Posted on 06/21/2013 12:29:15 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Mitch McConnell delivered a speech today at the American Enterprise Institute to officially signal that the IRS scandal has entered its post-fact phase. When the IRS first revealed that its Cincinnati office had attempted to enforce its nonprofit laws using a search function that disproportionately impacted conservatives, Republicans were certain it must have come from the White House. They were going to follow the facts. But all of the facts point in the same direction, which is that the Obama administration had nothing to do with it at all. That was the conclusion of the agency’s inspector-general report, as well as the House Oversight Committee’s own interviews, which the Republican majority tried to suppress and which (when the Democrats released them) showed the operation was an independent, well-intentioned effort to enforce the law led by an IRS official who happens to be a conservative Republican.
McConnell’s speech is an attempt to reframe the issue in a way that it can survive the utter absence of incriminating facts. One method he employs is to flip around the burden of proof: Now we have an administration that’s desperately trying to prove that nobody at the top was involved in any of this stuff, even as they hope that the media loses interest in this scandal and moves on …
Got that? Before Republicans were going to prove that Obama’s administration was involved. All of the evidence suggests it wasn’t. So now McConnell is framing the question as Obama trying to prove he wasn’t involved. Which, of course, he can’t. For that matter, McConnell can’t prove that he didn’t mastermind the IRS. You can’t prove a negative.
McConnell also argues that the scandal is larger than facts about illegality or misconduct — “what we’re dealing with here is larger than the actions of one agency or any group of employees.” By "larger," McConnell means the scandal is just the same nebulous suspicions they have always had about Democrats running the government: The attacks on speech that we’ve seen over the past several years were never limited to a few Left-wing pressure groups or the DISCLOSE Act. They extend throughout the federal government, to places like the FEC, the FCC, HHS, the SEC, and as all Americans now know — even to the IRS. These assaults have often been aided and abetted by the administration’s allies in Congress.
The “Disclose Act” is a proposed measure that would require unregulated political groups to publicly disclose their donors. Back when campaign finance reformers were trying to actually put limits on outside donations, McConnell was a fierce advocate of this idea. Since the Supreme Court killed spending limits, disclosure has become the best reformers can hope for, and McConnell has now turned against it and indeed portrays it as a sinister Nixonian attempt to suppress free speech.
The belligerent and borderline-paranoid tone of McConnell’s speech today is a kind of covered retreat, signaling the IRS scandal’s turn into a vague trope that conservatives use with other members of the tribe, the way liberals liked to say “Halliburton” during the Bush years, to signal some dark beliefs they don’t need to back up.
Bush’s fault!
The dirty deed was done by a conservative republican and it had nothing to do with Obamala!!!
See I told you so!
/s
I know this guy is scum, but so are some of our own these days. Liars.
I don't buy these excuses anymore. Virtually every Republican who turned on us is given a pass because of some perceived blackmailing or bribe or threat or ‘big money interest’.
This is the job they chose; they took an oath, and if the heat is too much to resist selling America down the river, then they should man up, resign, and be done with it.
Most of us have to live up to what we claim to be or we're history. Why should they be any different?
“This goes right to the White House.”
Nah! It was two old blue-haired, very pink-cheeked old ladies in Cincy who were the rouge agents.
” Obama needs to be impeached, imprisoned and shamed for eternity. A lot of his fellow henchmen should go to jail as well.”
Over 450 trips to the White House between 2 IRS guys in 4 years?
Obama is the chief perpetrator in the IRS scandal. Screw the fall guys!
There are enough lies and spin in there to make the author a smoothie.
Most depressing news since the last election. The Republicans deserve to be slaughtered in elections.
Check this out from the WaPo. Much more reasonable.
Why don’t they be honest: They don’t think targeting someone for having the wrong beliefs is wrong. If they actually came out and said this, they’d probably get away with it.
Snowden succeeded in his misdirection.
these GOP ‘leaders’ are just the worst scum. At least we know what the democrats stand for. If this was Bush we’d already be in the post-Bush phase!!!!!!!!!!!
That does it. I’m changing my voter registration to Independent. At least I might not get turned down if I need medical care.
Hey, first you are offended that Obama is letting his illegal immigrant family starve, then you are pissed because Obama steals Fifty Million dollars to help out his bro. You Republicans are all the same...
/s
What blather!
If he is calling conservatives a primitive tribe, I say thank you and take that as a compliment.
But this clown can clearly not identify the tribe members let alone their chiefs.
GOPe leadership buffoons such as McConnell and Boehner do not speak for the primitive tribe of conservatives as the author would call us.
New York Magazine can closely listen to what Mitch had to say and try to interpret it to a broader message.
This conservative tribe member stopped listening to Old Mitch a long time ago let alone try to figure out what he was trying to say.
He is a total sellout and is never to be trusted and I do not need to be listening to him to confirm that.
Two words: Bob Bauer.
Jimrob, you forgot the sarcasm tag. I would advise everyone to look into the class action in which the lead plaintiff is a man named Sean Gerlich. There is a recent decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in that case on a spoliation issue that arose in it. In that case the plaintiffs are suing for interference with First Amendment and other constitutional rights by officials of the DOJ under George W. Bush who targeted liberals by denying them D.C. interviews disproportionatly as applicants to the DOJ law school grad honors program for grads applying for entry DOJ positions. What is sauce for left wing geese is sauce for the conservative ganders.
Totally worthless. We as a representative republic are finished. We have entered into the post republic era of the USA. Bring on the Caesar. OH we have him in O’Bumbler!
bama was indeed the source...
Chait just asserts this in hopes that the assertion will make it so. In the age of the Internet it just could, as people all over the net are saying the scandal is over based solely on Chait’s article. Last month he tried to do the same thing with Benghazi.
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.