This One's as Desperate as Kevin Graham for an Argument

[_Droopy]

The purpose of a shill is...well, to be a shill.

MSNBC Analyst: Hey, Why Didn't Romney Make A Bigger Deal of the IRS Scandal Last Year?

There are moments in politics when an argument is advanced that is so surpassingly stupid or dishonest that it momentarily freezes your brain. Welcome to former DNC Communications Director Karen Finney's IRS twilight zone:

According to Finney, fact that Mitt Romney didn't make a huge deal out of the IRS targeting scandal last year is somehow proof that the whole thing is essentially a non-story and wasn't buried until after the election. Where to begin? As a fellow panelist incredulously points out, the revelation of IRS abuse wasn't public knowledge in 2012. Indeed, it just came out this month. Sure, everyone knew that Congress was demanding answers from the IRS about alleged targeting practices, but there was no public evidence that the victimized groups' suspicions were well-founded. IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman even told Congress under oath that political targeting was "absolutely not" transpiring. That was in March of 2012. In other words, Mitt Romney didn't beat the drum on this major scandal because the major scandal didn't exist in the public sphere yet. He, like nearly every other American, didn't know about it. A major element of the current investigation and hearings is an attempt to determine who knew what, and when.

We know for certain that the IRS' own audit flagged inappropriate targeting in May of last year, and that senior Treasury Department officials became aware of it shortly thereafter. The White House's own timeline has shifted several times in recent days. We don't get know if the president's political or campaign team knew of the IRS scandal before the election (though even some liberals are beginning to admit it's hard to believe they didn't). What's certainly true is that Republicans in Congress and the Romney campaign had no indication that this bombshell was looming, and had no concrete proof that a codified political targeting program was in place at the IRS for years. Finney's point seems to be that Republicans should have made a giant stink about a theory, without real substantiation. It's not difficult to imagine how Finney and her cohorts at MSNBC would have reacted if the GOP had adopted such an approach last fall. Her entire "point" here is imbecilic and purposefully disingenuous. It's one thing to try to re-write distant history. It's another to do the same with still-unfolding history. I'm not sure who she thinks she's fooling, aside from those MSNBC viewers who are eager to be fooled, but at least slipping in the "overreach" talking point.

[_Kevin Graham]

This idiot at Townhall wrote an entire article dedicated to criticizing one question asked on MSNBC?

My my you guys are getting desperate.

According to Finney, fact that Mitt Romney didn't make a huge deal out of the IRS targeting scandal last year is somehow proof that the whole thing is essentially a non-story

So, Droopy thinks it is OK to just start off the article with a flat out lie? Yes, that's the typical beginning of a Townhall piece. Of course this woman said no such thing.