While trying to divert attention away from the tea party tax exempt scam, Ryan feigned outrage over accusations the hearings and the sad tea party stories of "intimidation" were nothing but a side show.
Under the false premise that only tea party groups were targeted, or that Democratic Rep. Jim McDermott gave the IRS a pass, Ryan tried to make the case that scrutiny of any kind is intimidation and should be stopped. That would be irresponsible but also their sneaky goal. But take a look at the chart below, and you'll see how spread out IRS scrutiny extended.
FreeBeacan: Applause rang out as Rep. Paul Ryan (R., Wis.) slammed Rep. Jim McDermott’s (D., Wash.) implication that the Tea Party and conservative organizations were responsible for their own targeting by the IRS Tuesday in the Ways & Means Committee hearing:No, that's Ryan's message here.
PAUL RYAN: I am going to deviate from my original question in response to what I just heard [lots of cheering].
PAUL RYAN: We had the former IRS commissioner Shulman who knew about the political targeting long before was Congress was told, and has since implied that they were responsible for the targeting because they chose to apply for tax-exempt status? So you are to blame I guess is the message here?
Besides the actual targeting, this should also be considered:
Martin A. Sullivan in a June 3 piece in Tax Notes, a newsletter published by the Tax Analysts group: “If there were a surge in the creation of potentially political conservative organizations in the last few years (that was disproportionate to the creation of nonconservative organizations), more conservative groups would be targeted than nonconservative groups even if there were no political bias among IRS officials. Looking at the makeup of exemption-approved groups tells us nothing about bias unless we know the makeup of the group from which they were selected.”Here's what Lawrence O'Donnell has been saying for a long time, and is now getting mileage on Capitol Hill:
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