The O’Reilly Factor hosted former IRS Commissioner, Mark Everson Friday night (6/14/13) to discuss, as guest host Monica Crowley put it, what “could very well be the most dangerous scandal in U.S. history,” the questionable scrutiny by the IRS of Tea Party groups applying for tax-exempt status. Unfortunately for Conspiracy Theory Crowley, Everson destroyed her partisan efforts to make the IRS problems all about President Obama. And there was no way Crowley could blame Everson’s views on “Democrat” partisanship because he was appointed by and served under George W. Bush.
Crowley began with a common meme on Fox last week: criticizing FBI head, Robert Mueller, for testifying in Congress that he did not know who the lead FBI investigator is or how many investigators have been assigned to the IRS issues.
Everson said the controversy is “serious” and “totally wrong” but that he felt assured by Mueller’s testimony.
When something’s handed over to the Bureau, you want it to go into its normal channels. You wouldn’t want this to be a political brouhaha. He’s got a lot to worry about: terrorism investigations and other things – so, I think this has gone into the normal process and that’s right. But that’s a long process. It pertains only to the criminal justice implications.
Everson went on to say that Congressional investigations are more important. In fact, he hinted that maybe some scrutiny should be given to their process by saying, “If you want answers, and you want to get after things thoroughly and quickly, and in a more transparent way, if you will, rather than just ‘Yes, we’re going to indict,’ or ‘No, we’re not going to indict,’ the right place to get that aired out is in the Congress and that’s something else.”
Not surprisingly, Crowley didn’t want to discuss the Republican-led witchhunt investigation in the House of Representatives. So, instead, she found another avenue to attack the Obama administration.
Crowley offered, “We may concede” that “perhaps” the FBI head is not fully aware of all the details of the IRS investigation but she pushed on with another attempt to use the discussion to tarnish the Obama administration by trying to tie the IRS to President Obama, personally, along with Eric Holder and, of all people, Hillary Clinton (on Benghazi, of course) for saying they didn’t know the details of those controversies. She complained, “It doesn’t really inspire a lot of confidence… in the federal government.”
Everson, predictably, could not comment on Benghazi or DOJ matters. But he did say he agreed as far as the IRS went. “For lack of a better term, they lost their minds and then totally inadequate supervision,” he said, referring to the IRS’ Cincinnati office.
Later, Crowley again tried to make the IRS controversy explicitly about President Obama. “Would you agree that the President of the United States, when he takes charge of the Executive Branch, sets the tone and sets the ideology for everybody serving under him?” This is another Fox News meme. Sadly for them, it was another Fox News meme that Everson destroyed.
I would just tell you that, in my experience, from top to bottom, from the White House down through Treasury and to certainly my own role, I always felt I had the independence that I needed and the backing that I needed to do what I thought was right. And what that meant was sometimes it would go the way the White House maybe politically would want something to go. Other times, it would go just the opposite way. But I felt, Monica, if I did my job straight down the middle, that would be the best for the country and ultimately for the man who was leading the country at the time.
Wrong answer! Fox started playing music as Everson spoke, signaling that time was up. However, he was allowed to finish his thought uninterrupted.
If you think these comments from one of the most credible experts on the subject will prevent Fox from continuing to try to suggest that President Obama is behind the IRS problems and to tie that to Hillary Clinton, then I’ve got a bridge in Brooklyn you’ll probably be interested in buying.
Of the phony Fox News Obama scandals, the most dangerous is the NSA spying scandal.
And if you want to get into real scandals, spend a little time Googling Rick Renzi. I had to spend the last six days living on Google for updates on that, and it seems that no one else involved in the corruption, the racketeering, or the extortion of Southwestern electorates (suspected or proven) is even pretending they want to slow down.
Oh, wait- Renzi and all seven of the electorates suspected of still being involved are Republicans, and part of the scandal involves the cartels. VIVA LA IOKIYAR!!!!!
Opinions that run counter to our Hate-O-Today meme are just plain fucking wrong and should be held in the utmost contempt.
ps
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1. Obama personally directed targeting of teabagger political groups.
2. Obama “set the tone” that encouraged targeting of teabagger political groups.
3. Obama is incompetent because he didn’t know about the targeting of teabagger political groups.
All three answers are acceptable.
