IRS rank-and-file STILL not getting it?

The first step in fixing a problem is to admit that you have one*.

Oh, pity this poor, poor, put-upon Cincinnati office anonymous IRS lawyer. S/he wrote in to Robert Anderson’s Witnesseth blog after Anderson noted that campaign contributions among IRS lawyers skewed heavily towards Democrats (government lawyers in general do, really).  After complaining a bit about that awful Republican party, and its hostility towards government lawyers, the government lawyer finished up:

…if there is a lack of political diversity among federal government attorneys, it can be attributed almost entirely to the Republican Party agenda.  That agenda makes me, and other federal government attorneys, very uneasy.

Hey!  You know what makes me uneasy?  IRS lawyers who go around and deliberately target conservative groups and individuals in order to further a partisan agenda that originated in Washington, DC.  Guess which one of us has a trail of evidence justifying said unease.

Go ahead.  Guess.

(Via TaxProf, via Instapundit)

Moe Lane (crosspost)

PS: I went off on this at the end of May, mind you.  My response to IRS agents being upset then is identical to my response now: Doesn’t matter. Don’t bring politics into your job.

*The second step is not to say “But my problem is somebody else’s fault.”

18 thoughts on “IRS rank-and-file STILL not getting it?”

  1. They’ll never “get it” Moe. They don’t realized how morally (not the mention financially) bankrupt the government has become, nor do they care. They have forgotten that the government works for the people. They think we owe them something.

  2. Sounds like their self-interest over-rode any professionalism they may have had. Perhaps we should ban the IRS from having any lawyers on staff, and require them to contract out work to private firms, just like taxpayers do.

    1. That just moves the problem to the private sector, though .. see also “Travelgate”.
      .
      Mew

        1. You know how fast firms can change names, right?
          .
          Even assuming it were possible to, say, ban any lawyer from working for the IRS for more than a four year term *starting the year before the next presidential election*, that would destroy continuity and increase billing hours as the new lawyers/firms get up to speed.
          .
          While I am certain smarter people than I am can come up with better ways to de-politicize the IRS, the simplest approach – which would solve several other problems along the way – may be to end the income tax and move to a consumption (not VAT) national tax strategery.
          .
          Mew

          1. “that would destroy continuity”

            That’s a bad thing? I want an incompetent, emasculated IRS.

            How about, “After a lawyer has worked for the IRS, they are executed”? And “no one working the IRS is entitled to medical care”?

          2. Let me ask it another way.
            .
            Suppose you get into hot water with the IRS in 2017, and that the lawyer representing the IRS in its’ work against you was appointed in, say, 2015.
            .
            The lawyer will be out of a job in 2019 .. and the judge will let the new lawyer spend six months – while you’re still on the hook and possibly have assets frozen – getting up to speed.
            .
            I’m not saying this wouldn’t be worth the price, I’m asking if you think it is.
            .
            Mew

  4. End the IRS, put the bad guys in jail, burn the (then empty) buildings down, salt the earth and let it be a warning to any other agencies thinking about engaging in politics.

  5. If the lawyer in that email is representative of that whole sub species, perhaps we’re even more justified in despising them than I thought.

    1. He’s basically saying that the lawyers too incompetent to get a job in private practice or teaching become Democrats, because Republicans consider siccing the government on your fellow citizens a bad thing.

  6. If you have a problem with coyotes, you kill one, and display the skin on a fencepost for the others to see.
    .
    Lawyers are hardly more predatory or braver than coyotes.

      1. I don’t recall seeing that many lawyers’ hides hung out to dry. Nifong’s, sure, but .. how many others can you name?
        .
        Mew

  7. Pingback: Federal Lawyers | justbarkingmad.com

  8. So … how reasonable would anyone consider this explanation?
     

    On a personal level, I can say that I have been a member of the Klan for the past [redacted] years. During that time, the racial affiliations of a number of my colleagues have shifted from Black to White. It is because they are sick of the attacks by the Blacks, and an utter lack of respect for the hard work that we do.
     
    So if there is a lack of racial diversity among federal government attorneys, it can be attributed almost entirely to the Black agenda. That agenda makes me, and other Klansmen, very uneasy.

     
    Yeah, that’s the ticket! The Klan is racially imbalanced because all of its many former Black members converted to whiteness, not because of what it is or what it does!

    1. Dang, I missed one. I meant to replace “federal government attorneys” with “Klan members” …

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