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While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads, lawmakers said to heck with principles, let's go on vacation

Republicans weasel out of impeaching IRS boss John Koskinen



-- BombThrowers Cowardly congressional Republicans torpedoed the push to impeach the eminently impeachable IRS Commissioner John Koskinen. This pathological liar who should be in prison has presided over the tax-collection agency's long-running efforts to obstruct justice in the IRS targeting scandal. As the Washington Times reports
Republican leaders managed to derail a measure to impeach IRS Commissioner John Koskinen on Tuesday, sending the debate back to a committee for more study, where it will die when the Congress adjourns at the end of this year. Conservatives had pushed for impeaching Mr. Koskinen, saying he cannot be allowed to get away with having misled Congress on the investigation into the IRS's tea party targeting. But GOP leaders, eager to clean up business and shut down for the year, ahead of a busy 2017, led the push to shunt the impeachment aside. Joined by Democrats, the House voted 342-72 to send the debate back to the Judiciary Committee. "Members have different opinions about what to do," said Rep. Bob Goodlatte, Virginia Republican and committee chairman, as he asked lawmakers to give him a chance to sort things out. But with lawmakers looking to clear out of town this week, the move essentially kills the impeachment drive in this Congress. Democrats had tried to expunge the impeachment resolution altogether, but lost a test vote on a near party-line tally.

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IRS's tea party targeting

Koskinen, who became IRS chief in December 2013, spent much of his time at the agency burying bodies. He helped to cover up the crimes of now-retired IRS tax-exempt organizations division chief Lois Lerner, a hyper-partisan, left-wing Democrat, who illegally subjected right-of-center activist groups to heightened levels of scrutiny. Lerner is the Obama administration executive who famously refused to testify at congressional hearings on legally flimsy Fifth Amendment self-incrimination grounds. Despite this, House investigators found that Obama's IRS targeted conservative 501(c)(4) nonprofit advocacy groups during the 2010 and 2012 election cycles. They determined that Lerner organized an unprecedented crackdown on Tea Party and conservative groups and then attempted to scapegoat those nonprofits, blaming them for the harsh treatment they received at her instigation. President Obama was part of the scandal too. With a straight face he said on TV that his IRS is not tainted even by "a smidgen of corruption."


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Matthew Vadum -- Bio and Archives

Matthew Vadum,  matthewvadum.blogspot.com, is an investigative reporter.

His new book Subversion Inc. can be bought at Amazon.com (US), Amazon.ca (Canada)

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