I dutifully watched IRS Commissioner John Koskinen testify before the House Oversight Committee regarding the “lost” Lois Lerner emails last night. Koskinen’s specializes in audacity, Obama style. He serves as front man for the Democrats in the scandals that beset the IRS and he’s not giving an inch. In his capacity as front man, the audacity not only comes in handy, it is a bona fide occupational qualification.
According to Koskinen, the IRS deserves our pity. It has been wronged by Congress. It has been wronged by a Congress that refuses fully to fund the agency’s needs. Congress itself is at fault for Lois Lerner’s “lost” emails — at least the miserly House Republican majority is at fault. The IRS needs more agents, it needs better computers, it needs more money. It is barely scraping by.
You can understand what he’s talking about. How can the agency be expected to get by on an IT budget of $1.8 billion? It’s a mystery. Cry For Me, Argentina is his theme song and the committee Democrats are his chorus.
Koskinen testified repeatedly last night that he had seen no evidence of criminal wrongdoing on the part of Lois Lerner. You would think that Lerner’s assertion of the Fifth Amendment privilege would cause a reasonable man to draw an inference that she might have a problem, but that reasonable man is not Koskinen.
Koskinen’s testimony on this point gave rise to the one moment of catharsis in the hearing last night. It came courtesy of Rep. Trey Gowdy. Gowdy was not amused by Koskinen. Rep. Gowdy, take it away.
WND has a good account of last night’s hearing here. CNSNews has a good account of the exchange between Koskinen and Gowdy here.
Video via Twitchy.
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