Oops. It seems the missing e-mails from former IRS Commissioner Lois Lerner aren’t missing after all. All the lying and misleading statements from IRS commissioners past and present are proving to be just ruses designed to put investigators off track. As required by law, the Justice Department has copies of the e-mails and will be soon turning them over to investigators.
All of this reminds me of scandals past and how they all fell apart and how the cover-up turned out to be worse than the original crime. Do you remember Richard Nixon?
In the Nixon case there were months and months of allegations and accusations leading up to his “smoking gun.” Nixon and his henchmen lied, misled and tried to change the subject. Their arrogance got them. That gun turned out to be tape recordings actually recorded in the Oval Office by Nixon himself which he thought he could hide from investigators. He even had his secretary delete portions of the tapes to hide his guilt. It didn’t work. The truth came out. Nixon was told by members of his own party, Republicans, to resign or he would in fact be impeached. Resign he did and the nation was better for it.
How about Bill Clinton? We were treated to months of lies, denials and all manner of obfuscation. Accusers were defamed and libled. How dare anybody accuse the president of sexual misconduct? Move on became the mantra. It even sparked a new liberal PAC, moveon.org. Hillary said it was all a part of a “vast right-wing conspiracy.” Well, sorry Hillary, but again there was a smoking gun. The blue dress. When Clinton heard about the blue dress, he knew the gig was up. He was impeached but the Senate didn’t have the courage to kick him out of office. Perhaps it was because Al Gore was waiting in the wings. Just my guess.
Fast forward to today. It seems we have another smoking gun in the IRS “lost e-mails” case. Anyone with a modicum of knowledge knows you can’t just delete e-mails and have them disappear. Somebody somewhere has a copy of those messages. In this case it just happens to be the Justice Department. Of course there are probably many more copies. We all knew this would have to come out.
So now what? Does Lerner continue to try and claim the Fifth Amendment to keep from admitting to crimes which could well send her to federal prison? Does she get support for her position from other high officials in the IRS who themselves could be in trouble for lying to Congress?
Any way you look at this mess, it’s going to be interesting. Government employees are civil servants. Regardless of their position, they have to obey the same laws as everybody else. As previously discussed, the IRS belongs to the people. It’s not a tool for any politician or any political party. Their work is vitally important to the security of the nation. Their integrity must at all times be above reproach.
I don’t know where this will lead. I don’t know how high up it will go. I just know the truth needs to be told. We the people demand this be cleaned up and we demand governing bodies be put into place to insure we never again have to deal with this type of dishonesty from our government.
