President Barack Obama's former chief of staff, Jack Lew, the current treasury secretary, said today at a Capitol Hill hearing that he was aware "questions had been raised" about the IRS when he was at the White House:
"I was not aware of this audit until I met with the inspector general on March 15, 2013," Lew says.
A senator follows-up, "Had you heard of anything at the White House regarding -- "
Testifying today on Capitol Hill, Douglas Shulman, the former IRS commissioner, says he "can't say" how the targeting of conservatives by the agency he once led happened:
A senator asks, "If you could just very quickly, in a nutshell, bottom-line: How did this happen?"
"Mr. Chairman," Shulman says, "I can't say that I know that answer."
Texas senator John Cornyn has released this video, titled "A Culture of Intimidation," about the IRS's targeting of conservatives in his home state and across the nation:
The more the evidence emerges, the more one has to wonder: Could Obamacare have been designed any more poorly? Even those who don’t mind Obamacare’s striking consolidation of power and money in Washington at the expense of Americans’ liberty, or who don’t mind the medical overhaul’s $2 trillion price-tag over its real first decade (2014 to 2023), must be starting to wonder at the sheer ineptitude of those who spearheaded its passage and penned its provisions.
The thoughtful Carl Cannon has written a piece, "Richard Milhous Obama," concluding that our current president has more in common with our 37th than President Obama's partisans would like to acknowledge. The estimable Victor Davis Hanson has weighed in, defending against liberal dissents the proposition that "Nixon Is a Fair Comparison" with Obama.
A reporter confirmed with Jay Carney, today at the press briefing, that President Obama met with his chief of staff and the treasury secretary many times over the last month and that neither official told the president of the IRS scandal:
White House spokesman Jay Carney says that the president's counsel and chief of staff knew about the investigation into the IRS's targeting of conservative group. But, Carney says, they didn't see it fit to tell President Obama about the investigation.
The White House counsel heard about the investigation on April 24. Obama maintains that he found out about the IRS's targeting of conservatives through the press.
Last week, a contract totaling more than $378,000 was awarded to develop and manufacture signs for Civil War-era cemeteries, including "18 unique interpretive signs for Confederate lots." The contract was awarded by Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).
We hear a lot, these days, about how President Obama is not like Lyndon Johnson and thanks be to heaven for that small mercy. The point seems to be that the president doesn't know how to arm twist, sweet talk, bribe, and emasculate both friend and enemy (of which he truly had neither) in order to further his agenda. Since many among the chattering class believe, still, in that agenda, his is generally regarded as an excellent presidency. Never mind that more than half a century after Johnson declared war on poverty ... poverty is still winning.
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