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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsBOOM: White House Was Not Involved In Targeting Of Conservative Groups
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
(1,800 posts)Amonester
(11,541 posts)Alright, let's see if the m$m will even mention a sigh about it...
Cali_Democrat
(30,439 posts)You can be sure of that.
Unfortunately even a lot of Dems appear to be falling for this GOP-generated horse manure.
FSogol
(45,582 posts)Berlum
(7,044 posts)Dog bites man. Republicans lie to Americans. Ho hum. The usual. Wake me up when there is some real news.
nxylas
(6,440 posts)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
(269,278 posts)like a great ReTHUG scumbag.
GTAIssa is a THUG
arely staircase
(12,482 posts)nt
xtraxritical
(3,576 posts)kentuck
(111,111 posts)Since this scandal is Republican created...
ck4829
(35,096 posts)sheshe2
(84,057 posts)From your link~
"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
(2,397 posts)Iliyah
(25,111 posts)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
(67,782 posts)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?
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
(9,090 posts)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
(22,000 posts)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
(9,090 posts)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
(22,000 posts)They are recycled like spoiled food.
sigmasix
(794 posts)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
(9,090 posts)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
(12,165 posts)Issa is a disgusting liar.
watoos
(7,142 posts)Fox found another former IRS agent out of the Washington DC District that claims she profiled T/Party groups.
Blue_Roses
(12,894 posts)and just in case:
Cali_Democrat
(30,439 posts)Cha
(298,021 posts)they're stoopid.
Left Coast2020
(2,397 posts)leftynyc
(26,060 posts)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
(9,748 posts)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
(2,017 posts)they don't just hand out tax-exempt status. Everybody who applies is checked out.
one_voice
(20,043 posts)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
(3,576 posts)Chris Matthews is a dud too.
AnnieK401
(541 posts)A lie always seems to get more traction than the truth.
Response to one_voice (Reply #16)
AnnieK401 This message was self-deleted by its author.
Cha
(298,021 posts)watched corp fake news since 2002.
It's up to us to shine a light on reality.
mnmoderatedem
(3,734 posts)fence sitting voters don't like the kind of thing he's been doing.
Let's hope so.
obama2terms
(563 posts)Because not only was the white house not involved, it was a republican that flagged the group, now THAT is un expected.
Turbineguy
(37,412 posts)looks like the GOP will have to pull another scandal out of the hat.
hedgehog
(36,286 posts)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
(1,277 posts)AnnieK401
(541 posts)it destroys one of the "scandals" so it can't be true. Anything that makes the Obama administration look bad is the truth.
cherokeeprogressive
(24,853 posts)Cali_Democrat
(30,439 posts)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
(24,979 posts)but not conservative groups, oh heaven forfend.
Babel_17
(5,400 posts)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
(7,979 posts)that is exactly how you deal with bullies like Issa. I'm still looking for it on NBC or CNN sites.
Spitfire of ATJ
(32,723 posts)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
(24,350 posts)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
(12,835 posts)Darn "context" is making it rather difficult.
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uponit7771
(90,371 posts)spanone
(135,924 posts)thelordofhell
(4,569 posts)still_one
(92,502 posts)NorthCarolina
(11,197 posts)There's only so much you can do at one time, so they needed to farm out the Tea Party stuff.