BOOM: White House Was Not Involved In Targeting Of Conservative Groups

[Cali_Democrat]

WASHINGTON -- In a rebuke to House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) has released the full transcript of a key interview with an IRS employee at the heart of the agency's scandal.

The 200-page transcript sheds additional light on the decision by the IRS to screen out tea party groups applying for tax-exempt status during the months and years leading up to the 2012 elections.

Republican and Democratic committee staffers interviewed IRS official John Shafer on June 6 about the agency's decision to scrutinize a tea party group's application for tax-exempt 501(c)(4) status. Shafer, who identified himself as "a conservative Republican" and said he'd worked for the IRS since 1992, said that he and a fellow screener initially flagged a tea party group and continued to do so with subsequent applications in order to maintain consistency in the process.

Throughout much of the interview, Shafer describes the mundane bureaucratic challenges of dealing with incoming applications for nonprofit status. He said his team flagged the first tea party application because it appeared to be a high-profile case, and he wanted to make sure all high-profile cases received similar attention.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/18/irs-scandal-washington_n_3460904.html

[MjolnirTime]

1. well, damn! what happened to Scandalmania?!?!?

[Amonester]

2. Buried under the spy vs. spy crapola?!?

Alright, let's see if the m$m will even mention a sigh about it...

[Cali_Democrat]

3. Oh they'll keep coming up with fake scandals

You can be sure of that.

Unfortunately even a lot of Dems appear to be falling for this GOP-generated horse manure.

[FSogol]

6. Yup. n/t

[Berlum]

4. Republicans have been lying. As usual.

Dog bites man. Republicans lie to Americans. Ho hum. The usual. Wake me up when there is some real news.

[nxylas]

38. Conspiracism means never having to say you're sorry

The beauty of conspiracism as a worldview is that any inconvenient evidence can be dismissed as part of the conspiracy. For the RepubliKlan Party, all this will prove is that the IRS Official is a puppet of the Kenyan Usurper.

[malaise]

5. GTAIssa strikes again

like a great ReTHUG scumbag.
GTAIssa is a THUG

[arely staircase]

7. no wonder grand theft issa didn't want the transcripts released

nt

[xtraxritical]

28. I think you mean arsonist Issa...

[kentuck]

8. Time to hurry back to Benghazi!

Since this scandal is Republican created...

[ck4829]

9. I wondered what the deal with the whole planted question thing was too

[sheshe2]

10. Boom! is right, Cali_Dem.

From your link~

Asked plainly, "do you have any reason to believe that anyone in the White House was involved in the decision to screen Tea Party cases?" Shafer replied, "I have no reason to believe that."

"Do you have any reason to believe that anyone in the White House was involved in the decisions to centralize the review of Tea Party cases?" he was asked. "I have no reason to believe that," he replied.

Asked if he had "ever communicated with [then IRS] Commissioner Shulman about the screening of Tea Party cases?" he replied, "I have not."

Issa>>>>

Thank You!

[Left Coast2020]

40. Yes, the sound of wittle darrels bubble bursting.

[Iliyah]

11. Maybe I'm missing the story on the major corporate media sites

such as CNN, MSNBC, ABC and CBS, but I find nada. Zippoo. Witch hunt will continue though because Issa and GOPers need to bring down Pres O's polls numbers and discourage voters in not voting Dem, not vote period OR vote for GOPers.

[George II]

21. Yes, you're missing it....

Chris Matthews had Elijah Cummings moments after he released the transcript for an uncharacteristically long interview with less interruptions than usual.

It's been all over the news this morning.

Maybe you wanted to miss it?

[John2]

24. They are

part of the corporate media as far as I'm concern and try to set the direction of issues in this country. Whatever issue they decide is important, that is what they focus on, and sometimes, they edit or censor information themselves to frame the debate.

I would argue, the IRS did their jobs. I would argue in doing their jobs, those groups started complaining to conservative law makers in Congress( Issa) in particular. The investigation was started because of those very complaints initiated by Issa himself calling for the matter to be investigated. The person selected to conduct this investigation was routinely informing Issa's office about the process of the investigation. I argue the information shows this. Why wouldn't this show Issa might have had undue influence himself over a supposedly independent IG investigation?

The information also shows the complaint was out of an IRS office in a District, where the representative is the Republican House Speaker. So wouldn't groups in that area or from that area, file with the IRS office in their District? So the supervising employee was a Republican. I wonder what the employees working under him were and if many of them actually lived in this District?

We also know information was, 100 percent of them got tax exempt status from this office. Why no red flag raised? Why did Lerner find it neccessary to plant a question, making these groups look like victims and the IRS did something wrong? What made the IG, if he did, think these groups were targeted? She planted it to the media and they ran with conservative groups were targeted according to Lerner. Why wouldn't this have the appearance of a scheme or conspiracy by certain individuals?

[certainot]

12. too late, as usual. their 1200 unchallenged and ignored radio stations were once again successful in

creating an alternate reality for tens of millions of listeners and many secondary listeners.

good on elijah cummings, but the dem party and the left in general, have again screwed up by not responding to RW radio in real time. it hurts the dems and obama and weakens his position. another eg of RW radio kicking liberal ass because they ignore it.

[davidpdx]

44. I agree

It was great that Congressman Cummings released it, but there is still going to be a large block of idiots that believe this shit. I can't remember for the life of me when it first came out in the news (it all kind of just runs together) I'd guess though it's been several weeks. That is one reason I've said it really doesn't matter whether these scandals are true or not, it's the perception (or mis-perception that is what did the damage).

[certainot]

48. these kinds of PR efforts come out immediately on talk radio and can go for weeks of even years

there (like the ACORN swiftboating), unnoticed by the left.

like most of their scandals, they depend on unchallenged national repetition on talk radio to give them the buzz and momentum they need to catapult them into the MSM.

their think tank PR pros are well paid to observe and cherrypick through the news for the opportunity to turn molehills like this into mountains in a day or two. and it's practically free with their talk radio advantage.

[davidpdx]

49. Exactly

They are recycled like spoiled food.

[sigmasix]

52. same cherry picking reality for the NSA "story"

The right wing neo-"news" echo chamber is filled with all sorts of operatives with different specialties. Some right wing propoganda specialists work in TV media, some in printed media and some in blogs and message boards like DU. We all know that the right wing media has infested some DU posts- the NSA conspiracy posters are the latest in a long list of disguised right wing operatives attempting to use DU's liberal reputation to add credence to thier partisan ODS claims. Good people will continue to point out the hypocrisy and destructiveness of these agents.

[certainot]

55. the best way to fix this shit is for the left to have a searchable record of the daily RW radio rep

etition from the main national and local blowhards. the BS needs to be responded to in real time- before they become established.

these RW hacks and trolls owe their acceptability to the fact the left doesn't know what's happening on RW radio- those hacks know the lies and BS they repeat has already been pounded into the earholes of 50 mil a week- enough to make even the biggest lie a fact to tens of millions. the right's been creating made-to-order constituencies for any issue and they can do it from the think tanks in days.

dems and progressives in media need to regularly respond to them with "that's what limbaugh said" etc.

put a RUSH tattoo on their foreheads. they are acceptable and their lies are facts because the left ignores RW radio and they end up trying to catch up and react after the cat's out of the bag- sequestration, benghazi and the IRS are perfect recent examples a few of many RW successes the last 25 years.

[Politicub]

13. Good stuff

Issa is a disgusting liar.

[watoos]

14. Not so fast

Fox found another former IRS agent out of the Washington DC District that claims she profiled T/Party groups.

[Blue_Roses]

15. well, by all means it has to be true if Fox "found her"...

and just in case:

[Cali_Democrat]

17. Fox?

[Cha]

18. Oh we say "Fuck fox" around here.

they're stoopid.

[Left Coast2020]

41. Cluster Faux

[leftynyc]

20. So what?

Did they ask her if she got direction from anyone in the White House? Did the President ask her to do it? That's the issue.

[ieoeja]

22. Right, because it would be wrong to suspect a Tea Party group was about politics.

This scandal is so amazingly stupid that it makes Benghazi look almost reasonable. At least in Benghazi they could have probably done something better. You can always do something better.

Heck, the mission that took out OBL lost a helicopter. So even they could have done a "better" job.


But giving the IRS grief for suspecting that a political caucus might be political is ... why is this an issue?

[burnodo]

47. profiling is their job

they don't just hand out tax-exempt status. Everybody who applies is checked out.

[one_voice]

16. Problem is this won't be...

screamed as the top story for 3 weeks straight like the 'scandal' was. It'll be buried behind the half-price canned goods on sale at Shop-Rite.

Pisses me off that it works out like that. The fucking media should spend at least three days screaming about the fake scandal.

[xtraxritical]

29. Why does MSNBC even keep Andrea Mitchell on their payroll? I mean shes married to Alan Greenspan!

Chris Matthews is a dud too.

[AnnieK401]

32. Exactly!

A lie always seems to get more traction than the truth.

[Cha]

19. Thanks Cali.. for getting this out there. I haven't

watched corp fake news since 2002.

It's up to us to shine a light on reality.

[mnmoderatedem]

23. could be a death blow to Issa's re-election hopes.

fence sitting voters don't like the kind of thing he's been doing.

Let's hope so.

[obama2terms]

25. No wonder Issa didn't want this released

Because not only was the white house not involved, it was a republican that flagged the group, now THAT is un expected.

[Turbineguy]

26. Oh Dear.....

looks like the GOP will have to pull another scandal out of the hat.

[hedgehog]

27. It's even better than that!

Liberal Groups Say They Received IRS Scrutiny Too

The conventional shorthand for the IRS scandal is that employees "targeted" conservative groups for extra scrutiny in the applications for tax-exempt status. Except, as an inspector general's report showed, it wasn't just conservative groups that got extra scrutiny. Plenty of liberal groups had to produce extensive documentation answer dozens of questions, too.
http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=193383914&m=193383901

[Floyd_Gondolli]

30. This news will disappoint many here

[AnnieK401]

31. But, but, but

it destroys one of the "scandals" so it can't be true. Anything that makes the Obama administration look bad is the truth.

[cherokeeprogressive]

34. Was Holly Paz mentioned? n/t

[Cali_Democrat]

36. Poor Darrell Issa

He tried mightily to pin this on the White House, but ended up failing miserably thanks to Elijah Cummings' release of the full transcript. He had so much riding on this IRS issue and he just ends up falling flat on his fucking face.

Another faux scandal bites the dust.

Next faux scandal up? Obama's foreign trips actually cost money....because apparently George W. Bush's trips were free.

See here ---->>> http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/06/18/first-family-trip-to-africa-projected-to-cost-up-to-100m-sparking-criticism/

Stay tuned folks

[JackRiddler]

35. Of course not. Occupy, the left, pot-growers...

but not conservative groups, oh heaven forfend.

[Babel_17]

37. Like a dog with a bone we need to walk around with this

Go on the talk shows, do interviews, and post to blogs, till it resonates in the minds of even those who are working too hard and long to devote much attention to the TV; The Republicans were lying and acting like cry-babies. We really need to play up how spoiled and childish they have been acting.

And they're cowards about facing the music.

[Boomerproud]

39. Thank you, Mr. Cummings.

that is exactly how you deal with bullies like Issa. I'm still looking for it on NBC or CNN sites.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

42. LOL!!! They STILL can't tell it like it is!!!

Face it, some old guard Republicans were getting primaried by these upstart Tea Party types.

They had created a monster.

This was Republican on Republican infighting at it's nastiest and they tried to pin it on the black guy.

[rpannier]

43. Oh please! Of course he was involved

Glen Beck, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, Dana Perino, Sara Palin, Michelle Maulkin, Ann Coulter, Fox at Five, Fox and Friends and Greta van Susterin all told me that he was.
And we all know just how accurate and unbiased they are.

[Beartracks]

45. Whoa, TMI!!!! We're trying to maintain a scandal here!!

Darn "context" is making it rather difficult.



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

[uponit7771]

46. +1

[spanone]

50. too late, faux has already convinced their ignorant audience the white house directed it

[thelordofhell]

51. Retractions to be printed on page Z10

[still_one]

53. Well then he must have been involved in the Hasting tragedy, and if not that then the Viet Nam war

[NorthCarolina]

54. Because they were already too involved with targeting and compiling info on average citizens.

There's only so much you can do at one time, so they needed to farm out the Tea Party stuff.