Targeting the IRS

Were those IRS employees who "targeted" the Tea Party folks wanting tax exemptions playing partisan politics, or just doing their jobs?

It's probably too early to know.

About 200,000 people a year die due to potentially preventable, in-hospital medical errors. Automobile defects requiring recalls have increased from 100 a year or so, to over 500 recently -- involving millions of cars. Could it be there would also be occasional incompetence in the IRS? Of course.

But political motivations? Not in my experience as a presidential appointee when dealing with my federal Civil Service employees. For starters, they are barred from any political activity by the Hatch Act. The best have a professional pride in their ability to provide insightful, informed and truly independent advice and recommended decisions. Such corruption as may exisit involves relationships between a regulated industry and the agency charged with regulating it -- not partisan political favoritism. (In 2008 the Department of Interior Inspector General found that Minerals Management Service employees were literally sleeping with industry representatives. The BP oil spill occurred in 2010.)

For more, click on "Targeting the IRS."