Originally Posted by Jankinonya:
Skippy,
I thought the Republicans had abandoned the old "you're not a REAL American if you don't agree with us". I guess I was wrong.
I am a Democrat and as much of an American as you are. Stop trying to divide this nation with this kind of rhetoric.
There is no scandal with Benghazi, other than in the minds of Issa and his followers. IRS has been solved and it had nothing to do with the WH. NSA is a Republican policy. Where were you when we Democrats were trying to fight against the Patriot Act? Oh...were you too busy telling us all how unpatriotic we were and Un-American because we didn't support Bush and his destruction of our rights to privacy?
I'm no happier now about NSA and the Patriot Act that gave them the power they are using today than I was over 12 years ago when it was put in place. Hopefully ALL Americans will demand that it be repealed.
I think the Republican party is too fractured to be effective in Congress. Of course they have done nothing but obstruct government for the last 5 years. Maybe its a good thing that they are self destructing. Hopefully more sensible Republican leaders will be able to step up and rebuild the party into something useful and productive.
Jank.
The IRS scandal had just begun to emerge. Shafer, a fairly high grade supervisor at the Cincinnati office requested guidance on the numerous new applications for 501(c)(4) status. Lois Lerner's office in DC began to provide guidance. Lerner is about 4 pay grades above Shafer. Shafer's office lost control of the applications in April 2010. That is when the most egregious actions against the applicants took place. Lerner's supervisor, Carter Hull, recently retired, was involved, as well.
This is what the congressional investigators learned from deposing the Cincinnati office. The Laguna Nigel and DC offices must be deposed, as well, before the full story is know.
It may well be that the trail ends with Hull and Lerner (paid $188,000 and $177,000). However, it may go to upper echelons of the IRS, Treasury or the West Wing of the WH. Of course, this is the reason Democrats are desperate to kill the investigation. However, laws were broken, in particular, the Civil Rights Act and the Hatch Act, at least.