The IRS Scandal, Day 990

Power Line, Federal Bureaucracies: Incompetent, Corrupt, Or Both?:

The saga of Barack Obama’s Internal Revenue Service is almost unbelievable. After “joking” years ago that he would audit his enemies, it turned out that Obama’s minions were in fact delaying or blocking routine applications for 501(c) status by conservative organizations, in order to help the Democratic Party. When Congress tried to investigate, the Obama administration stonewalled at every turn. Evidence mysteriously disappeared and the key player in the scheme, Lois Lerner, pled the Fifth rather than answer Congress’s questions.

Obama’s stonewall strategy has generally worked well. Scandals fade from the front pages when there are no new developments, and if information finally emerges, Democratic Party reporters treat it as old news. So the IRS scandal has pretty much disappeared from public awareness. Nevertheless, via InstaPundit, we learn that yet another IRS computer hard drive has been destroyed. How many is that now? I’ve lost track. ...

Most people probably don’t realize how astonishing this is. I practiced law for 41 years before retiring at the end of last year, all of it doing litigation. Preserving evidence is a routine obligation in lawsuits; it doesn’t depend on a court order. But if a federal judge has ordered a party to preserve a hard drive, as happened here, you can be assured that the hard drive will be protected like the crown jewels. Every company in America understands this: if a court has ordered you to preserve evidence, you guard it with your lawyers’ lives.

And yet, time after time, the IRS has either inadvertently or intentionally destroyed hard drives that courts have ordered them to preserve. In the private sector, this is unthinkable. Private companies obey court orders. They know that if they don’t, millions of dollars in sanctions are likely to result, and executives will lose their jobs. Only in government agencies do we see this kind of irresponsible scofflaw behavior. This is because most bureaucrats have a deep loyalty to the left-wing cause, and there is no accountability. ...

Is this because federal agencies are corrupt, or because they are unusually inept? The familiar adage is that one should never presume malice when incompetence is a sufficient explanation. But here, I think we are going beyond ineptitude. Are federal agencies the only employers who can’t hire people who know how to follow court orders? No. Incompetence may play a part, but it is hard to avoid the conclusion that federal agencies led by left-wing bureaucrats, including but not limited to the IRS, view themselves as above the law and protected by the scofflaw Obama administration, and therefore entitled to thumb their noses at the federal courts.

• The IRS Scandal, Day 889 (Jan. 23, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 988 (Jan. 22, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 987 (Jan. 21, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 986 (Jan. 20, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 985 (Jan. 19, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 984 (Jan. 18, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 983 (Jan. 17, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 982 (Jan. 16, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 981 (Jan. 15, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 980 (Jan. 14, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 979 (Jan. 13, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 978 (Jan. 12, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 977 (Jan. 11, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 976 (Jan. 10, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 975 (Jan. 9, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 974 (Jan. 8, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 973 (Jan. 7, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 972 (Jan. 6, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 971 (Jan. 5, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 970 (Jan. 4, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 969 (Jan. 3, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 968 (Jan. 2, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 967 (Jan. 1, 2016)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 966 (Dec. 31, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 965 (Dec. 30, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 964 (Dec. 29, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 963 (Dec. 28, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 962 (Dec. 27, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 961 (Dec. 26, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 960 (Dec. 25, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 959 (Dec. 24, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 958 (Dec. 23, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 957 (Dec. 22, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 956 (Dec. 21, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 955 (Dec. 20, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 954 (Dec. 19, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 953 (Dec. 18, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 952 (Dec. 17, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 951 (Dec. 16, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 950 (Dec. 15, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 949 (Dec. 14, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 948 (Dec. 13, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 947 (Dec. 12, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 946 (Dec. 11, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 945 (Dec. 10, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 944 (Dec. 9, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 943 (Dec. 8, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 942 (Dec. 7, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 941 (Dec. 6, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 940 (Dec. 5, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 939 (Dec. 4, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 938 (Dec. 3, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 937 (Dec. 2, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 936 (Dec. 1, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 935 (Nov. 30, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 934 (Nov. 29, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 933 (Nov. 28, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 932 (Nov. 27, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 931 (Nov. 26, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 930 (Nov. 25, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 929 (Nov. 24, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 928 (Nov. 23, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 927 (Nov. 22, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 926 (Nov. 21, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 925 (Nov. 20, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 924 (Nov. 19, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 923 (Nov. 18, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 922 (Nov. 17, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 921 (Nov. 16, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 920 (Nov. 15, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 919 (Nov. 14, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 918 (Nov. 13, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 917 (Nov. 12, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 916 (Nov. 11, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 915 (Nov. 10, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 914 (Nov. 9, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 913 (Nov. 8, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 912 (Nov. 7, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 911 (Nov. 6, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 910 (Nov. 5, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 909 (Nov. 4, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 908 (Nov. 3, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 907 (Nov. 2, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 906 (Nov. 1, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 905 (Oct. 31, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 904 (Oct. 30, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 903 (Oct. 29, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 902 (Oct. 28, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Day 901 (Oct. 27, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Days 801-900 (July 19, 2015 - Oct. 26, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Days 701-800 (April 10, 2015 - July 18, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Days 601-700 (Dec. 31, 2014 - April 9, 2015)
• The IRS Scandal, Days 501-600 (Sept. 22, 2014-Dec. 30, 2014)
• The IRS Scandal, Days 401-500 (June 14, 2014 - Sept. 21,2014)
• The IRS Scandal, Days 301-400 (Mar. 6, 2014 - June 13, 2014)
• The IRS Scandal, Days 201-300 (Nov. 26, 2013 - Mar. 5, 2014)
• The IRS Scandal, Days 101-200 (Aug. 18, 2013 - Nov. 25, 2013)
• The IRS Scandal, Days 1-100 (May 10, 2013 - Aug. 17, 2013)