Bombshell

New and serious revelations that the IRS targeted, delayed and denied 501(c)-tax-exempt treatment for opponents of Barack Obama during an election year was compounded yesterday when IRS officials testified that the effort was coordinated out of Washington, DC by senior IRS officials, including appointees of the President. It's not the least bit surprising that many Democrat politicians, Obama's Left-wing supporters, and the President's Praetorian guard in the media are doubling their efforts to tell the public that there's no scandal, that the entire investigation is political (in what can only be called breathtaking hypocrisy, they claim at the same time IRS actions were not political), and that it's time to move on.

This position is exemplified by an editorial in USA Today as reported by CNN:

"No political operatives from the Obama campaign or the White House have been linked to any of the IRS' activities," the editorial said. "What's more, it has become increasingly clear that confusion on the part of IRS employees, rather than a starkly political motive, was the primary cause of the delays."

So ... it was just "confusion," huh? Senior IRS official Lois Lerner took the fifth because she was confused. Just because there have been no direct links to the administration established yet, we're supposed to believe that there will be no links established going forward as congressional committees work around the pervasive stonewalling that would have caused media outrage and investigation under any GOP administration.

Peggy Noonan comments on the "evolution" of stonewalling for this growing scandal:

Rep. Trey Gowdy, a South Carolina Republican, finally woke the proceedings up with what he called "the evolution of the defense" since the scandal began. First, Ms. Lerner planted a question at a conference. Then she said the Cincinnati office did it—a narrative that was advanced by the president's spokesman, Jay Carney. Then came the suggestion the IRS was too badly managed to pull off a sophisticated conspiracy. Then the charge that liberal groups were targeted too—"we did it against both ends of the political spectrum." When the inspector general of the IRS said no, it was conservative groups that were targeted, he came under attack. Now the defense is that the White House wasn't involved, so case closed.

Hmmm. If this is such an open and closed case of "confusion," why the evolving defense mounted by the White House? Why all the lies? Why the pervasive stonewalling?

Let's assume for a moment that there was nothing political about this (and I do not), why on earth would House democrats or for that matter the Left-leaning media not want to investigate a rogue federal agency that has the power to make every citizen's life miserable? Why would they suggest that it's time for the investigation to stop? After all, if it can happen to the Tea Party, a rogue IRS, if allowed to continue its current modis operandi, could target Move.org or Think Progress at some point in the future. Why aren't Obama supporters in politics and the media concerned?

Peggy Noonan summarizes the implications of testimony that the IRS Chief Counsel's office in DC was involved:

Still, what landed [at yesterday's congressional hearing] was a bombshell. And Democrats know it. Which is why they are so desperate to make the investigation go away. They know, as Republicans do, that the chief counsel of the IRS is one of only two Obama political appointees in the entire agency.

So ... one of only two political appointees in the IRS was involved in IRS wrongdoing at very senior levels of the agency. Interesting coincidence, wouldn't you say?