Systemic Failure

Leave aside Peggy Noonan’s comments in her most recent Wall Street Journal column on Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. This summary of the IRS scandal:

A high official in the IRS named Lois Lerner targets those she finds politically hateful. IRS officials are in the White House a lot, which oddly enough finds the same people hateful. News of the IRS targeting is about to break because an inspector general is on the case, so Ms. Lerner plants a question at a conference, answers with a rehearsed lie, tries to pin the scandal on workers in a cubicle farm in Cincinnati, lies some more, gets called into Congress, takes the Fifth—and then retires with full pension and benefits, bonuses intact. Taxpayers will be footing the bill for years for the woman who in some cases targeted them, and blew up the reputation of the IRS.

Why wouldn’t Americans think the system is rigged?

is not only succinct, it neatly divides the country into two groups: those who think this reflects a systemic failure and those who don’t.

I think it does represent such a failure and that you don’t need to be a Republican to think so, indeed, it’s an outrage that some people believe that only Republicans think so.

6 comments… add one
  • Guarneri Link

    Yes, but she shielded the White House from scandal. For many, that’s all that matters. Quite a good soldier.

    Never rat on your friends, and always keep your mouth shut.

  • I think that the White House, although not unhappy with the IRS’s actions, did not direct them. That doesn’t mean it wasn’t a scandal, it just wasn’t a scandal that reached all the way to Obama.

  • Jan Link

    We will never know, Dave, what involvement, if any, the WH had in either encouraging or covering up for the IRS. I firmly believe, though, had this been a R administration there would have been a lot more “investigative” reporting going on in trying to get to the crux of the issue.

  • steve Link

    Nonsense. We could easily know. Just grant her immunity. If you have even a smidgeon of brains it is clear why Congress did not do this. It is an outrage that anyone would not realize that Republicans are keeping this alive for political purposes.

    jan- Conservatives control a lot of media. Why don’t they go investigate? (Actually, I am pretty sure they did.) Are conservatives incompetent? Stupid? I didn’t think so, but maybe that is the case and you guys just aren’t capable of investigating anything. Seriously. This is a major burning issue of you guys and you can’t spare a reporter or two from pretending to dress like a pimp? This is so depressing on so many levels. Not only do we have to take care of black people and tell them what to do, now we have to do the investigative reporting for conservatives since they can’t do it. The burdens of being on the left are just overwhelming.

    Steve

  • If you have even a smidgeon of brains it is clear why Congress did not do this.

    I’ve thought it was a misguided attempt at catching the president in a serious overreach. I agree that they’ve miscalculated. None of that makes the IRS’s using its powers for clearly political purposes any less of a genuine problem.

  • steve Link

    “I’ve thought it was a misguided attempt at catching the president in a serious overreach. ”

    At first. Now it is just to keep it in the news when they want.

    Steve

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