Darrell Issa's long-awaited IRS persecution report released

[RobDownSouth]

Care to guess what Congressman Issa found in all those recovered IRS emails?

Hmmmm?

Here's a hint: nary a peep of this report's release on Fox News today.

The Vettebigot will be inconsolable.

 

[Wrong Element]

Care to guess what Congressman Issa found in all those recovered IRS emails?

Hmmmm?

Here's a hint: nary a peep of this report's release on Fox News today.

The Vettebigot will be inconsolable.

I thought they released that report on Christmas Eve. Which of course is when you release news that you really want maximum coverage of.

 

[Sean]

Vettebigot will be along any minute to tell you that it's only the seventh report that counts, cos those guys have special powers and stuff.

 

[someoneyouknow]

Care to guess what Congressman Issa found in all those recovered IRS emails?

Hmmmm?

Here's a hint: nary a peep of this report's release on Fox News today.

The Vettebigot will be inconsolable.

No different than the Republican-led investigation of the BENGHAZI report which found no lying or cover up which was released after the election and on a Friday night.

 

[Liar]

Issa's term as chain of the oversight committee is ending. One for the history books, filed under Much Ado About Nothing.

 

[KingOrfeo]

From Salon:

Tuesday, Dec 23, 2014 03:28 PM EST

Issa’s final flop: Failing to link the IRS scandal to the White House

Darrell Issa ends his tenure as House Oversight chair in typical fashion: by failing to live up to his own hype

Simon Maloy

When Republicans took control of the House of Representatives in 2010 and installed Rep. Darrell Issa as the chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, there was palpable anticipation on the right that Obama administration would finally have to answer for its many, many misdeeds. Issa, eager to make a name for himself, fed into that anticipation and presented himself as a crusading investigator (his Twitter avatar for a long time was a crude stick-figure drawing of a policeman) who would root out what he described as historic corruption. Before the 2010 election, Issa said Barack Obama “has been one of the most corrupt presidents in modern times.” Just before the new Congress was sworn in, Issa clarified his remarks a bit on CNN, saying “this is one of the most corrupt administrations.”

Whatever words he meant to use, the message was clear – the White House was crooked, and Issa was going to straighten them out.

That never happened. Issa’s grandiose crusade failed, but not for lack of trying. Remember Solyndra? Fast and Furious? Issa did the digging, held the hearings, and hyped the hell out of the “scandal” narratives, but in the end they came to nothing. In May of last year he promised bombshell revelations at a hearing into the 2012 Benghazi attacks, but those “revelations” turned out to be nothing that wasn’t already known. The big reason he failed was that there just wasn’t a whole lot of corruption to undo. But Issa continually made things worse for himself by building the hype way beyond what he could possibly deliver.

Issa’s final report as chairman of the Oversight Committee fits neatly into that pattern. It deals with the IRS targeting scandal, in which the tax agency applied inappropriate levels of scrutiny to non-profit groups seeking tax exempt status. Conservatives have long claimed that the targeting was done at the behest of the White House, which (they allege) wanted to use the IRS to intimidate and bully tea party groups (progressive groups were also targeted). Issa eagerly helped feed the idea that the scandal reached all the way to the Oval Office. “This was a targeting of the president’s political enemies, effectively, and lies about it during the election year so that it wasn’t discovered until afterwards,” Issa said last May. He leaked stale “bombshells” to credulous conservative reporters to make it seem like he was closing in on the proof that tied the scandal to the president. But the White House connection never materialized.

Which brings us to the new report. After all the promises and all the hype surrounding the White House’s link to the IRS scandal, what did Issa end up finding? Nothing. No link to the White House, no evidence showing this was anything but an IRS matter.

Of course, Issa isn’t presenting it that way. Instead he offers weasel-worded conclusions that give the illusion of a connection: “Evidence shows an IRS responsive to the partisan policy objectives of White House and an IRS leadership that coordinates with political appointees of the Obama Administration.” This is the official version of the longstanding conservative allegation that the targeting scandal happened because employees at the IRS picked up on the White House’s anti-Tea Party psychic vibrations.

And, obviously, the ultimate failure for demonstrating an actual link lies not with Issa, but the White House: “The White House’s unfortunate refusal to cooperate with the Committee’s investigation contravened the President’s promise of ‘hand in hand’ cooperation. It also prevented the Committee from obtaining and evaluating relevant documents regarding the politicization of the IRS.”

Now that Issa’s been put out to pasture, who’s coming in to take his place? That would be Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT), a shouty fellow who argues forcefully for policies he believes in, like responding to White House fence jumpers by blanketing the North Lawn with a hail of gunfire. Issa’s report promises that the investigation isn’t over, and Chaffetz will probably pick up where Issa left off, given how large the IRS scandal looms in the conservative pantheon of Obama’s high crimes and misdemeanors. But there’s no real reason to believe Chaffetz will find any more success than his predecessor.

 

[Ulaven_Demorte]

Issa's term as chain of the oversight committee is ending. One for the history books, filed under Much Ado About Nothing.

He sure did get the gullible Republican base all stirred up. They were SURE he was going to make a connection, with luck, something impeachable. Failing that, he did manage to muddy the waters until after the mid-terms. At the cost of how many millions? Witch hunts used to be cheap. Grab a likely suspect, build a pyre, and burn her. If she burnt then she wasn't a witch. Which makes me curious. What the fuck would they have done if she DIDN'T burn?

Personally I can't wait to see this "new" Republican majority inaction.

No, that wasn't a typo.

 

[Disgustipated]

The *inaction* will be a bunch of old white dudes trying to impeach O instead performing the job they are paid to do.

 

[Boxlicker101]

If you are interested, here is the actual report, rather than Salon's highly biased opinion: http://oversight.house.gov/release/issa-releases-report-irs-targeting-113th-congress-concludes/

 

[phrodeau]

I assume the next Congress will be equally adamant about cracking down on these bogus political NPO's. There must be hundreds of tax code violators named in that report, and they should all feel the hammer.

 

[Boxlicker101]

I assume the next Congress will be equally adamant about cracking down on these bogus political NPO's. There must be hundreds of tax code violators named in that report, and they should all feel the hammer.

I agree, as long as the hammer is wielded without regard to the political leanings of the violators

 

[KingOrfeo]

The *inaction* will be a bunch of old white dudes trying to impeach O instead performing the job they are paid to do.

Indeed this is going to be an interesting-in-the-Chinese-sense two years.

 

[Busybody]

47 Inspector Generals Being Stonewalled In Their Investigations By Members Of Obama Regime


obama_lies

Fish stinks from the head down…

Via NRO:


Darrell Issa’s leading role in the IRS investigation may have come to a close — he lost his chairmanship of the House Oversight Committee to term limits — but there is plenty of work left for his successor, Jason Chaffetz of Utah. None of these criminals has been punished; the maddening fact is that Lois Lerner is enjoying a six-figure pension at the expense of the very taxpayers against whom she conducted a corrupt political jihad. And even if that happy day should come when Lerner et al. are given one-way bus tickets to Florence, Colo., or some other suitable destination, Chaffetz and his colleagues still would have a tremendous amount of work to do; if Issa’s time has taught us anything, it is that the federal agencies are in thrall to a culture of criminality, and that the most significant crime in the agencies’ repertoire is the obstruction of federal investigations.

Earlier this year, 47 inspectors general — the officials charged with fighting corruption, waste, and wrongdoing in federal agencies — sent a letter to Issa’s committee complaining that organizations ranging from the EPA to the Justice Department were impeding their investigations by withholding information — despite the fact that federal law specifically forbids withholding that information. These are not a bunch of Republican operatives trying to score a few political points: Those 47 inspectors general comprise more than half of all such officials, and many who signed the letter were appointed by President Barack Obama. Their complaint is that the federal agencies treat them more or less like they do . . . members of Congress: thwarting them, withholding documents, obstruction investigations.

 

[Busybody]

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B5rGS1ZIcAAo7-f.png.

 

[RobDownSouth]

No different than the Republican-led investigation of the BENGHAZI report which found no lying or cover up which was released after the election and on a Friday night.

It's been a spectacularly awful month for Wingnut Nation.