Posted on 05/30/2013 7:51:02 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
If you put together all of the White House visits by Cabinet members Eric Holder, Kathleen Sebelius, and Hillary Clinton, you might approach the number accumulated by a non-Cabinet official from an agency in the news lately. Douglas Shulman visited the White House far more often during the Obama administration than the closest members of Barack Obama’s own team, with perhaps six times as many visits as Energy Secretary Stephen Chu and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood:
Publicly released records show that embattled former IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman visited the White House at least 157 times during the Obama administration, more recorded visits than even the most trusted members of the president’s Cabinet. …
An analysis by The Daily Caller of the White House’s public “visitor access records” showed that every current and former member of President Obama’s Cabinet would have had to rack up at least 60 more public visits to the president’s home to catch up with “Douglas Shulman.”
The visitor logs do not give a complete picture of White House access. Some high-level officials get cleared for access and do not have to sign in during visits. A Washington Post database of visitor log records cautions, “The log may include some scheduled visits that did not take place and exclude visits by members of Congress, top officials and others who are not required to sign in at security gates.”
The White House press office declined to comment on which visits by high-ranking officials do and do not get recorded in the visitor log, but it is probable that the vast majority of visits by major cabinet members do not end up in the public record.
Nevertheless, many visits by current and former cabinet members are in the logs, and the record depicts an IRS chief uniquely at home in the White House.
Why is this important? Shulman ran the IRS when the targeting and harassing of conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status began in March 2010 and extended through mid-2012. Shulman testified twice before Congress in March 2012 that no targeting was taking place. After the scandal broke, Shulman refused to take responsibility for it in Congressional testimony this week and claimed that no White House coordination took place in this effort. The only White House visit Shulman could recall in detail was taking his kids to the Easter egg roll.
Clearly, Shulman was doing more than hunting eggs at the White House. His successor, Steven Miller, barely has enough visits to get into double digits despite being on the job a year. The Daily Caller’s chart shows so many visits by Shulman that it’s a wonder they weren’t charging him rent. Spreading out 157 visits over less than four years — roughly 40 months — puts Shulman in the White House almost once a week from Barack Obama’s inauguration to Shulman’s exit in May 2012.
The massive number of visits raises serious questions about Shulman’s activities in the White House. As IRS commissioner, he reported to Tim Geithner at Treasury, not anyone in the West Wing. Shulman, in fact, had more than three times as many visits to the White House as his nominal boss. What was the West Wing team telling Shulman? What was Shulman telling the West Wing team on his weekly visits? Looks like it will take a few more subpoenas to find out.
Perhaps Schulman and BO have a very special relationship.....
yep ... a (joint) method to bend the People over they hate.
Well they had a lot of Easter Egg Rolls and he was a regular.
Interesting that beyond Shulman, Penny Pritzker and Thomas Perez, both of which are far left political operatives have been there most often.
Also that Shulman’s predecessor visited the WH once in 4 years, stating that there should be some distance between the White House and the IRS.
Shulman said he was there so often because of the roll-out of Obamacare. Who from HHS was there on the same days? This is a good way of verifying whether Shulman was in fact meeting with folks to implement the (U-)ACA.
Here’s a way out for him: He should claim he has a girlfriend who works there. Or a boyfriend.
I find it incredible that the Bush Administration only had ONE Easter Egg roll in 8 years while the Obama Administration has had over 150 in under 5 years!
RE: Obama Administration has had over 150 in under 5 years!
How many Easter’s are there in 5 years :)
SHULMANS photo is what would pop up if you looked up the definition of a DEMOCRATIC WEASEL. This guy should be brought back up to the hearings committee and drilled tell he breaks. This fraud is exactly what’s wrong with our bloated government infested by THE FOREIGNER’S communist appointees and drones.
According to the Obama admin and the idiot from the IRS, about 150!
He obviously has a special relationship with someone in the WH. He has a LOT of ‘splainin’ to do.
Well gosh that is a no brainer. It is much easier to attack political enemies via the IRS than the DOJ. Plus face to face contacts are much more private than emails or phone calls...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.