Dirty Laundry

            In a very significant way, Elijah Cummings has become the voice of his party on the IRS scandal.  The top Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee disputes the charge that Washington initiated the targeting of tea-party groups.  It's time to move on, he says.  There's no evidence that Treasury  or Justice are involved. 

            Not so fast, Congressman.  The inquiry into IRS malfeasance has only just begun.  Speaking directly to Cummings and, by extension, to all Democrats in Congress,  Chairman Issa said, "Your participation is generally limited to obstructing or criticizing the process." Indeed, responsibility for this scandal can be found not only in the IRS chain of command, but under the Capitol Dome and in the White House.
            The tone was set by President Obama himself when he attacked conservative groups relentlessly during his re-election campaign.  He called them a threat to democracy, even suggesting that foreign-controlled corporations might be involved.  Obama senior advisor David Axelrod said flat out that "benign-sounding" organizations were front groups for foreign-controlled companies.  Obama called them "shadowy groups with harmless-sounding names...people with something to hide."  What better way was there to find out what they were hiding than by looking into their taxes?  The IRS took the hint.
            Not to be outdone, Democrats in the Senate grabbed the ball and ran with it.  Max Baucus, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, wrote to the IRS and demanded it investigate non-profits; his letter named only conservative organizations.  Dick Durbin demanded the IRS investigate the tax-exempt status of Crossroads GPS, a fund-raising organization led by Karl Rove; even after the IRS scandal broke, Durbin was unapologetic for his brazen act of political targeting.  Senators Bennet, Franken, Merkley, Schumer, Shaheen, Udall, and Whitehouse piled on by telling the IRS to give extra scrutiny to 501C4 organizations to find any evidence of wrongdoing; their purpose clearly was to prevent conservative groups from raising money.
            Will we be surprised when congressional investigations establish the culpability of IRS operatives like Doug Shulman and Lois Lerner?  What the IRS did was unconstitutional and criminal.  So what?  They were just doing the bidding  of their masters in the White House and Congress.  
            So, why wouldn't Elijah Cummings say it's time to move on?  After all, what Democrat would want his party's moral depravity to be exposed like a bordello's dirty laundry?