It’s been a rough week for IRS Commissioner John Koskinen. On Friday, Congressman Paul Ryan (R-WI) excoriated Koskinen’s credibility saying, “[N]obody believes you.” Monday night, the beating continued, this time with House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) grilling the commissioner.
On radio this morning, Glenn voiced his frustration with establishment Republicans who aren’t taking the IRS investigation seriously because all they care about it government control.
“You know why the Republicans aren't stopping the IRS? The reason why those guys aren't doing it is because they want this tool at their disposal so when they get in charge, they will be able to use this. You think the Tea Party has problems now? Wait until Mitch McConnell can use those powers of the IRS,” Glenn said. “Nixon was impeached for less. 18 minutes of missing tape. How about all these servers? How about the e-mails? It makes no sense… Why is nobody talking about that in Congress? Because they don't want to shut this machine down.”
Glenn did, however praise Gowdy and Issa for throwing down the gauntlet.
“Trey Gowdy is fantastic. Darrell Issa is fantastic. But I don't really look at those guys as Republicans quite honestly,” he said. “The Republicans are the people like, you know, John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Mitch McConnell. Those are the Republicans.”
To begin, Glenn played the exchange between Gowdy and Koskinen during which Gowdy accuses the commissioner of not being familiar with the criminal code even though he has testified there is no evidence of criminal misconduct at the IRS.
“That's a nice grilling right there,” Pat said. “He would have decimated Lindsey Graham, but he chose not to run. He's dead to me.”
In regards to not challenging Graham in South Carolina, Glenn shared details from a private conversation he had with Gowdy.
“I have talked to Trey Gowdy before… [and]I asked him, you know, ‘How's your soul?’ We had a conversation off the air… I asked him about his wife. I mean his wife is the strong one between them. And he and his wife got together and prayed, and he feels like… this is where [he’s] supposed to be,” Glenn explained. “He's not doing it for political reasons… He really believes this is where he's supposed to be. And after hearing testimony like that, I think he might be right.”
Glenn then played Issa’s opening remarks to Koskinen, which were equally caustic. Issa blasted Koskinen for dodging questions about when he learned about Lois Lerner’s lost emails, and why it took so long to tell Congress. Ultimately, Issa dismissed the commissioner entirely saying, “My time has expired and I’ve lost my patience with you.”
“It is so important that you take things like this… and you send it to your friends so they hear,” Glenn concluded. “If you don't think the Republicans will use this… exact same tool against you. Progressives, Republicans, Democrats, it doesn't matter. They are going to use this against you. That's why nobody is paying attention to this… All they are into is destroying of their enemies, and look the arrogance of this guy.”
Front page image courtesy of the AP