Yes, certainly, I knew John McCain was pretty much an unmitigated asshole who customarily made any issue about him and should have simply been honest and changed his (R) to a (D) and been done with it. It’s no secret that McCain threatened to step across the aisle to the Demorat side.

Hell, John McCain has essentially been a functional Demorat for years.

So this should truly come as not much of a surprise, from the WashingtonTimes.com:

McCain’s office urged IRS to use audits as weapons to destroy political advocacy groups

by Larry O’Connor

A new report from Judicial Watch reveals a concerted effort from Sen. John McCain’s office to urge the IRS under Lois Lerner to strike out against political advocacy groups, including tea party organizations. 

Thanks to the results of an extensive Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request that has been delayed for many years, Judicial Watch has obtained several key emails from 2013 that chronicle McCain’s and Democrat Sen. Carl Levin’s efforts to reign in the advocacy groups that sprouted immediately following the Citizens United decision from the Supreme Court. 

Wondrous. John McCain keeping his end of the bargain to ensure his application to the Demorat Party isn’t round filed.

The documents uncovered by Judicial Watch include notes from a high-level meeting on April 30, 2013 between powerful members of McCain’s and Levin’s staffs and Lerner, then-director of tax exempt organizations at the IRS under Barack Obama. The notes reveal the suggestions from McCain’s former staff director and chief counsel on the Senate Homeland Security Permanent Subcommittee, Henry Kerner who urges Lerner to use IRS audits on the advocacy groups to financially ruin them.

From JudicialWatch.com:

Lerner and other IRS officials met with select top staffers from the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee in a “marathon” meeting to discuss concerns raised by both Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) that the IRS was not reining in political advocacy groups in response to the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision.  Senator McCain had been the chief sponsor of the McCain-Feingold Act and called the Citizens United decision, which overturned portions of the Act, one of the “worst decisions I have ever seen.”

Except, well, it was the law.

In the full notes of an April 30 meeting, McCain’s high-ranking staffer Kerner recommends harassing non-profit groups until they are unable to continue operating. Kerner tells Lerner, Steve Miller, then chief of staff to IRS commissioner, Nikole Flax, and other IRS officials, “Maybe the solution is to audit so many that it is financially ruinous.” In response, Lerner responded that “it is her job to oversee it all:”

Are you finally, after all these years, beginning to understand that no matter how many lesions John McCain has on his face and whatever sympathy he’s managed to draw for his current tumor status, he was operating in not only his own interests but actively against Conservatives and the Republican Party for years and years?

Yes, I’m sure you’ve all heard the various reasons to let John McCain be: “He served his country. He was taken prisoner. He flew jets. He was in the US Navy.” All true and all verifiable. Yet I judge him in the same fashion that everyone judges BZ: “what have you done for me lately?”

Lately — hell, in at least the past decade (I’ll play nice for a while) — John McCain has been working overtly and covertly against Conservatism and against the Republicans. If John McCain isn’t the center of attention and it isn’t about him, he’s not going for it.

When anyone even mentions the word RINO, my brainulus immediately conjures an image of John McCain.

Figure 1: FLOTUS Michelle Obama walking John McCain during the Obama Administration, outside the White House.

Back to Judicial Watch and the politically-motivated bias under the Obama Despotism Administration.

Judicial Watch previously reported on the 2013 meeting.  Senator McCain then issued a statement decrying “false reports claiming that his office was somehow involved in IRS targeting of conservative groups.”   The IRS previously blacked out the notes of the meeting but Judicial Watch found the notes among subsequent documents released by the agency.

Judicial Watch separately uncovered that Lerner was under significant pressure from both Democrats in Congress and the Obama DOJ and FBI to prosecute and jail the groups the IRS was already improperly targeting. In discussing pressure from Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (Democrat-Rhode Island) to prosecute these “political groups,” Lerner admitted, “it is ALL about 501(c)(4) orgs and political activity.”

Lois Lerner admitted screwing over the TEA Party and various Conservative groups.

So here’s the bottom line for this story:

“The Obama IRS scandal is bipartisan – McCain and Democrats who wanted to regulate political speech lost at the Supreme Court, so they sought to use the IRS to harass innocent Americans,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “The Obama IRS scandal is not over – as Judicial Watch continues to uncover smoking gun documents that raise questions about how the Obama administration weaponized the IRS, the FEC, FBI, and DOJ to target the First Amendment rights of Americans.”

So BZ, just cut John McCain some slack.

Yeah. Like all the slack people will cut me when I’m about to kak.

Screw John McCain. Get out. Move on.

You’ve done enough damage.

BZ