Sarah Palin may be the world’s most famous ignoramus but there seems to be no limit to her expertise on Fox News when they put her into a position of criticizing the Obama administration. We’ve previously seen Palin as a business pundit, Benghazi expert, and an authority on the Constitutional ramifications of immigration reform. Monday night (July 1), Palin put her legal hat back on when she appeared on On The Record to offer up her “insights” into IRS employee Lois Lerner pleading the 5th when she appeared before a Congressional inquiry.
The irony is that host Greta Van Susteren is a real lawyer. But she adores Palin and heck, maybe Palin can see an IRS office from her house.
Van Susteren asked, with a straight face, “So, Governor, it looks like (Lerner’s) back in the hot seat… Should she come back and testify?”
Palin was up to the game of pretending to know what she was talking about. “They should absolutely call her back and they should charge her with contempt if she continues to refuse to answer questions… Yes, they need to call her back.”
Continuing the charade, Van Susteren later asked Palin, “Is it time for a special prosecutor or not?”
Again, Palin was a willing player. “I would say that it is (if Lerner pleads the 5th again)… We need to make sure that we’re getting to the bottom of this and if it’s not Congress able to get to the bottom of it via questioning her in front of a panel or committee then, yeah, a special investigation needs to ensue.”
Then Palin quickly segued to what may be the one and only thing she really knows how to do without quitting: smearing President Obama: “This is such a circus and the ringleader of the circus, our President Obama, has opportunity to do something about IRS corruption. He had promised that he would,” Palin said. She also complained about Nancy Pelosi failing to “drain the swamp.” In her hideous singsong, Palin sneered, “Just gives us fewer and fewer reasons to trust our government.”
But Palin left out a key fact – and one that Van Susteren failed to mention, too: House Republicans played a significant role in the IRS controversy. To quote The Hill:
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.”
…But top congressional Democrats have wielded new information from the IRS this week that liberal groups were also flagged for extra attention on the sorts of “be on the lookout” lists (BOLOs) that also tripped up conservative groups.
The spokesman for the Treasury inspector general noted their audit acknowledged there were other watch lists. But the spokesman added: “We did not review the use, disposition, purpose or content of the other BOLOs. That was outside the scope of our audit.”
All of which gives us fewer and fewer reasons to trust Palin. But instead of enlightening her viewers, Van Susteren changed the subject to fireworks being canceled on military bases because of the sequester. She fed Palin another attack opening by asking, “Should we spend the extra money and do this for these, tradition for these soldiers and Marines? …I mean, the fact that we’re, like, taking their fireworks from them on the fourth of july and then we send them off to battle. It’s beyond me that we’re cutting it back.”
This segment also gave us fewer and fewer reasons to trust Fox News.
I have a dream! I’m sleepin’ on big piles o’ money thet stupid supporters ‘n’ hateful employers shovel my way! An’ I’ll Never Wake Up!!!!!