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Day 51
Posted on 05/21/2013 4:18:35 PM PDT by neverdem
Shifting stories cast doubts on answer to core question: Did Team Obama know about IRS abuse in real time?
“You and others have said that no one in the White House knew about IRS actions before getting the heads up on the inspector general's report last month,” George Stephanopoulos told senior White House adviser Dan Pfeiffer on Sunday. “Are you absolutely sure of that?”
“Yes,” Pfeiffer replied.
Do you believe him?
Knowing the consequences that would befall the Obama administration if the White House or Obama’s reelection campaign knew in real time that the IRS was targeting conservatives, I desperately want to believe Pfeiffer. I’ve known him for years. I like him. He’s never lied to me.
But Pfeiffer is part of an institution that has demonstrated an inability and/or unwillingness to tell the full truth about the IRS scandal and a spate of other controversies. The White House can’t be trusted.
That depressing conclusion (not unique to the Obama White House, sadly) was driven home Monday when spokesman Jay Carney used his daily briefing to announce that presidential advisers knew more about the IRS scandal a bit sooner than previously disclosed.
He said the West Wing’s top lawyer, Kathryn Ruemmler, told White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough and other senior advisers on April 16 about an internal audit of Internal Revenue Service's scrutiny of conservative groups. The White House discussed the potential findings with the Treasury Department but did not inform Obama, Carney said.
That contradicts earlier White House claims. The April 16 notification date is a weekly earlier than previously disclosed by the White House.
Pfeiffer said in television interviews Sunday that the White House did not know the results of the probe until last week, when the inspector general’s report was released. Carney had previously said the White House lawyer was told “only about the fact that the IG was finishing a review” of the IRS’s actions, and he cast it as a “normal sort of heads-up."
Reporting on Monday’s briefing, The New York Times said “the details released by Mr. Carney on Monday went beyond a previous White House account.”
The Washington Post reported, “The administration’s accounts of what it knew about the IRS inquiry have shifted markedly over the past week. Officials initially maintained that the administration knew of an inspector general’s report was forthcoming but suggested that they did not know about its findings.”
Discussions between officials at the Treasury Department, which oversees the IRS, and their bosses in the West Wing were more extensive than initially acknowledged.
To be fair, these are not blockbuster developments. The White House pushed back its timeline by six or seven days and added some details about the inquiry notification.
Given the thousands of e-mails, hundreds of conversations, and dozens of people involved, it is possible that the White House innocently determined Monday that it had erred last week, and moved quickly to clear up the record.
The new media environment demands immediate and accurate answers. Journalists know more than most that being fast and accurate isn’t easy.
And yet the revelations cost the Obama White House some measure of credibility. In politics, as in life, when you constantly change your story, even on small matters, you sow doubt about your credibility and competence.
In different ways, each of the so-called Obama scandals revolve around the issue of trust (as I wrote here, here, here, here, and here). The president’s greatest asset is his credibility. If this pattern of spinning and shifting stories continues, it could become a liability.
The central question of the IRS scandal is whether Obama advisers at the White House or within the reelection campaign orchestrated or knew about the targeting of conservative groups.
Pfeiffer and his colleagues say the answer is no. I have no reason to think they are lying. I also have no confidence that they know.
“The White House can’t be trusted.” - Ron Fournier, National Journal
Either way it's not a good thing for the country or the American people and as long as we have the most dishonest and corrupt media ever....there will never be any accountability for anything this administration does and that's the biggest scandal of them all.
This administration has been one lie after the next, characterized as spin, politics, ignorance, etc... The real question that a reporter needs to pose to the idiot in charge is “Mr President in all the controversies your response or the response by your administration officials has been that they just didn’t know, wouldn’t you agree that the government has gotten out of your control?
How can he answer that without sounding like a fool?
Really? This guy is a propagandist. A paid liar. Fournier is a fool.
If their lips are moving they are lying.
This is either the most dishonest corrupt administration in our nations history or the most inept and incompetent administration in this nations history.
That is the question we must put to the forth estate.
Are you as corrupt and dishonest as this administration
or as inept and incompetent as this administration??
Trus is a word that has like others in this society that has been changed! The word Trust can not be relative to politics in anyway!
If you want trust see your used car salesman or Recruiter.
Correct, Skippy.
Sucks to be you.
” Trus is a word that has like others in this society that has been changed!”
Right! I mean I know it SOUNDS the same still without the”T” at the end. But I prefer the old version.
What have we come to as a society when we can just drop the last letter off words all willy nilly with no consequences. This could get ugly.
TrusT me. ;o)
I’m sorry I’m old and will try to proof read more! I didn’t know the Grammar Nazi would peg me. I usually repost the correction but that takes bandwith I would hate to take your last sentence over a frivilious post! Now go back to your lair and wait for the next dumbass that does not know how to spell. I have my check mark and it is noted!
And besides Willy Nilly is capitalized!
And Ron Fournier is a liberal.
I don’t trust anyone in the White House the Congress or the Supreme Court.
From either party.
They are all in it for themselves.
Oh please, I’m hardly a grammar Nazi and I’m usually the one making goofy typos.
The mistake was just funny because of the wording of the sentence and I decided to have a little fun with it....
Don’t take things so seriously, life is short, laugh a little. After all, you gotta admit it WAS pretty funny.
And don’t worry, grammar karma will haunt me. Every time I make fun of someone else for typos, I screw up the next 800 things I type.
Well I see you don’t see the humor in my post as well!
It’s all in delivery I made you think I was serious and you fell for it hook line and sinker!
Geeze maybe you should lighten up!
I can see all conservatives are tense right now but hey we have till 2014 enjoy it! Obummer loves you!
And, when their lips are not moving, they are thinking of lies to tell!
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