Quote:

---

Scandal In The Wind: Senator Mitch McConnell Sticks Fork In IRS Kerfuffle

The mainstream media took to the IRS “scandal” like a bunny in heat to a pair of mink slippers, immediately proclaiming the agency’s alleged targeting of conservative groups for additional tax-exempt-application scrutiny “Nixonian,” and even directly accusing the President of ordering it. The same reporters and commentators who, a month ago, were fitting President Obama for a Joe Biden pardon have fallen silent now that Rep. Elijah Cummings has helped to crush the dream of a White House link to the scandal, but at least Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is facing facts.

The IRS scandal wasn’t a total loss, of course, but try as they might, Republicans could never quite get their trail of bread crumbs to reach anywhere near the White House. The buzzards were circling earlier this month when Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) released the best quotes he could cherry-pick from closed testimony, and still came up short. It was Rep. Elijah Cummings who finished it off, though, when he fulfilled Issa’s promise to release the full transcripts, which revealed that the supervisor responsible for scrutinizing Tea Party groups was a conservative Republican who ruled out White House involvement in the policy.

While it’s probably too much to ask for McConnell, or the political media, to apologize for jumping to Nixonian conclusions, at least McConnell is kind of facing reality. From TPM’s Brian Beutler:

Quote:

---

McConnell effectively acknowledged to disappointed conservatives that recently revealed IRS malfeasance probably wasn’t the consequence of any direct action taken by the White House.

“There might be some folks out there waiting for a hand signed memo from President Obama to Lois Learner to turn up,” he said, referring to conservatives and Republicans who have charged that the IRS was following White House instructions when it targeted conservative non-profits. “Do not hold your breath.”

…“I am prepared to say, and did say today, that the President and his political allies encouraged this kind of bureaucratic overreach by their public comments,” he said. “But that’s quite different from saying they ordered it.”

---

http://www.mediaite.com/online/scandal-in-the-wind-senator-mitch-mccon
nell-sticks-fork-in-irs-kerfuffle/

---

Quote:

---

The Internal Revenue Service targeted liberal groups as well as conservatives seeking tax-exempt status, a Democratic congressman charged on Monday after the agency acknowledged the inappropriate practice continued until last month.

Rep. Sander Levin said the term "progressives" was included on IRS screening lists of applicants for tax-exempt status made available to Congress on Monday.

It was the first confirmation that the "Be on the Lookout" or BOLO lists used criteria targeting liberal groups after an inspector general's report made public last month said the IRS had used words such as "tea party" to determine possible extra scrutiny.

In a statement, the Michigan Democrat questioned why the Treasury inspector general who initially disclosed the IRS targeting, J. Russell George, focused only on BOLO lists that contained conservative labels.

The inspector general's report "served as the basis and impetus for a wide range of congressional investigations, and this new information shows that the foundation of those investigations is flawed in a fundamental way," Levin's statement said.

Daniel Werfel, the IRS acting commissioner, noted that his investigation, while still incomplete, found no evidence so far of intentional wrongdoing by IRS personnel, involvement by anyone outside the IRS or that targeting extended into other areas of the agency. http://www.cnn.com/2013/06/24/politics/irs-targeting/index.html?hpt=hp
_bn3

---