"It profits me but little that a vigilant authority always protects the tranquillity of my pleasures and constantly averts all dangers from my path, without my care or concern, if this same authority is the absolute master of my liberty and my life."

--Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America

Thursday, May 23, 2013

A Very Important Memo from Cleta Mitchell of Foley and Lardner III

Another bombshell from Cleta Mitchell's memo on the IRS scandal.   Again, she's responding to Acting IRS Commissioner Steven Mitchell's sworn testimony:

The agency pinpointed two "rogue" employees in the Cincinnati IRS office as being responsible for "overly aggressive" handling of tea party requests for tax-exempt status over the past two years.
This is completely false. In 2011, at least one of the Cincinnati IRS agents assigned to handle two clients' applications advised me that the Washington, DC office was actively involved in the decisions and processing of my clients' applications for exempt status. This was memorialized in a letter to the agent, Ron Bell, on November 8, 2011. When I called him in December 2011 for an update, he advised me that the applications had been transferred to a special task force in Washington, DC for further review. The effort by senior IRS officials to lay this scheme at the hands of a few low level' IRS employees is despicable and must not be tolerated.
 
Here is the relevant passage from the November 8, 2011 letter:


































So, as of 11/8/11 the Cincinnati office was forwarding the application of a conservative group to Washington for review?   Hmmmm.... that doesn't fit with the low-level, rogue employees in a small office somewhere in the hinterlands, now does it?

Someone should make the point (so I will) that the behavior of Obama in this is extraordinarily bad leadership.   Passing the buck down, blaming underlings, refusing to take responsibility, scapegoating... this is all the opposite of what any second john in the Army is taught about leading.  

It's no wonder the mantra of the Obama Administration is "leading from behind"!

 


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