Obama Appointee Knew IRS Was Targeting Tea Party

The admission that the IRS had targeted Tea Party groups for special and excessive scrutiny has launched the fastest breaking political scandal in my memory. Aside from the media fire storm, the political response was not long in coming. The House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Oversight has ordered the IRS to turn over by Wednesday every communication in its records that includes the words “tea party,” “patriot” or “conservative.”
Oh you guys like to do keyword searches? Have fun with this . Just remember it has to be done by Wednesday. It's hard to imagine that things are going to get better for the Obama administration as the scandal progresses and it has progressed significantly since Friday when Lois Lerner made her spontaneous confession of probable criminal behavior.
Associated Press reports "Senior Internal Revenue Service officials knew agents were targeting tea party groups as early as 2011, according to a draft of an inspector general's report obtained by The Associated Press that seemingly contradicts public statements by the IRS commissioner."
The AP goes on to speculate that Lerner's confession was purposely made to the blunt the findings of an impending Inspector General report.
When questioned by the White House press corps Jay Carney was quick to point out that the IRS was an independant enforcement agency (not exactly accurate it operates under Treasury) and the commissioner at that time was a Bush appointee. Carney did not mention that the office of chief counsel was also filled by appointment and that position was held by an Obama appointee, William J. Wilkins.
Wilkins is not exactly a Washington outsider nor is he apolitical. A little bit of snooping around the web reveals that he accepted a staff position on the Senate Finance Committee in 1981 when it was chaired by Democratic Senator Russell Long. He then became director and chief counsel of the committee staff under the chairmanship of Senator Lloyd Bentsen.
The Washington Post notes:
"As IRS general counsel, Wilkins is a key figure in the Obama administration's ongoing efforts to crack down on offshore tax evasion. The much-publicized 2009 showdown with the Swiss bank UBS -which resulted in the disclosure of previously secret American accounts-is indicative of a larger push within the IRS to increase tax compliance."
Wilkins is hardly a fat cat but he has made about $35,000 in contributions to Democrats over the course of his career including $4250 to the present Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus.
Place your bets. Will Wilkins' name surface in this scandal? Try this.
Obama appointee knew agents were targeting tea party groups as early as 2011, according to a draft of an inspector general's report obtained by The Associated Press that seemingly contradicts public statements by the IRS commissioner."