House Republicans' Latest Bad Idea: Impeaching the IRS Chief

[eridani]

http://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/33028-house-republicans-latest-bad-idea-impeaching-the-irs-chief

Since 1789, the House has impeached 19 officials: two presidents, 15 judges, a senator in the 18th century. The only executive branch appointee was William Belknap, President Ulysses S. Grant's war secretary.

Now, the 40-member Freedom Caucus, which played a role in Speaker John Boehner's resignation, wants to try again. The House Oversight Committee, where proceedings would start, is stacked with right-wing Republicans.

The accusations stem from 2013, when the IRS's tax-exempt division was found to have disproportionately targeted conservative groups for scrutiny. Although Koskinen was brought in after the damage had been done, Ohio Representative Jim Jordan and his Freedom Caucus followers say he has tried to cover up some wrongdoing. Some, rather recklessly, accuse him of lying. The tax agency is unpopular and makes an appealing political target.

Democrats say the allegations against Koskinen are unfounded: "It is despicable character assassination," said Representative Gerald Connolly, a Virginia Democrat who serves on the Oversight Committee. "They are manufacturing a phony issue for ideological reasons."

The case has problems. The specific charges seem specious: There may have been miscommunication, but there is no evidence of wrongdoing by Koskinen.

Former Representative Dave Camp of Michigan, the Republican chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee from 2011 until this year and now a senior policy adviser at PricewaterhouseCoopers, said that while, to him, Koskinen "has been a disappointment" in terms of reforming at the troubled agency, "impeaching the IRS commissioner is not a tactic that will be successful."

[SwankyXomb]

1. If Koskinen was petty and vindictive

he could do something like freeze all their re-election funds, pending a full audit of all their contributors. Should only take 2 or 3 years to complete. IF he was petty and vindictive, of course.