Editorial: IRS Excuses for Obstruction Suggest Cover-Up

From the Las Vegas Review-Journal:

This is not a partisan witchhunt. It is an inquiry to determine whether a federal agency conspired with elected members of a political party to influence the outcome of an election. And it already screams of a cover-up.

This fiasco is an inevitable byproduct of the staggering amount of power the IRS has built off the complexity of its tax code, which allows the agency to intrude on almost every facet of our lives, from child care to health care to political activism. Holding Ms. Lerner and others accountable — whether through mass firings or criminal prosecutions — won’t be enough to rein in the IRS. The best way to prevent the IRS from abusing its power is to take away its power through massive tax reform and simplification.

Abused taxpayers and elected representatives need not make the argument. The IRS is taking care of that all by itself.

Benghazi Hearings: What We Learned

We learned 7 things from the Benghazi whistleblowers, argues Bryan Preston, despite Republicans' mishandling of the whistleblowers' hearing.

1. There were multiple stand-down orders, not just one — ready-to-go special military operations forces in Tripoli were told twice NOT to go to Benghazi to rescue Americans under assault, even though a diplomat's team was able to arrive in Benghazi from Tripoli to offer aid before the assault ended. "This is the first time in my career that a diplomat has more balls than someone in the military," said one military officer.
2. Ambassador Stevens' reason for going to Benghazi has been cleared up — he was there at the bidding of Hillary Clinton who wished to have a permanent post in Benghazi.
3. Hillary Clinton was briefed at 2 am on the night of the attack, was never told that a movie had anything to do with the attack by those on the ground in Libya, yet blamed the movie anyway -- US deputy diplomat Greg Hicks spoke with Clinton personally via phone at 2 a.m. telling her it was a terrorist attack.
4. Whistleblowers were intimidated into silence — when one whistleblower (a career diplomat) questioned Susan Rice's claim that Benghazi was a video-induced protest, his career was sidelined and he was subsequently demoted.
5. "The YouTube movie was a non-event in Libya" — the video was pure political invention, and blaming the movie did "immeasurable damage " to our relations with Libya and delayed the FBI investigation.
6. Democrats were uninterested in getting at most of the facts, but were very interested in destroy Mark Thompson — Thompson was a member of the Foreign Emergency Support Team, which was cut out of the decision making during the attack.
7. House hearings are a poor way to determine who did what and why during and after the attack — given the extensive misinformation and cover up, Benghazi deserves a probe by a special prosecutor.

Preston argues that the Republicans mishandled the hearing by compressing too much information in one day's testimony. Read the full article for greater insight.

UPDATE:  Jonah Goldberg also has a great article, Bad Faith and Benghazi.

If you see a child struggling in the ocean, you have no idea how long she will flail and paddle before she goes under for the last time. The moral response is to swim for her in the hope that you get there in time. If you fail and she dies, you can console yourself that you did your best to rescue her.

But if you just stand on the beach and do nothing as the child struggles for life, saying, "Well, there's just no way I can get to her in time," it doesn't really matter whether you guessed right or not. You didn't try.

But we know the administration ordered others who were willing, able and obliged to come to the consulate's rescue to "stand down." They in effect told the lifeguards, "Don't get out of your chairs."