John Boehner’s answer to Fox News about why he hasn’t had Lois Lerner arrested revealed that the true motive behind this faux scandal is impeaching Attorney General Holder and/or President Obama.
Video:
http://youtu.be/aTQ9Y235exY
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When asked why he won’t arrest Lois Lerner, Boehner told Fox News, “There is a provision in the Constitution that has never been used, and so that’s I’m not quite sure we want to go down that path…It’s never been used….I’m not the historian here, but it’s never been used, and I’m not sure that’s the appropriate way to go about this. It’s up to Eric Holder to do his job.”
Speaker Boehner let the cat out of the bag, with his referrals to Attorney General Holder doing his job. The point of all of this isn’t to get Lerner. House Republicans don’t really care about Lois Lerner. What they are really after is something that they can use against Holder and Obama.
If Holder were to refuse to prosecute Lerner, Republicans could claim that the decision is proof of a coverup. They could then launch an investigation into the White House’s “role in the IRS scandal” which they hope would drag down the Obama administration, ruin Hillary Clinton’s chances for 2016, and chase Holder and Obama from office.
The facts have already proven that the IRS targeted both liberal and conservative groups, and that the White House had nothing to do with it. House Republicans are using the IRS faux scandal to distract from the fact that they have shutdown the government, refused to extend unemployment benefits, rejected any serious job creation bill that has been proposed, worked some of the lightest schedules in the history of the Congress, and generally refused to pass anything that isn’t a repeal of Obamacare, tax cut for the wealthy, or rollback of an environmental regulation.
The IRS and Benghazi are both unspoken admissions that if Republicans don’t find some scandal to attach to President Obama, they will lose in 2016. The current scandal mania does give Republican House members something to run on in 2014, but they are also trying to lay the groundwork for 2016. Without a scandal, Republicans will have nothing to run against Hillary Clinton with.
Republicans are out to smear, and if possible, impeach. House Republicans are desperately trying to convert their conspiracy theories into real scandals, so don’t be surprised if try to go down the impeachment path as a last ditch effort save themselves from losing another presidential election.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
