“I didn’t do anything wrong,” Lerner said in her first press interview since the scandal broke 16 months ago. “I’m proud of my career and the job I did for this country.
September 22, 2014
"Lois Lerner is toxic — and she knows it. But she refuses to recede into anonymity..."
"... or beg for forgiveness for her role in the IRS tea party-targeting scandal."
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71 comments:
I am not crazy; all you people are.
"I'm proud of my career and the job I did for my party."
/fixed.
I didn't read the whole thing (I won't do a multi-page click-through). But am I supposed to feel sorry for her? Because I do not.
Why are there Government Service Awards for ethics? Shouldn't the default be that people working for us are ethical?
I think she will be immortalized as the feminine face of a weaponized bureaucracy.
It's pretty amusing seeing Politico trying to paint this horrible person is the best possible light.
While LL is an unrepentantly loathsome person, ultimately she's just a symptom of a much larger disease: The inevitable and unavoidable corruption of big human systems such as our Big Government.
Yes, the country certainly does benefit when partisan bureaucrats misuse their offices to further their political ends.
This is a good argument for making the IRS an independent agency rather than a part of the Treasury Dept. There also needs to be stricter oversight over its operation. The taxing power (particularly with as complex a tax code as we currently have) is far too dangerous to have in the hands of unscrupulous partisans.
This should all be quoted at her sentencing hearing in late 2015.
"Yet Lerner is also described as “apolitical” and fair" -- by whom?
"Some say she was a generous boss who inspired loyalty, baking brownies and handing out lottery tickets to managers to raise morale." "Some" seems to get quoted a lot in press stories that either try to white wash people the press is trying to protect, or try to blacken people the press is trying to attack. "Some" seems to have been one of Kirsten Gillbrand's fat advisors, too -- "Some" and a dead Senator.
You can tell she is a Democrat because usually we see the exact opposite happen.
If she weren't a Democrat, we would see her convicted by the media but absolved by a court.
In this case, she is propped up by the media and pleads the fifth in front of Congress.
She may be guilty of a crime, of targeting people for their political beliefs, but the media will do their best to help us never find that out.
This rehab is part of the bargain for her silence. She will end up getting hired at some Democratic supporters organization after a 'decent' interval.
"Yet Lerner is also described as “apolitical” and fair" -- by whom?
It's perfectly fair and apolitical to favor democrats.
Proud of being a lying, pathetic ideological Obama boot licker??
Actually, she admitted she did something wrong. Standards were not applied evenly. Asymmetric scrutiny of Applications was wrong. Period.
"Employers won’t hire her. She’s been berated with epithets like 'dirty Jew.'"
Ooh anti-semitism in the second sentence. I think Politico is trying to taint any legitimate criticism. Don't worry liberals, her haters are just filthy bigots.
Help me out here. How can she have hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal bills to pay? She is accused of wrong doing, but not charged with anything. Everyone knows she's lying, but the IRS is moving heaven and earth to destroy and withhold any confirmatory evidence of her mendacity. The republicans haven't laid a glove on her. What services could her lawyer have provided her that would justify such expenses. No doubt she was counseled to plead the 5th before congress; does that kind of sterling advice get you hundreds of thousands. If she is innocent, why in the world does she feel the need for any representation at all.
Small point, I realize. Just one more ploy for sympathy by this corrupt bureaucrat, or is lawyering such a goldmine that obvious advice yields lottery style payoffs?
Barack Obama: "We tortured some folks" - because waterboarding is 'torture'.
Lois Lerner: "I didn't do anything wrong" - because it is not wrong to suppress Republicans
ISIS: "We do not kill innocents" - because apostates and infidels are not innocents.
See how cool it works when one can just declare that words/concepts mean whatever one wants them to mean?
From the article:
She created a new approach to classifying potential problem areas, pulling together a team of 40 specialized agents to research emerging issues or suspect groups by scanning websites and court cases and reviewing tax forms to see whether the subjects merited a full audit.
While some saw it as a smart use of limited resources, others, including Owens, thought her projects were a “major contributing factor” to the massive backlog in applications that accumulated under Lerner’s rule. Nonprofits went from getting approval in a matter of weeks or months to multiple years.
Well that's damn interesting--all I've heard is apologists blaming the backlog and delays on Citizens United (even though that ruling was in 2010, after much of what's being investigated here); now it turns out the delays may in part be attributable to Lerner's own ideas & actions. "Ooh, the units were overwhelmed because of CU so this wasn't bias" becomes "ooh, this career bureaucrat we've been saying was hypercompetent and fair actually screwed things up and caused the backlog, and even though that backlog had a biased effect it's not evidence of bias." Another instance where disparate impact apparently doesn't matter, I note.
I was turned off when she and the author played the antisemitism card in the first paragraph.
Why are there Government Service Awards for ethics? Shouldn't the default be that people working for us are ethical?
Well, yes, they're supposed to be. But take it from someone who works in the Washington, DC, metro area and who knows a lot of them, that they aren't.
See how cool it works when one can just declare that words/concepts mean whatever one wants them to mean?
We're living in the Brave New World of semantic relativity. A world where the meanings of words and phrases are infinitely malleable and no Democrat politician or apparatchik can ever be held accountable for anything that they've promised or said in the past because they didn't really mean what you thought they said.
Article:
“Under both Republican and Democratic administrations, she got these amazing ratings and bonuses.."
Hey, just like those fine folks at the VA--she got bonuses you guys, she can't be biased or guilty, it's so obvious. I am convinced.
[The fact that author uses this quote sympathetically says a lot about the Washington press, although this article is by no means out of the ordinary in that regard--by the standard of the medium it's damn near evenhanded.]
“I didn’t do anything wrong,” Lerner said
Of course this started with her fake press conference and planted question to reveal that they had targeted folks based on their politics. Then blamed it on rogue agents in Ohio, when in fact it was a n HQ driven initiative.
So she started with multiple cover-ups...
Nothing wrong?
She has done more to destroy the idea that the rule of law pertaining to tax administration is applied without consideration of politics than anyone in the last 50 years, including Nixon!
My Lawyer wife used to work (30 years ago) for the IRS (contracts, not taxes).
I used to think they had a reasonably high degree of ethics. brought on by the fact, that as a condition of employment, you had to agree to have your own taxes audited w/o cause. And because on April 16th, they did a file compare between tax filing names and the employee roster.
Not any more.
The Drill SGT said...
I was turned off when she and the author played the antisemitism card in the first paragraph.
I, on the other hand, was pleasantly surprised to find the antisemitism card played in the 1st paragraph and not in the actual headline.
It's the "little victories".
Next up? The inevitable assertion that Tea Party groups called the IRS "n******" and spat on them.
It's what's needed for November.
This rehab is part of the bargain for her silence.
Bingo! A brand new GE toaster for this contestant.
No IRS employee will be held accountable because there is no evidence. They got rid of all the emails and computers. They're crooked but they're not dumb.
She rescued abandoned dogs during Hurricane Katrina. She baked cookies for her subordinates. We are truly blessed to have such saintly people in government service. It breaks my heart to read that such a benign figure has received nasty letters.
She's the real victim here--the way Mary Mapes, Dan Rather's producer, was the real victim of "Memogate." Maybe Robert Redford can give Lois Lerner a sweet movie deal, too.
Stories like this should inform the reader how much a 33-year govt worker gets per year as pension so we can hate her even more.
Would a remark about Goldstienism be anti-semitic?
Where were the, "...dirty jew," type remarks published?
It's more than ironic that Lerner, a Jew, supports Middle-Name-Hussein ("I will side with the Muslims") so fanatically.
Is it not unlike the administration arming ISIS to defeat ISIS or whatever it is doing, arming moderate non-Islamics to battle plain old non-Islamics. What a hole they've dug for themselves.
Is it possible for the American people to secede from our present government?
SS death camp guards said they didn't do anything wrong to.
They just followed orders, just as Lerner did.
Hail Hydra! Right Luis?
I think she will be immortalized as the feminine face of a weaponized bureaucracy.
Still the thread winner.
No IRS employee will be held accountable because there is no evidence. They got rid of all the emails and computers. They're crooked but they're not dumb.
And that nobody got punished is why there will never be effective government oversight ever again.
Why should anybody be so stupid as to abide by laws in regards to document retention? They're not the private sector that has to abide by these laws.
"This should all be quoted at her sentencing hearing in late 2015."
No, not before 2017 if then. She has powerful friends.
This is the beauty of being a Democrat. It means you get to play the victim. Smart play here by Lerner and Politico.
Burke? Not so smart. Soon she will bring out the victim card. It's the only card she has left.
So proud of her career that she took the fifth rather than regale us with stories of her admirable efforts.
Other non-issue. Cons like to distract us from the fact that Americans are fed up with the top 1% and are not going to take it anymore
Occupy Wall Street was the first fist in their face.
Alex said...
Other non-issue. Cons like to distract us from the fact that Americans are fed up with the top 1% and are not going to take it anymore.
How would you know, though, if the IRS decided to jack up Occupy Wall Street-inclined political organizations to keep them quiet and small? I know, I know, the Media favor that side generally so they'll get some coverage, but if you're trying to build a movement it would sure help if like-minded people could form organizations, raise money, run ads...the sort of thing a political non-profit would do. Let's say you've got an IRS bureaucracy that doesn't much like those dirty jobless hippies, though... Try a little empathy, Alex; think about what happens if this kind of shit isn't punished and stomped out--do you think the Right won't fight back, infiltrate the agencies, etc?
I have a hard time understanding political philosophies that don't care about the Rule of Law (other than despotism/authoritarianism proponents, I guess).
Alex said...
Other non-issue. Cons like to distract us from the fact that Americans are fed up with the top 1% and are not going to take it anymore
Occupy Wall Street was the first fist in their face.
9/22/14, 2:47 PM
OWS was a bunch if collage kids that learned the wrong lessons from their professors and needed a cause to gather round. War against the 1% sounded so "social" and all. They helped get "their guy" elected but still had no money for cars or mortgages so instead of learning from their mistake, they decided to double down on stupid.
They setup their "camps" and pooled their resources and forgot about the wolves in their flocks. Stuff got stolen, women got molested and rapes, people got killed. Paradise could not last with just two humans in it but every socialist thinks theirs will work "this time". They just need the "right" people in charge, usually themselves.
"Yet Lerner is also described as “apolitical” and fair"
I guess Al Salvi was unavailable for comment. You could (and should) look it up.
Other non-issue. Cons like to distract us from the fact that Americans are fed up with the top 1% and are not going to take it anymore
Lerner is awfully 1%.
well, at least she is not as bad as Jeffry Dahmer.
We know this because she actually told us that.
“I just thought, ‘Boy, worse than Jeffrey Dahmer?’”
http://news.yahoo.com/lois-lerner-compares-herself-jeffrey-dahmer-145024342.html
Ann, since you have been on a language kick of late, perhaps you could deconstruct her use of "boy" here. Is she a self-loating feminist? Why not say "Girl, worse than Jeffrey Dahmer?"
Crack, you might want to chime in as well Lerner's racism in this statement.
John Henry
Two further Lerner/Dahmer thoughts:
Is she so toxic that Dahmer couldn't eat her?
Did Dahmer ever eat any non-whites? If not, why not?
John Henry
Oh, look - Alex is having a fascist moment. Blathering about fists in faces. Strange that it seems to be about 2010 for some damn reason, as if the flash-in-the-pan OWS is at all relevant to current politics.
And Lois Lerner is Jewish? News to me. Wait, "news" suggests the information conveyed has some value. I suppose that should be "noise to me". Nobody gives a wet fart about Lerner's background or ethnicity or whether she breeds gods in her spare time or eats them, for that matter!
Dogs. Breeds *dogs*. Sigh. Sounded like I'm mocking Catholics, doesn't it?
Occupy Wall Street lives on just fine. The 99% are now very aware of how they're being screwed on a daily basis by the 1%.
The Fist of OWS lives on!
Alex, you have your metaphor's wrong. OWS is not a fist, it is a boot:
"If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face — forever."
-Eric Blair
John Henry
Alex,
One of the very best parts of OWS was how the Koch Brothers (well, 2 of them, anyway) co-opted it.
owscommittee.org (I think that was the site) redirected to the Koch Industries jobs page.
Those OWS idiots couldn't even organize a website.
John Henry
She probably thinks targeting conservative groups for special attention was a service to the country.
Occupy. What a joke. Spoiled little brats thinking anyone in America could be considered part of the 99%
KidInSomolia says: Bitch, please.
When I become dictator, I'm spreading America's wealth to the 3rd world, just so I can see America's Marxist brats cry over having to live on 50 cents a day.
You asked for it.
Alex, on the internet, pretending he's not the 1%. Priceless.
"She probably thinks targeting conservative groups for special attention was a service to the country."
I don't think there's any doubt about that.
Lerner provided an invaluable public service to protect progressive corruption. Anyone who questions the merit and consequences of redistributive policies and other forms of corruption must be marginalized or audited.
Seriously, though, what amazes me is that the constant barrage of admissions about more and more emails and computers crashing or being "routinely" destroyed is getting NO PUBLIC ATTENTION at all. No offense to Prof. Althouse, but this blog doesn't count. When ABC, CBS, or NBC Evening News -- or even 60 Minutes -- Leads with "What Is The Government Hiding? -- Records Being Destroyed To Cover Up IRS Persecution Of Dissent?" that will count. Any predictions of when that will happen?
My vote: The Twelfth Of Never.
I applaud Lois Lerner for going after the teabaggers who are just a front for the Koch Brothers and racist groups.
Her payoff will be a presidential pardon in January 2017.
Does she have three breasts? Since she's under constant scrutiny she might as well turn it into some publicity.
Alex,
what is your problem with the Koch brothers (And is it with all 4 of them or only 2?)
They have consistently supported liberal causes, and pretty much only liberal causes, for at least 20-30 years that I have been aware of. GMU, Mercator, Cato, Reason Foundation and others.
Basically they want the govt to "Leave us alone and not take our stuff" Us in that phrase being the entire population of the US regardless of income or political views.
Yes, they even want govt to leave you alone and not take your stuff, Alex.
What is your objection to that?
I get the idea that you know nothing about the Koch brothers. That you are just another of Harry Reid's muppets. When he goes on a tear about the Kochs and the need to repeal the 1st Amendment, you do too. When he is silent, you are too.
Had you ever even heard of the Koch Brothers before Reid, OWS et al started moaning about them after the Demmies lost the House in 2010?
John Henry
Alex said...I applaud Lois Lerner for going after the teabaggers who are just a front for the Koch Brothers and racist groups.
No, I get it, trolls gotta troll, but the bad part was reading the NPR message board the last time they ran a story on the IRS scandal--it was populated by an awful lot of posts that said precisely this. Sad.
She should be jailed, and the IRS abolished. Taxes should be simple, and all the deductions should be eliminated. Mortgage interest, charitable, every single one a distortion, drag, or opportunity for corruption.
"I applaud Lois Lerner for going after the teabaggers who are just a front for the Koch Brothers and racist groups."
Alex is an old fashioned Marxist who wants those damned 1% ers off to the gulag. He'll teach 'em.
Alex said...
I applaud Lois Lerner for going after the teabaggers who are just a front for the Koch Brothers and racist groups.
Proving, yet again, that Palladian was right about you.
Politico is trying awful hard to portray Lerner as an honest career public servant. It sounds like they are simply rewording what her attorney says. No former coworkers think she was politically motivated? Well, what life and career loving former coworker would tell a reporter something like that? Its pretty obvious to me that she targeted conservative groups, and denied them their legal rights to tax exempt status. Put her in prison- she has betrayed the public trust. And Politico's lack of curiosity about all this is typical, and not unexpected.
I read the Politico article to the end since another commenter said the last half puts Ms. Lerner in a bad light.
I would second that analysis. According to Politico she came to the IRS with little knowledge of tax law but jumped right in making decisions, used her management position to impose a review process that stretched the time required for approval from weeks to years, and is considered by many colleagues to have a short fuse.
I don't consider those good things to be known for.
Chickelit @ 8:16,
Sigh. I miss Palladian.
"Taxes should be simple, and all the deductions should be eliminated. Mortgage interest, charitable, every single one a distortion, drag, or opportunity for corruption."
But, then, how would the smart people channel our efforts in desirable directions?
"the bad part was reading the NPR message board"
NPR listeners would happily give the tea party a Zyklon B "shower".
But, then, how would the smart people channel our efforts in desirable directions?
Hush! There are unfunded liabilities to meet so just pony up!
Render unto Caesar that which is geezer's!
Destruction of evidence isn't a crime when the government does it. That's why police dash cams frequently malfunction.
Alex - a good percentage, most likely a majority, of your 1% are Dems, who voted for Obama. Now, if you had said 5% or 10%, the Republicans would likely prevail. Dems predominate below maybe $40k and above maybe $100k, and Reps between.
During the OWS demonstrations, I was in DC, and marveled how ODC had maybe a half dozen tents, and fewer than that in protesters, despite being 1% headquarters! and where most of the problems OWS was complaining about originated.
Lois Lerner took an ax,
Gave her hard drive 40 whacks,
When they saw what she had done,
Others too joined in the fun.
Burma Shave
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