[Carry_Okie]

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.

There are enough lies and spin in there to make the author a smoothie.

[nickcarraway]

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.

[muawiyah]

Does anyone believe a GS 13 branch manager is an "official"?

That's like referring to a Captain as 'General' ~ seriously. At that level you might come up with a novel question every now and then but your purpose is to work to the numbers ~ maintain productivity, maintain security, keep workhours down.... As Jim noted, the three year delay is a serious matter, and my experience in a counterpart agency says 3 years is a heck of a lot longer than half an hour ~ which is what it would take us to handle any of those applications.