Despite a thousand promises made to Tea Partiers screaming for his head, Republican House members of the Freedom! Caucus still can’t come up with an excuse to impeach President Obama. So what’s the next best thing? Pick a scapegoat. Any scapegoat. And start the paperwork.
Tuesday’s hearing on accusations by House Republicans that Mr. Koskinen lied under oath to Congress and defied a congressional subpoena is a remarkable moment, even for a Washington long fractured by partisanship.
Not since Secretary of War William W. Belknap in 1876 has the House impeached an administration official other than the president, said Michael J. Gerhardt, a professor at the University of North Carolina School of Law and an expert on the federal impeachment process. And an official below the president’s cabinet has never been impeached.
With the craziness of this primary season in full swing, this action isn’t getting the attention it should, but you can bet Koskinen’s impeachment will be front and center every time at every GOP fundraiser. This is pure red meat for the hungriest members of their base. And like everything to come out of this Congress, it’s absolutely pointless.
Senator Orrin G. Hatch of Utah, the chairman of the Finance Committee, has made clear that the Senate would not convict Mr. Koskinen, which would require a nearly impossible two-thirds vote. But the effort in the House highlights the extent to which the I.R.S. has become a symbol for House Republicans of everything they despise about the federal bureaucracy, and their outrage about what they view as a pattern of obstruction by Obama administration.
Not only will the Senate not convict, odds are greatly against the House doing more than holding a few hearings and letting fly enough spittle to float a dinghy or two. This is theater; an act by men who have done nothing to prove they’ve done something… by doing more nothing.
How utterly stupid is this action? This flippin’ stupid.
Mr. Koskinen was not even in government when the I.R.S. admitted to singling out the tax-exemption applications of Tea Party groups for scrutiny. Organizations on the I.R.S.’s “lookout lists” went beyond conservative groups to include other groups like Palestinian rights activists and open-software developers, but the scrutiny of hundreds of Tea Party applicants infuriated congressional Republicans.
So, Koskinen wasn’t even there when the IRS was accused of doing the thing it turns out they didn’t do. But the “IRS targets the right!” myth has become so deeply embedded, none of that matters.
Next up: the House impeaches cafeteria worker for not using the words “Freedom Fries.”