Fishing Expeditions

Same old, same old. Evasive, sophomoric and intellectually lazy talking points delivered by yet another junior administration puppet, who essentially reads a script saying don't look here at the facts, look over there at the Republicans who are "offensive" and trying to make a scandal out of nothing. Candy Crowley would be proud.

As CBS's Bob Schieffer said so pointedly, "Why are you here today?"



And here are excerpts from an illuminating editorial from The Wall Street Journal -The IRS Scandal Began at the Top.

"President Obama and Co. are in full deniability mode, noting that the IRS is an 'independent' agency and that they knew nothing about its abuse. The media and Congress are sleuthing for some hint that Mr. Obama picked up the phone and sicced the tax dogs on his enemies.

"But that's not how things work in post-Watergate Washington. Mr. Obama didn't need to pick up the phone. All he needed to do was exactly what he did do, in full view, for three years: Publicly suggest that conservative political groups were engaged in nefarious deeds; publicly call out by name political opponents whom he'd like to see harassed; and publicly have his party pressure the IRS to take action.

"Mr. Obama now professes shock and outrage that bureaucrats at the IRS did exactly what the president of the United States said was the right and honorable thing to do. 'He put a target on our backs, and he's now going to blame the people who are shooting at us?' asks Idaho businessman and longtime Republican donor Frank VanderSloot.

"The president derided 'tea baggers.' Vice President Joe Biden compared them to 'terrorists.' In more than a dozen speeches Mr. Obama raised the specter that these groups represented nefarious interests that were perverting elections. 'Nobody knows who's paying for these ads,' he warned. 'We don't know where this money is coming from,' he intoned.

"In case the IRS missed his point, he raised the threat of illegality: 'All around this country there are groups with harmless-sounding names like Americans for Prosperity, who are running millions of dollars of ads against Democratic candidates . . . And they don't have to say who exactly the Americans for Prosperity are. You don't know if it's a foreign-controlled corporation.'

"Short of directly asking federal agencies to investigate these groups, this is as close as it gets. Especially as top congressional Democrats were putting in their own versions of phone calls, sending letters to the IRS that accused it of having 'failed to address' the 'problem' of groups that were 'improperly engaged' in campaigns. Because guess who controls that 'independent' agency's budget?

"The IRS is easy to demonize, but it doesn't exist in a vacuum. It got its heading from a president, and his party, who did in fact send it orders—openly, for the world to see. In his Tuesday press grilling, no question agitated White House Press Secretary Jay Carney more than the one that got to the heart of the matter: Given the president's 'animosity' toward Citizens United, might he have 'appreciated or wanted the IRS to be looking and scrutinizing those . . .' Mr. Carney cut off the reporter with 'That's a preposterous assertion."

"Preposterous because, according to Mr. Obama, he is 'outraged' and 'angry' that the IRS looked into the very groups and individuals that he spent years claiming were shady, undemocratic, even lawbreaking. After all, he expects the IRS to 'operate with absolute integrity.' Even when he does not."