{"id":45424,"date":"2014-06-30T12:00:51","date_gmt":"2014-06-30T17:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=45424"},"modified":"2014-07-15T09:29:01","modified_gmt":"2014-07-15T14:29:01","slug":"hell-freezing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=45424","title":{"rendered":"Hell: Freezing?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Star\/Tribune Editorial Board, perhaps shockingly, called for a special prosecutor in the IRS Scandal<\/a>:<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a necessary step, and the request should be expediently heeded by the Obama administration. Although there are two investigations underway in the Republican-controlled House, a nonpartisan review by an investigator with bipartisan respect and technological expertise is sorely needed. The public needs reassurance that the nation\u2019s tax-collection agency is run with integrity and that anyone who may have abused its formidable authority has been held accountable.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So far, so good.<\/p>\n

But then we swerve into the weeds:<\/p>\n

The decision on whether to appoint a special prosecutor, officially called a special counsel, lies with the Department of Justice.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That’s long for Eric Holder.\u00a0 The guy who’s been stonewalling several other investigations of Obama administration corruption, Fast and Furious chief among them.<\/p>\n

IRS officials have insisted that the lost e-mails were just an unfortunate computer meltdown and that the extra scrutiny of groups with \u201cTea Party\u201d and \u201cPatriots\u201d in their names was a regrettable mistake. If this is trumped-up, as Democrats often and sometimes accurately deride other House investigations, there\u2019s nothing to fear by appointing a special prosecutor to put this long-simmering scandal to bed.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Or – as Holder will do – whitewash it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Still – while the Strib’s <\/em>editorial board exhibits its inner pollyanna about the DOJ’s inner gestalt<\/em>, at least it’s heart is in the right place, kind of:<\/p>\n

It\u2019s foolish to think this is going to blow over \u2014 or that it should. A May 2013 report by the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration unequivocally concluded that the agency used \u201cinappropriate criteria that identified for review Tea Party and other organizations applying for tax-exempt status based upon their names or policy positions.\u2019\u2019…a thorough reading of the report underscores that conservative groups were targeted.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The real question is:\u00a0 can we, The People, trust an Obama Administration appointee to police his boss?\u00a0<\/p>\n

There was a time we could count on the media to ensure someone like Holder’s behavior would be above board.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Perhaps we need a special investigator into that <\/em>…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Star\/Tribune Editorial Board, perhaps shockingly, called for a special prosecutor in the IRS Scandal: That\u2019s a necessary step, and the request should be expediently heeded by the Obama administration. Although there are two investigations underway in the Republican-controlled House, a nonpartisan review by an investigator with bipartisan respect and technological expertise is sorely needed. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,130,51,129],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media","category-tc-media-bias","category-liberal-tyranny","category-unions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=45424"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45424\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45739,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45424\/revisions\/45739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=45424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=45424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=45424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}