More Proof That IRSgate Was F***ing Stupid

It’s ThrowbackThursdayFriday here at Wonkette, so let’s check in on one of our favorite scandal-not-scandals of last year, IRSgate. In the latest news, it turns out that the special inspector guy in charge of investigating the IRS,the guy whose report started this whole media circus, is a TOTAL PARTISAN HACK WHAT SUCKS AT HIS JERB:

A Senate panel as early as Friday is expected to issue a report criticizing the inspector general for the IRS over its investigation last year into whether the agency targeted tea party groups for extra scrutiny.

You don’t remember the issue and the eight gazillion news stories desperately trying to find a scandal that wasn’t there? Fine, here’s a summary from Politico :

At issue is a May 2013 report released by TIGTA that found the IRS had pulled applications from groups with words like “tea party” and “patriot” for a closer look, keeping their applications on hold for years. Republicans jumped on the report and have held a series of hearings while charging that the Obama administration may have used the IRS to intimidate its political opponents.

Yes, we all remember perpetual wet fart Darrell Issa (R-Satan’s Bunghole), who rode this story all the way from Curious Inquiry to Congressional Laughingstock. All based on a report issued by J. Russell George, the treasury inspector general for Tax Administration (TIGTA). Who could possibly call this guy a partisan hack, hellbent on doing a hatchet job for his GOP friends?

George is a President George W. Bush appointee and former Republican staffer on the House Oversight Committee.

Oh. You mean not only was he appointed by Uncurious George, but he was also a staffer on the very committee that Darrell Issa chairs, which led the congressional “investigation”?

But was there any wrongdoing on J. Russell George’s part? Did he try to hide any pertinent information? Perhaps information provided to him by his deputy?

“There was a Be On the Lookout (BOLO) list specifically naming these groups; however, the e-mails indicated the organizations needed to be pulled because the IRS employees were not sure how to process them, not because they wanted to stall or hinder the application,” the deputy inspector general for investigations wrote in an email to TIGTA employees.

Oh come on. This is all just word play. Nothing here is important. This is just ridiculous stuff that in no way holds any important nuances that could possibly influence anyone, right?

“This is a very important nuance.” [the email concluded]

Oh. Well, this is very important. In fact, George’s deputy inspector general wrote this and said that it is very important. It must have slipped the mind of George, who did not mention any of this in the initial report, because that would get in the way of political hackery. At least George knows how to be a good little lapdog for his party.

However, there is at least one person who disagrees with Sen. Levin’s report: Sen. John McCain (R-MeetThePress). McCain, the same man who thought Sarah Palin was qualified to be a heartbeat away from the presidency, disagrees:

“Sen. McCain believes the Democrats’ interpretation of the evidence fails to capture the extent of the IRS’s bias against conservative groups and flagrant abuse of power,” the statement says. “In his rebuttal, Sen. McCain notes that the information gathered to date shows that the IRS frequently and pervasively targeted conservative organizations, especially tea party groups.”

There, there, Senator. Here is some warm milk. Go to bed, and remember that Sunday morning will be here soon, so you can go rant on teevee and tell all the bad senators and kids to get off your lawn.

We decided to continue our “coverage” of this scandal because 1) Darrell Issa is a cosmic shitstain who deserves to be reminded daily that he sucks goat balls; and 2) the sad state of media in this country, which get huge scandal-boners when accusations start flying, no matter how much truth is in them (see:  Fast & Furious; IRSgate; Birther Movement; BENGHAZI; anything else Darrell Issa has investigated), and then moves on to other shiny objects when the truth comes out. We were actually happy with a piece written more than a year ago by Ezra Klein, back when he was with the Washington Post, when he quoted a political scientist saying:

There’s a surge in initial interest as reporters rush to embrace the scandal narrative, but the media quickly loses interest after the most sensational charges are not substantiated. The problem is that it often takes time for the full set of facts to come out. By that time, the story is old news and the more complex or ambiguous details that often emerge are buried or ignored.

He even used charts! Like this one:

In the end, here were Klein’s words:

Wonkblog, I'm sorry to say, was part of the problem here. Early on, we covered the IRS scandal aggressively…. But as the scandals actually did fall apart, we didn't really return to the subject… [M]ore pressing news kept intervening, and I never ended up writing the article.

Now’s your chance, Ezra! You have an entire media empire over at Vox, whatever the hell that is. You have the chance to not be a part of the problem. You can join Wonkette as part of the solution!

We’re not holding our breath.

[ Politico / Washington Post ]

 Follow DDM on Twitter ( @Wonksplainer ), where he continues to call Darrell Issa a cosmic shitstain at every opportunity, because fuck that guy.