This is important, because there is a reason:
This morning on “This Week,” White House Senior Adviser Dan Pfeiffer told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos on “This Week” that the legality surrounding the targeting of conservative groups by the Internal Revenue service is “irrelevant,” but called the behavior “inexcusable.”
“I can’t speak to the law here. The law is irrelevant. The activity was outrageous and inexcusable, and it was stopped and it needs to be fixed so we ensure it never happens again,” Pfeiffer said.
What Pfeiffer is trying to do here is to establish the concept that maybe what the IRS did wasn’t illegal, and thus it’s enough to simply fix (or paper over) the problem. Which is, of course, nonsense: in our current law/regulation/ruling-happy climate, the IRS did something that their guilty parties can be jailed for. This is, in fact, a favorite tactic of the government itself, as Scooter Libby and Martha Stewart could readily tell you. What Pfeiffer is hoping to do is to tamp down public outrage before it coalesces into Well, find something that you can use to put some of these agents in jail. It really sucks when it’s the government on the sharp end of that attitude, you see.
(Via Instapundit)
Moe Lane
PS: Oh, we so totally need a legal system that’s not as full of minefields as the current one. Know one real quick way to get it? Make the bureaucrats have to live by the same set of rules as the rest of us.
Oh, I am absolutely sure that there is an anti-corruption statute or fifty on the books that apply here…. and equally sure that nothing will be done about it. None of the politicians want to limit the power of the federal monstrosity, they all just want to be the ones control it.
re: “None of the politicians want to limit the power of the federal monstrosity, they all just want to be the ones [who] control it.” qixiqatl
This only holds when things are going well. Given an economic collapse such as I expect will happen that will be worse than the one in the 1930s, politicians and the public will DEMAND change and DEMAND heads roll. If the politicians don’t do enough to assuage the violent mood of the country expect “the man on a white horse” to arise and shatter everything with abject ruthlessness.
Dan Kurt
I dunno, Dan. I agree with qq on this. It’s a far different environment today than it was 80 years ago. The MSM is still far too influential, the federal gov’t far too entangled in the state governments, and the politicians far too entrenched.
I’d like to believe that; unfortunately, my observations and experiences do not permit it. America has been systematically emasculated over the last ~50 years, to the point that all the electorate at large is likely to demand is “moar ‘free’ stuff”………
The strong man and an entitled populace are hardly mutually exclusive.
I tend to disagree scandals have a life of their own. As the theft of 60 million medical records in California shows just because you work for the Government doesn’t mean your immune to civil prosecution if you break the law. The lawsuit in that case against the IRS Starts at 250 Billion dollars. Also as some of the most strident calls for prosecution from some Dems shows they fully realize if something isn’t done about the IRS now next time around they might be on the receiving end. Civil prosecutions will certainly occur I’ve run across reports of Tea Party and also religious groups banding together to launch lawsuits, who knows what else might be revealed. Either way this isn’t going to go away quickly or easily even if the Administration wishes it would. The Lef is going to have to choose to defend the IRS which isn’t going to be a very popular position to be in and as I’ve said before the slogan “Sure they broke the law but they shouldn’t be punished for it” doesn’t really work well as a campaign slogan.