Rahm Emanuel’s obsession with tax returns
By Josh Feldman | July 15th, 2012
Rahm Emanuel told ABC’s George Stephanopolous that then-candidate McCain Looked At Romney’s Tax Returns And Decided Palin Would Be A Better VP.
Chicago mayor, Obama campaign surrogate, (onetime Obama COS), Rahm Emanuel continued the attack on Mitt Romney over a lack of transparency on his tax returns, encouraging the Republican campaign to release more. Emanuel noted that Romney handed over two decades of tax returns to the John McCain campaign in 2008 when he was being vetted for the VP slot, and after seeing the returns, the McCain campaign decided that Sarah Palin would be a better running mate.
George Stephanopoulos asked Emanuel if he agrees with the notion put forth last week by Obama staffer Stephanie Cutter that either Romney has been lying about his tenure at Bain or he lied on SEC filings, which would constitute a felony.
Emanuel defended the comments by saying Cutter was just following the law in her remarks, but more importantly, he told the Romney campaign to stop whining about what Cutter said because, as he argued, how would Romney deal with foreign leaders if this is his reaction to an opposition campaign staffer?
On the subject of Romney’s tax returns, Stephanopoulos asked what new information could be gleamed from releasing more returns. Emanuel pointed out that Romney’s own father advocated for disclosure, and made an interesting point about the returns when they were handed over to McCain campaign in 2008.
“He has only released one year, to the McCain campaign he released 23 years. And he’s telling the people, ‘I’m not going to give you what I gave John McCain’s people in 2008.’ And when he gave them 23 years, John McCain’s campaign looked at it and went, ‘Let’s go with Sarah Palin.’ So whatever’s in there is far worse than just the first year.”
THE DOTS CONNECT Obama told voters “Tea Parties were a threat to democracy.”
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Liz: I just posted this in the other thread where you broke the RAHM connection:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3027018/posts?page=58#58
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3027018/posts?page=92#92
WSJ article
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124113406528875137.html
This date may become more significant:
“President Obama announced Friday [Oct 1, 2010] that his brash and hard-charging chief of staff Rahm Emanuel would resign effective immediately, marking the most significant departure to date from the president’s inner circle.”
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/10/01/rahm-expected-leave-white-house-chicago-mayor-run/
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Other dates for my own recollection but of possible interest to others:
As Liz documented with WSJ article above, Rahm was in control of Treasury by late Jan 2009.
Feb 19, 2009 -— CNBC’s Rick Santelli rant heard round the world
Called for a “Chicago Tea Party” Thursday, leading the charge for calls to revolt against the Obama Administration’s mortgage bailout plan....even the White House mentioned him directly in response to questions about the bailout — not once, not twice, but NINE times
http://www.cnbc.com/id/29283701
Feb 27, 2009 -— Tea Party organizers claim that the first nationwide Tea Party protest took place on February 27, 2009, with coordinated events occurring in more than 40 cities.
April 15, 2009 -— These protests were merely dress rehearsal for the Tea Party events planned for April 15, 2009: tax day. Few can agree on the number of events held throughout the country; the number ranges from 200 to 750, with total attendance ranging from about 250,000 to more than a half-million
http://www.infoplease.com/us/government/tea-party-history.html
Spring/summer 2009 -— Town-hall meetings
Protests against the stimulus package, the bank bailouts, and health-care legislation continued throughout 2009.... During the summer, Tea Party protesters were criticized for their disruptive outbursts during meetings held by members of Congress in their home districts to discuss health-care reform.
http://www.infoplease.com/us/government/tea-party-history.html
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/016/908cxoqy.asp
June 2009 -— James Rosen NK article
Fall 2009 -— WH attacks on Fox News escalates
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/10/12/white-house-escalates-war-words-fox-news/
Jan 19, 2010 -—The movement’s first major victory of the year occurred in January in Massachusetts—perhaps the bluest of the blue states—when Republican Scott Brown defeated Democrat Martha Coakley in the Senate race to fill the seat vacated after the death of Sen. Ted Kennedy.
The ranks of Tea Party members grew in Congress throughout 2010.
http://www.infoplease.com/us/government/tea-party-history.html
Jan. 21, 2010: Citizens United -— The Supreme Court ruled that the government cannot limit corporation or union spending for or against political candidates in this Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission
February 6, 2010: Some say that Sarah Palin assumed the role as #1 Tea Partier when she delivered the keynote address at the first Tea Party Convention in February 2010 in Nashville. Some 600 people attended the full convention, and another 500 sat in on Palin’s speech only.
http://www.infoplease.com/us/government/tea-party-history.html
In fact, Gallup poll in late March 2010 revealed that 28% of Americans have a positive perception of the Tea Party movement.
http://www.infoplease.com/us/government/tea-party-history.html
March 1, 2010: An IRS manager in Cincinnati, Ohio asks employees to begin searching for 501(c) tax exemption applications using the terms Tea Party, Patriots and 9/12 as their criteria.
http://www.freedomworks.org/blog/dean-clancy/irs-targeting-scandal-timeline
May 2010 -— DOJ-—affidavit detailed the effort to get e-mails from the account of Fox News reporter James Rosen. He was not charged in the leak investigation although the document referred to him as a possible co-conspirator.
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2013/06/03/doj-defends-holders-statement-on-leak-investigation/
Oct 1, 2010 -—”President Obama announced Friday that his brash and hard-charging chief of staff Rahm Emanuel would resign effective immediately, marking the most significant departure to date from the president’s inner circle.”
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/10/01/rahm-expected-leave-white-house-chicago-mayor-run/
October 26, 2010: Determinations Unit personnel emailed concerns about the additional review process for tea party applications to the Technical Unit. This individual follows up in November when response to concern about consistency yields no change.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-250_162-57584497/the-irs-targeting-controversy-a-timeline/
I want to see Rahm in pin stripes in federal prison, or better yet, facing a firing squad.
I think you need to fix the headline. Shouldn’t that be POS Emanuel?