Charles Krauthammer on IRS Scandal: This is Why It Has Legs … “This Thing Will Go On and It Could Be Fatal”

IRS SCANDAL HAS LEGS … IT WILL NOT GO AWAY, COULD BE FATAL.

Syndicated columnists Charles Krauthammer commented on the IRS targeting scandal on Tuesday during ’Special Report’ after yet another day of hearings that has only fueled the fire for all individuals, Democrats and republicans alike. Krauthammer explained, this is why this scandal has legs. First, everybody is outraged as everybody knows what the ITS can do and everyone is afraid of it. Second, now you have some one who is going to pleads the 5th and that has the appearance that the IRS is hiding something. Last, Democrats are up in arms as well as Republicans.

“Yes, the Republicans are up in arms but the Democrats are too. This thing will go on and it could be fatal.”

Kirsten Powers: Obama Admin Treats Whistleblowers As Criminals, Leakers As Heroes … “If he’s so offended by this, who has been fired?”

“I actually haven’t seen the president express real outrage other than giving lip service to it.”

It would appear that Kirtsen Powers has lost that loving feeling for Barack Obama. It took the scandal against the media for Powers to finally come to the reality that Barack Obama is more “Nixionian” than Messiah. Powers, a liberal and served in the Clinton administration, has had it with Obama and is calling him on his bull$hit. Obama claims he is a protector of the First Amendment, all the while they are spying on reporters. Powers stated on Fox News ‘Special Report,’ “I just think it’s incredible that he can stand up there and say that, he’s a fierce defender of the First Amendment which he’s said before as the press secretary of an administration that’s spying on reporters. And if he’s so offended by this, who has been fired? Why are heads not rolling over this.” When you can get a liberal like Kirsten Powers to finally admit that “Everything is completely upside down here,” when it comes to Barack Obama and his administration … Obama has a huge problem. The MSM, the very people who have defended, deflected and provided a disservice to America is covering Obama, have now turned on him as they have learned, if it can be FOX News, it probably has been them as well. This is the second scandal when it has come to how the Obama administration has dealt with the media. What are the odds this is just the tip of the iceberg as well?

click on picture to listen

From Real Clear Politics:

Kirsten Powers: : I just think it’s incredible that he can stand up there and say that, he’s a fierce defender of the First Amendment which he’s said before as the press secretary of an administration that’s spying on reporters. And if he’s so offended by this, who has been fired? Why are heads not rolling over this?

I actually haven’t seen the president express real outrage other than giving lip service to it. And I also think that you have to remember we’re focused on the media because we’re media, but there are a lot of regular people who are whistle blowers who have had their lives turned upside down by this administration. The same administration who said they treat whistleblowers as criminal but then people who leak information like Stuxnet or the kill list or Osama bin Laden information are heroes because they make President Obama look like some super human protector of America. Everything is completely upside down here. (Special Report, May 21, 2013)

NorCal Tea Party Patriots First Tea Party Organization to Sue the IRS

Return of the Jedi …

California-based Tea Party group, the NorCal Tea Party Patriots, become the first to sue the IRS accusing the IRS of violating its constitutional rights due to the “intensive and intrusive scrutiny” it received while seeking tax-exempt status. Let the pigeons loose. Hopefully, this will be just the beginning of the law suits against the IRS that have admitted to targeting conservative and Tea Party groups.  As reported at the Politico, the group alleges it applied for tax-exempt status in March 2010 but didn’t receive approval until Aug. 2 of last year. The lawsuit accuses the IRS of violating the First and Fifth amendments and seeks monetary damages.

A California-based Tea Party group sued the U.S. Internal Revenue Service on Monday in what marked the first lawsuit to stem from an investigation finding the agency singled-out conservative organizations.

In a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Cincinnati, the NorCal Tea Party Patriots accused the IRS of violating its constitutional rights due to the “intensive and intrusive scrutiny” it received while seeking tax-exempt status.

The lawsuit sought class action status on behalf of all conservative and libertarian groups – such as those associated with the Tea Party movement – that were targeted by the IRS for extra scrutiny from March 2010 through the middle of this month. Tea Party groups call for reduced federal spending and taxation.

Citizens for Self-Governance:

We are sure you were as disgusted as we were upon hearing the news of the top down abuse of power the IRS has aimed at Conservative groups. Today, we are on the precipice of something monumental to correct the balance of power. We are taking the fight directly to the IRS.

Like many of you, we know folks who have been subjected to harassment and abuse by the IRS as they tried to obtain their non-profit status. I have first-hand knowledge because the first tea party group that I was involved with was unfairly targeted.

We are not sitting back and waiting for Congress to fix things. Citizens for Self-Governance (CSG) decided to take matters into our own hands. We found the best lawyers in the country for aggressive litigation versus the federal government and, with our assistance, the NorCal Tea Party filed a class action suit against the IRS Monday in Ohio Federal Court.

Many other small grassroots organizations dedicated to liberty have been damaged or intimidated to the point of giving up, so CSG will provide the guidance and support needed to vindicate their rights in a direct legal battle with the IRS.

If you or someone you know has been harassed by the IRS and are interested in participating in the class action suit, let us know. You can send an inquiry by going to the website SueTheIRS.com. There’s no cost to you…because we are here to help you fight. (more)

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) Calls for Independent Investigation For IRS Scandal, Says Obama is “Passive” and “Detached” … “Not Going to Fly with the Public”

US Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) calls for an independent investigation into the IRS scandals. Paul said, “I think in order for government to gain its trust back, someone needs to be fired, someone needs to be held responsible, and, if it’s criminal, someone needs to go to jail.” Rand Paul called Obama on his claims that he was outraged. If that is the case, what is he going to do about this scandal that has rocked the publics trust in the government? The call for an independent investigation seems even more appropriate to get to the bottom of this scandal as we learned yesterday that Lois Lerner, the woman in charge of the IRS division that reviewed the non-profit organizations and at the heart of the scandal of the IRS targeting conservative and Tea Party group will plead the 5th today at House hearings.

How is the public ever going to have trust in the government if only low level and scape goats are held accountable? These people work for us, not the other way around and the public demands answers. Isn’t it ironic that Lois Lerner hides behind her 5th Amendment rights protected by the US Constitution as she refuses to answer questions that her IRS division stepped all over conservative and Tea Parties Constitutional rights.

“He says he’s outraged, and that’s fine, but we need to see him do something,” Senator Rand Paul said of President Obama’s lack of action on the IRS’s targeting of conservative groups. He described the president as “detached” and “passive in all of this.”

Top IRS Official Lois Lerner will Invoke 5th Amendment and Not Answer House Committee Questions on IRS Scandal

Oh this will go over well with “We the People” … Let’s see Obama’s faux outrage now.

The Los Angeles Times is reporting that Lois Lerner, the top IRS official and head of the exempt organizations division of the IRS responsible for reviewing non-profit organizations and the department at the heart of the IRS scandal, will plead the 5th Amendment and refuse to answer House committee questions on the grounds of self incrimination. Lerner was scheduled to answer questions from the House Oversight committee this Wednesday. Her attorney, William W. Taylor III, wrote that Ms. Lerner had committed no crime or made any misrepresentations, but because the Department of Justice has launched a criminal investigation, “under the circumstances she has no choice but to take this course.”

So what does she have to hide? This scandal just got even more real.  The House committee was to ask Lerner to explain why she provided “false or misleading information” to the committee four times last year? Taylor, a criminal defense attorney for Learner asked that since Lerner is not going to answer questions, can she be excused from appearing, saying that would “have no purpose other than to embarrass or burden her.” WHO CARES WHAT IT DOES TO HER! With the crap that the IRS did to law-abiding Americans whose only crime was being conservative under her watch, I agree with the Jawa Report, “Boo frickin hoo, make her plead the Fifth for all to see”. Honesty, who really thinks that Holder and the DOJ is going to take this investigation seriously? About as serious as they did the New Black Panther Party and voter intimidation. Congress and Daryl Issa best make her march her happy butt into the hearing room and have all the world to see the head of the very department responsible for the IRS scandal of targeting conservative and Tea Party groups plead the 5th.

A top IRS official in the division that reviews nonprofit groups will invoke the 5th Amendment and refuse to answer questions before a House committee investigating the agency’s improper screening of conservative nonprofit groups.

Lois Lerner, the head of the exempt organizations division of the IRS, won’t answer questions about what she knew about the improper screening — or why she didn’t disclose it to Congress, according to a letter from her defense lawyer, William W. Taylor III. Lerner was scheduled to appear before the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday.

“She has not committed any crime or made any misrepresentation but under the circumstances she has no choice but to take this course,” said a letter by Taylor to committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Vista). The letter, sent Monday, was obtained Tuesday by the Los Angeles Times.

UPDATE I: From Weasel Zippers, Daryl Issa does not disappoint … Issa Issues Subpoena Anyway to force her to plead the 5th in public for all of America to see. More great PR for Barack Obama, Democrats and the IRS.

Lois Lerner, the IRS official who headed the tax-exempt division when the targeting of tea-party groups took place, plans to invoke her Fifth Amendment right to refuse to answer questions before Congress on Wednesday.

But Republican Rep. Darrell Issa, the chairman of the House oversight committee where Lerner was to appear, has issued a subpoena to Lerner anyway.

The subpoena was delivered after the committee received the letter from Lerner’s attorney, a committee aide said.