IRS: We aren’t political; we’re stupid

We’re terribly, terribly sorry, but we just didn’t know what we were doing.

We were understaffed. We were underinformed. We weren’t trained for what happened. Good Lord, we’re only human. People make mistakes. We did the best we could. We tried our hardest, and that’s what counts, right?

“For months, the Tea Party cases sat on the desk of a lone specialist, who used ‘political sounding’ criteria — words like ‘patriots,’ ‘we the people’ — as a way to search efficiently through the flood of applications for groups that might not qualify for exemptions, according to the I.R.S. inspector general. ‘Triage,’ the agency’s acting chief described it.”

And although there are lots and lots of gaps in the IRS story, the plain truth is, a bunch of muddled, alienated, undirected agents staffed the IRS office in Cincinnati office, and that’s where all the problems were. Not in Washington. It all was in Cincinnati.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/19/us/politics/at-irs-unprepared-office-seemed-unclear-about-the-rules.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&pagewanted=all&_r=0

The BOLO for “Tea Party” had nothing to do with delays and questionable practices.

From www.hotair.com

Question at hotair: “Has the Syrian civil war fallen victim to media fatigue?”

As in media ADHD? If it ain’t pretty and murderous, it won’t last long. Or, if Nancy Grace can’t stretch it into a year-long story, fugettaboutit.