Hal Rogers: Demented Hysteric Forgets/Lisa About Which Party Uses the IRS to Punish Political Enemies

Kentucky's Fifth District Representative, in all his corrupt glory:




No, really: he actually said "presidential enemies lists ... we've been there before."

Say it Hal: We've been there before WITH NIXON. NIXON the REPUBLICAN. Who RESIGNED IN DISGRACE. The leader of YOUR PARTY.

Steve Benen:

To be sure, there is a legitimate underlying controversy, and there's a sound rationale for congressional hearings. And if Republican policymakers were dealing with the matter responsibly, the talk of overreach would disappear.

But they're not. On the one hand, we're seeing over-the-top rhetorical overreach.

Asked by Fox's Bill Hemmer what he hoped to learn at Monday afternoon's hearing, Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) offered this bit of pre-hearing analysis:

"Of course, the enemies list out of the White House that IRS was engaged in shutting down or trying to shut down the conservative political viewpoint across the country -- an enemies list that rivals that of another president some time ago."

It was a sentence in need of a verb but packed with innuendo. And it is part of an approach by House Republicans that seems to follow the Lewis Carroll school of jurisprudence. Not only are they placing the sentence before the verdict, they're putting the verdict before the trial.

Remember, Rogers isn't some random Fox personality; he's one of Congress' most powerful officials. And on the IRS story, he's already unhinged, spewing nonsense on national television.