http://www.caintv.com/senate-report-lois-lerner-wantA new Senate report is filled with details from Lois Lerner's e-mails - and we haven't even really gotten to the ones that were claimed lost but have now been found. Apparently she ran quite the dysfunctional operation, and she had a penchant for seeking a lot of feedback from her underlings about whether a particular political target should be put in the crosshairs.
One target who had Lerner's attention, but who apparently didn't strike her team as such a wise focus of attention, was none other than Bristol Palin - friend of ours and favorite object of the left's venom:
One email, cited by Chairman Orrin Hatch as an “example of Lerner’s interest in conservative organizations,” asked whether the IRS should open an audit of Candie’s Foundation, which paid Palin $332,500 in compensation to be a celebrity spokesperson. Lerner was concerned that the salary figure could violate IRS rules against charitable groups being for the private benefit of individuals.
Palin is the daughter of 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, and she became a household name when it was revealed during that campaign that she had become pregnant at age 17. She later performed on ABC’s Dancing with the Stars and was briefly engaged to Medal of Honor recipient Dakota Meyer.
“Thoughts on the Bristol Palin issue?” Lerner, then the director of the IRS’s Exempt Organizations unit, wrote to her staff in 2011. “I’m asking because I don’t know whether to send to Exam as a referral.” There’s no evidence from the Senate report that an audit was ever opened.
The bipartisan Senate report concluded that Lerner poorly mismanaged the scrutiny of Tea Party organizations and fostered a dysfunctional office culture. But Republicans and Democrats could not agree on the extent to which the IRS targeting of conservative groups seeking tax exemptions were motivated by Lerner’s Democratic political beliefs.
That last sentence is hilarious when you understand what it really means. It's not as if anyone needs to sit around pondering, "Hmm, I wonder if Lois Lerner's politics influenced her inclination to harass conservatives." Ya think? What "Republicans and Democrats could not agree" really means is that Democrats are steeped in denial, every bit as much as when they insist Hillary didn't send any classified e-mails, or that Iran can be trusted, or that Planned Parenthood isn't doing anything wrong. What's more, when Lois Lerner harassed conservatives, she was actually following the lead of Democrats senators like Carl Levin and Chuck Schumer who made it clear they wanted the IRS to do that very thing.
So why make Bristol Palin a target? I'm sure the left and their media mouthpieces would have had a field day with news that Bristol was a "tax cheat." But perhaps some of those working under Lerner pointing out that the case against her would have been pretty flimsy. It's not as if it's illegal for nonprofits to pay large sums of money to a high-profile person in the hope that it will benefit the group in the long run. If it was, Ms. Lerner might need to take a really close look at Hillary Clinton's speaking fees. Oh, except for the fact that Lois Lerner's job wasn't to make sure tax laws were followed correctly. It was to use tax laws as an excuse to harass the political opponents of her party.
By the way, Bristol weighed in on this today on her Patheos blog:
I wonder if she also was combing through the financial records of liberal non-profits to see who she thought made too much money? I wonder if Lois also sent e-mails about other Candie’s ambassadors like Beyoncé, Ciara, Jenny McCarthy, Vanessa Minnillo, Ashley Tisdale, Hilary Duff, Ashlee Simpson, Usher, Rachel Bilson, and Teddy Geiger?
Wait. I already know the answer to that question. We know the IRS reserved its scrutiny primarily for conservatives.
Looks like I almost got caught up in her assault of people who love America.
I’m honored.
