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House GOP Introduces Measure to Impeach IRS Head Koskinen
“Koskinen” is Finnish for “smirking leprechaun.”
Late last week, the “Justice” Department decided that Lois Lerner and the IRS did nothing illegal by targeting Obama’s political opponents with special scrutiny and delays. Today, the House GOP responded as 19 members introduces a measure to impeach current IRS head John Koskinen.
House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz began the impeachment process against IRS Commissioner John Koskinen Tuesday, accusing him of misleading the public and destroying documents that were being sought under a congressional subpoena.
…Among the specific charges Mr. Chaffetz and 18 of his fellow Republicans on the committee allege are that Mr. Koskinen misled Congress when he said he’d turned over all of former IRS senior executive Lois G. Lerner’s emails, and oversaw destruction of evidence when his agency destroyed backup tapes that contained the emails.
It was unclear how far the resolution would go, in a Congress already preoccupied with so many other fights and with little more than a year to go in President Obama’s tenure.
The impeachment resolution says the IRS knew Ms. Lerner’s messages were missing, due to a reported computer hard drive crash, as early as February 2014, but didn’t notify Congress until June — while the backup tapes were destroyed in March.
Earlier Tuesday, Koskinen told the Senate Finance Committee that he is cleaning up the IRS to avoid any of that completely legal harassment of Tea Party groups:
“The chain of command all the way down has changed. There are new people that have gone through, and we’ve pursued appropriate disciplinary review as needed,” Mr. Koskinen said.
He also acknowledged his agency is still holding up a “handful” of tea party groups’ applications — including one that’s been waiting for nearly six years, The Washington Times reported earlier this week.
Six. Years.
Lerner and Koskinen have learned that they won’t face repercussions for using the federal government as a weapon to harm President Obama’s political opponents. It is long past time that the House GOP took matters into their own hands, just as the Constitution allows.
Published in Law
The problem with this line of reasoning is that what was a committed was a crime, and it’s going to go unpunished for political reasons.
Doing the right things are usually hard. The whole problem is that we’ve got half the country that thinks it’s OK for the IRS to target political groups, as long as they’re the groups they disagree with. The revenue branch of the gov’t is targeting political groups.
This is what republics with bananas on their flags look like, and we’re shrugging our shoulders, evaluating the political fallout. The politics have already fallen out. Freedom has been losing for quite some time now, and sitting on our hands enables this loss.
It’s even harder when you lose the election. As becomes more likely for the reasons outlined by Skarv. If the impeachment can’t be done quickly–if it’s allowed to be dragged out over several weeks or months–the narrative will be Evil Republicans and not Democrat/Obama/Clinton scandals and dishonesty.
Keep those scandals and dishonesty in the public’s mind by talking directly about the scandals and dishonesty, not by talking about one, obliquely.
The next election is well inside the statute of limitations for this sort of crime. You want to prosecute him for a crime. Win the election so you can get a DoJ capable of that and get the FBI de-politicized so it can do a proper investigation to support the prosecution (ideally, not in that order). Impeachment and conviction is, explicitly, not a criminal prosecution.
Eric Hines
Watching him at a hearing earlier this year, he had this smug attitude of “I am untouchable.” Smirking leprechaun indeed.
The trouble is, the entire federal bureaucracy is filled with his type. They know they are nearly impossible to fire, and they know that they are financially set for life. They really can get away with pretty much anything at the expense of the citizens.
They must be destroyed.
Start with the EPA, move quickly to the IRS, and continue from there.
The flunkies prop up Dear Leader. You start by taking away his support, one corrupt-o-crat at a time. Soon he has no one left around him to cover for him.
And the left is painting it as “Scott Walker changing the law to protect his pals.” Of course.
But when I heard the news, I did a fist pump. Now let the courts proceed until Chisholm is behind bars.
I should probably clarify this comment in light of my comment at #1. This impeachment proceeding is an important thing to do, if it can be done quickly and loudly. If it’s done only loudly, and over a long period of time, it’ll be the Democrats/Progressives making the noise.
The Republican/Conservative message needs to be, first, optimism and what they plan to do on election, and second the Democrat/Obama/Clinton scandals. This impeachment, if done efficiently, is a proper part of that second, but only a part.
Eric Hines
That guy’s smile just irritates the crap out of me. I wonder if he’ll still be smiling when he’s impeached.
Why wouldn’t he? There needs to be a Senate conviction before there can be consequences.
Eric Hines
I meant will he be smiling when convicted.