Much has been made in the last few weeks of the 157 visits to the White House by IRS commissioner Shulman; some, like Bill O'Reilly call the visits a smoking gun when it comes to White House involvement in persecuting conservative groups and individuals. In the last few days, the inevitable counterattack has come from the liberal media outlets. Perhaps my favorite appeared in the Atlantic. That outlet breathlessly reported that Shulman was only cleared to enter the White House 157 times and insists that one must look at the White House gate records to see when Shulman was actually there. The number of times that Shulman is shown to have signed in is only a small fraction of the 157 visits that everyone talks about.
On the surface, that sounds like a reasonable response. It well could be that Shulman was scheduled to come to the White House and never showed up. That sort of conduct by the head of the IRS makes sense since the IRS seems to keep everyone waiting. Nevertheless, the explanation has a major flaw: The White House Gate records show Shulman arriving and entering the White House about twice as many times as Shulman left the White House. Now we know for certain that Shulman did not live at the White House, so there would necessarily have to be as many exits as entrances. (That, of course, assumes that Shulman did not sneak out in the trunk of someone's car or in the back of a laundry truck.) Indeed, what this discrepancy proves is that the Gate records are not properly kept. The real record is the one that shows 157 visits, not the one that sometimes manages to record the IRS commissioner signing in or signing out.
The Atlantic, however, does not stop there with its defense. It also points out that 120 out of the 157 visits had to do with Obamacare. One can almost hear the Atlantic staff shouting, "Nothing to see here!" Of course, the point is that even if 120 out of 157 visits were for healthcare, that leave another 37 visits during the Obama presidency. Remember, the IRS commissioner was at the White House once during the eight Bush years. We still need an explanation of what the head of the IRS did at the White House during all those visits. Was there a working group for targeting conservatives? Was there another for taking aim at religious groups? Did the head of the IRS take part in preparation for the Obama campaign? We don't know, and the Obama administration is not telling us. It has all this information, BUT IT IS NOT TELLING US!!!!!
On the surface, that sounds like a reasonable response. It well could be that Shulman was scheduled to come to the White House and never showed up. That sort of conduct by the head of the IRS makes sense since the IRS seems to keep everyone waiting. Nevertheless, the explanation has a major flaw: The White House Gate records show Shulman arriving and entering the White House about twice as many times as Shulman left the White House. Now we know for certain that Shulman did not live at the White House, so there would necessarily have to be as many exits as entrances. (That, of course, assumes that Shulman did not sneak out in the trunk of someone's car or in the back of a laundry truck.) Indeed, what this discrepancy proves is that the Gate records are not properly kept. The real record is the one that shows 157 visits, not the one that sometimes manages to record the IRS commissioner signing in or signing out.
The Atlantic, however, does not stop there with its defense. It also points out that 120 out of the 157 visits had to do with Obamacare. One can almost hear the Atlantic staff shouting, "Nothing to see here!" Of course, the point is that even if 120 out of 157 visits were for healthcare, that leave another 37 visits during the Obama presidency. Remember, the IRS commissioner was at the White House once during the eight Bush years. We still need an explanation of what the head of the IRS did at the White House during all those visits. Was there a working group for targeting conservatives? Was there another for taking aim at religious groups? Did the head of the IRS take part in preparation for the Obama campaign? We don't know, and the Obama administration is not telling us. It has all this information, BUT IT IS NOT TELLING US!!!!!
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