IRS building, photo courtesy of Cliff1066
There’s hardly anything more reprehensible than using the tax collection arm of the United States government to punish political opponents. But, that’s possibly what the Obama administration has done with the Internal Revenue Service and it’s executive Lois Lerner. That’s why nearly one year ago, the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to several U.S. Senators, including our very own Sens. Udall and Bennet. So far, the NRSC has gotten nothing but stonewalling. Here’s what they asked for, according to Townhall‘s Katie Pavlich:
‘…any and all documents or records, including but not limited to electronic documents, e-mails, paper documents, photographs (electronic or hard copy), or audio files,’ related to correspondence from January 1, 2009 and May 21, 2013 between thirteen different Democrat members of Congress and top IRS officials.”
Since the NRSC submitted the request, the IRS’ legal team has asked for more time to fulfill the request six times. For those thinking the request is just political gamesmanship, think again. Remember that Bennet was one of the senators pushing for persecution of groups and specifically named Karl Rove’s Crossroads as a target. From our report last year:
Did Senator Bennet pressure the IRS to target Karl Rove’s 501(c)4 because it invested in advertisements against him in the 2010 election? Early in the IRS investigation scandal, View From a Height blogger Joshua Sharf dusted off a Michael Bennet press release that was issued the same day Bennet co-signed the now-infamous letter to the IRS commissioner requesting investigation of certain 501(c)4 groups. This press release mentioned one, and only one participant in the entire population of 501(c)4 groups, and that was Karl Rove.
The real question here – when will the IRS and the embattled senators named in the FOIA request stop kicking the can down the road? What are they hiding?