbed the ladder of the racketeers in the IRS yet.

8 posted on 06/21/2013 12:35:23 PM PDT by KarlInOhio (This message has been recorded but not approved by Obama's StasiNet. Read it at your peril.)
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To: nickcarraway

These idiots just can’t keep their big mouths shut Mitch Linseed McLame et al . . . you’d think they’d hate the Demonrats with all the crap that comes out of their hateful mouths and want to rub their faces in their own feces


9 posted on 06/21/2013 12:35:35 PM PDT by A_Former_Democrat
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To: nickcarraway

I know Chait is hard left but the facts are pointing where?


10 posted on 06/21/2013 12:36:26 PM PDT by jimfree (In November 2016 my 12 y/o granddaughter will have more quality exec experience than Barack Obama)
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To: All
The meticulously researched timelines posted allover FR are significant since they chronicle events that show the Tea Party was heating up---holding massive rallies, and showing up at townhalls to protest Obamacare.

The arrogant, self-entitled Obamatons surely went ballistic. Does not take much imagination to know the WH con artists were thinking up demonic ways to stop the Tea Partiers who stood in their path.

SIGNIFICANT Remember that when the Obamatons landed in the WH, they also took over the census. So when Obama sent his COS---Rahm Emanuel----to takeover Treasury, he had all the tools at his disposal to target individuals, tea parties, patriot groups, and so on.

=======================================

CONNECTING THE DOTS: Obama's stranglegold on Treasury via COS Rahm Emanuel's dual role

THE TARGETING PAPER TRAIL BEGINS: Soon as they occupied the WH, Obama and the Chicago con artists (a) took control of the US Census; (b) Obama placed his COS Rahm Emanuel in control of the US Dept of the Treasury (the IRS).

==========================================

THE SMOKING GUN---WSJ REPORT--On Jan 20, 2009 Timothy Geithner was appointed Obama's Secy of the Treasury. But within three weeks, the Obama White House tightened its grip on Treasury. Obama put his COS, Rahm Emanuel, in charge of Treasury---Rahm Emanuel's dual role was an unusual move.

When he got to Treasury, WH COS Rahm Emanuel was so involved in the inner workings of the Treasury that the phrase "Rahm wants it" had become an unofficial mantra among subservient govt staffers, prostrate in obeisance, scurrying to accede to Rahm's wishes, according to Treasury government officials. Reported by WSJ / 05/31/09

More here: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124113406528875137.html

===============================================

Contact Congress Toll Free 1-(866) 220-0044 : All of the Treasury factotums doing Rahm's bidding need to be identified and brought before Congress to testify under oath. We need to know the specifics WRT Emanuel's activities at Treasury including dates and times when Emanuel consorted w/ the IRS.

=================================================

MOMENTS TO REMEMBER Obama was fond of saying "Tea Parties are a threat to democracy."

Obama told hispanics, " we will reward our friends and punish our enemies."

Valerie Jarrett ominously warned, they "would not forget" which Americans did not worship Obama.

============================================

Contact Congress Toll Free 1-(866) 220-0044---Taxpayers demand Congress call govt employees at Treasury (IRS), who were underlings of Obama COS Rahm Emanuel...to testify under oath, including the number of times Emanuel consorted with the IRS. The WJS reported Emanuel's unusual arrangement----his dual role as WH COS and Treasury head.

CONTACT FOX NEWS --- 1-888-369-4762

CONTACT CONG TREY GOWDY (R-SC)
1404 Longworth HOB
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: (202) 225-6030
Fax: (202) 226-1177

===========================================

TALKING POINTS--WSJ REPORTOn Jan 20, 2009 Timothy Geithner was appointed Obama's Secy of the Treasury. But within three weeks, the Obama White House tightened its grip on Treasury. Obama put his COS, Rahm Emanuel, in charge of Treasury---Rahm Emanuel's dual role was an unusual move.

When he got to Treasury, White House COS Rahm Emanuel was so involved in the inner workings of the Treasury that the phrase "Rahm wants it" had become an unofficial mantra among subservient govt staffers, prostrate in obeisance, scurrying to accede to Rahm's wishes, according to Treasury government officials. Reported by WSJ / 05/31/09

More here: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124113406528875137.html

11 posted on 06/21/2013 12:36:34 PM PDT by Liz
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To: KarlInOhio
The problem isn't what New York Magazine says it's over, the problem is that McConnell and Boehner do. They actually approve of what the IRS did, because it was targeting their enemies.
12 posted on 06/21/2013 12:36:56 PM PDT by nickcarraway
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To: nickcarraway

He’s right. I just double checked the law. It plainly states that right-wing groups that contain the words “patriot” or “tea party” in their names and or who claim they are defending the constitution SHALL receive extraordinary scrutiny and their applications MUST be stalled for three years or greater before being summarily rejected.


13 posted on 06/21/2013 12:37:26 PM PDT by Jim Robinson (Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God!!)
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To: All
99% of Americans know nothing about this. Muslim groups all got status. So did the shady "Barack H Obama Foundation?” created hy half-brother Malik---in honor of their father--which was fast-tracked for tax-exemption by the IRS? .

The tax-free Obama foundation, fast-tracked by Lois Lerner for IRS tax-exempt status, is based at a Virginia UPS store, according to its website. The organization’s IRS filings list another Virginia address that is actually a drug rehab center where the foundation does not appear ever to have been based.

As first reported by The Daily Caller, the foundation was speedily approved for IRS exemption by Lois Lerner, the self-same IRS senior official at the center of the targeting of conservative organizations that have waited over two years to receive tax exempt status. The IRS thoughtfully gave Obama Foundation retroactive fund-raising status.......which it stupidly never applied for. Or more likely did not need---(federal money laundering would fill the coffers?).

The tax-exempt Barack H. Obama Foundation is run by Abon’go “Roy” Malik Obama, the half-brother of Barack Obama.

The foundation’s mission statement is “to provide people everywhere with resources to uplift their welfare and living standards in memory of dad---Barack H. Obama: in the region of his birth, Kenya, and beyond.” Its guiding principle is “the inherent belief that no one can truly enjoy the riches he has reaped if his neighbor suffers....."We seek to elevate the human condition so that everyone can live in dignity and truly enjoy having one another as neighbors.”

(same old, same old sap-happy do-goodniks)

Despite raising more than $250,000, the alleged charity doesn’t seem to have done much. Its website claims the organization has built a madrassa and was building an imam’s house as well as some “proposed latrines,” but there is no other evidence that the nonprofit was working to “mitigate social-shortcomings in areas of education and literacy, health and well-being, poverty, and lack of community infrastructure in such basic needs such as water, electricity, shelter and sustenance,” as the site says.

Alton Ray Baysden, a former Dept of State employee, allegedly a registered Republican, who helped start the Barack H Obama foundation, declined to comment before seeing copies of a reporter’s passport and govt ID, along with a description of the article’s “motivation” and “slant.”

Repeated reporters' phone calls went to the organization’s voicemail and were not returned.

================================

OBAMA GIVES 50 MILLION DOLLARS IN AID TO KENYA;
O'S KENYAN HALF-BROTHER READY TO CASH IN---
VIA THE TAX-EXEMPT DO-GOOD "OBAMA FOUNDATION"

The tax-exempt “charity” named in honor of their Dad,
is supposedly run by President Barack Obama’s half-
brother Malik who spends most of his time in Kenya
with his 12 wives.

Obama's half-brother Malik holds up photo of Obama in Muslim
dress taken on a trip to Kenya when Ohaha was about 23-24 yo.

14 posted on 06/21/2013 12:38:00 PM PDT by Liz
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To: nickcarraway

This is Illinois politics on the national scale.

Nothing ever happens, because the only ones who could do something are in the game also.


15 posted on 06/21/2013 12:38:06 PM PDT by redgolum ("God is dead" -- Nietzsche. "Nietzsche is dead" -- God.)
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To: DManA

Liberals are the most vile disgusting people and nothing but a cancer on the human race.

There’s not one of them that’s not a habitual liar and filthy hypocrite.


16 posted on 06/21/2013 12:38:18 PM PDT by qam1 (There's been a huge party. All plates and the bottles are empty, all that's left is the bill to pay)
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To: ClaytonP

“IRS intimidation is going to become an entrenched practice.”

Sure will. And a lot more thuggish too.


17 posted on 06/21/2013 12:38:35 PM PDT by MichaelCorleone (Jesus Christ is not a religion. He's the Truth.)
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To: nickcarraway; stephenjohnbanker; All
This article is from a notorious radical lefty, Johnathan Chait. He's bad news, and not to be trusted.

Why would anyone believe something written by this guy?

18 posted on 06/21/2013 12:39:19 PM PDT by Lakeshark (!)
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To: All

Leftist rag so untrustworthy. Especially when Judicial Watch just did a conference discussion on this issue a day after the rally. There is plenty more to be uncovered.

You can see the archive here:
http://www.judicialwatch.org/live/


19 posted on 06/21/2013 12:39:38 PM PDT by Mozilla
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To: nickcarraway

naw, it’s not over ~ otherwise they wouldn’t have fired the only person who could prove anything in Washington.


20 posted on 06/21/2013 12:40:19 PM PDT by muawiyah (All the illegals are already citizens. They have countries they can flee to. We Americans don't!)
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