Pfeiffer said Republicans owe Susan Rice an apology last Sunday on several talk shows based on the fact that Susan Rice herself did not alter the Benghazi talking points.

Graham responded Pfeiffer “is on a different planet” and must “think everyone in the country is stupid” as Ambassador Rice was still politically compliant to the administration in delivering the talking points.

Instead of an apology, Susan Rice can expect a subpoena from Congressional Republicans Graham said:

GRETA VAN SUSTEREN: What do you make of the White House suddenly raising this [issue of the apology] again?

LINDSEY GRAHAM: This guy went out on Sunday is just on a different planet. I guess he thinks everybody in the country is stupid. Was she an empty vessel that they could pour misinformation through? She was chosen because she was the most politically compliant person. She just didn’t say this was no evidence of an Al Qaeda attack caused by a video, a spontaneous event. She said, well, we obviously did have a strong security presence. She said there was a significant security presence defending our consulate and our facility in Benghazi and that did not prove sufficient to the moment. Did anybody in any talking point suggest the embassy, consulate, was strongly, substantially and significantly secured? She was blowing political smoke, she was shilling in for the president. She said, let me remind you, Al Qaeda is decimated, Bin Laden is dead. She was trying to create a narrative seven weeks before the election, that the consulate was strongly secured and the president was strong on the war on terror.

]]> http://freebeacon.com/graham-susan-rice-wont-get-an-apology-shell-get-a-subpoena/feed/ 0 http://freebeacon.com/fox-wxix-cincinnati-identifies-irs-agents-involved-in-targeting/ http://freebeacon.com/fox-wxix-cincinnati-identifies-irs-agents-involved-in-targeting/#comments Thu, 23 May 2013 01:29:17 +0000 Washington Free Beacon Staff http://freebeacon.com/?p=114451 Fox WXIX Cincinnati reports as many as 6 IRS agents partook in the targeting of conservative organizations, contradicting claims by then IRS Commissioner Steven Miller that the wrongdoing was localized to “two rogue” IRS agents.

The common link between all of them is the Cincinnati IRS Program Manager of the Tax Exempt Organization Division Cindy Thomas:

SEAN HANNITY: This is a Fox News alert. Our Fox News affiliate in Cincinnati, Ohio, WXIX, has uncovered the name of the local IRS official who may have been directing her subordinates to target conservative groups. Joining me to explain more is Fox 19 anchor, reporter Ben Swann is with us. Ben what’s the latest on this?

BEN SWANN: Sean, we’ve investigated the chain of command in the Cincinnati IRS office. Keep in mind, when the scandal first broke, the acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller said that the targeting of conservative groups happened at the hands of only two rogue IRS agents. Well, already we have identified as many as six agents involved. But what we’ve now learned thanks to two Fox 19 sources connected to the IRS, is that none of these six agents had the same direct manager or area manager. In fact, the only common link between all these agents is one woman named Cindy Thomas, the program manager of the tax exempt organization’s division, and the highest ranking official in the Cincinnati division. Thomas not only has the only common authority over all these agents, but would also have been receiving system generated red flags when these cases in the system were there for more than nine months. There’s one more detail on Cindy Thomas. Remember that progressive pro journalism group Propublica who sent the personal information on nine Teat Party groups? Well the manager who signed off on that document release, Cindy Thomas. So now the big question is will Congress call up Cindy Thomas under oath about what she knows? Sean?

SEAN HANNITY: All right Ben thanks so much for that information […].

BILL O’REILLY: Okay. Now I have got to get back to Rosen. So Rosen when are you going to jail, because we are taking up the collection for the bail now. When are you going to jail?

JAMES ROSEN: Well I’m touched by your sentiments. [ laughter ]: But that’s about all I would say.

BILL O’REILLY: Okay. I know that Fox News and your attorneys have told you that, you know, not to talk about it. But this has got to be harrowing. Your parents are involved now. And their phone lines and stuff like this. So anyway. We just want to tell the audience that Rosen is okay, we are protecting him. Getting all the support you need, right?

JAMES ROSEN: I feel good about where I am.

The DOJ’s accusation that Rosen violated the Espionage Act by allegedly soliciting classified information from a State Department source has drawn condemnation from liberals and conservatives as an affront to the first amendment and freedom of the press.

Expenditures from federal stimulus money by Baltimore City and Prince George’s County school officials are under scrutiny after the funds were misused.

In a report revealed by Fox45, $4,300 in stimulus funds meant to educate at risk students in Baltimore was spent on dinner cruises at the Inner Harbor instead. We also found where more than $5,000 dollars was spent, not in the classroom but on face painting, balloons and steel orchestra.

[...]

Many members of the State Senate Education Committee weren’t even unaware of until we brought it to their attention.

The 67 page audit references how a PTA meeting held in Baltimore City that included only 28 people cost $2,500.

A spokeswoman for the Baltimore City school system knew nothing about the report until we continued to ask for an explanation. The audit also found misusing of funds in Prince George’s County. The purchase of a $222 pencil sharpener has been flagged along with the 145 watches with velvet pouches that were purchased for principals.

WFBB’s Tuesday report is latest example of local municipalities misusing or wasting federal stimulus dollars.

An April Cause for Action report exposed local health departments across the country for using stimulus money to finance lobbying activities in violation of federal law.

REP. SCOTT DESJARLAIS: You did know there was a presidential election.

DOUG SHULMAN: I’m aware there was an election.

DESJARLAIS: Do you think that that type of information could potentially harm the president in an election year? Did that cross your mind?

SHULMAN: No, that did not cross my mind. I was — the Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, when I got a piece of information or concern, I viewed my obligation, not to think about elections but to think about was, once the information came to me, was it being handled properly and as I’ve said before, I’ve been told that it had been stopped and or was in the process of being stopped.

DESJARLAIS: As a good leader, that was good enough for you?

SHULMAN: Excuse me?

DESJARLAIS: As a good leader that was good enough for you?

SHULMAN: I feel very comfortable with my actions.

The bill, authored by Rep. Lee Terry (R., Neb.), would allow the company TransCanada to move forward with construction of the pipeline without approval from the Obama administration, which critics say has slow-walked the approval process.

House Republican sources say the legislation will come to the floor on Thursday.

The House is expected to approve the bill, but the White House has already signaled that President Barack Obama will veto it, citing “longstanding executive branch procedures regarding the authority of the president, the secretaries of state, the interior, and the Army, and the EPA administrator.”

Some Democratic opponents of the legislation still plan to put up a fight during the 90 minutes of debate allocated by the House Rules Committee.

In offering various amendments on the House floor, they will insist that the pipeline will fuel U.S. energy exports and not create “energy security,” as proponents claim.

Terry spokesman Larry Farnsworth acknowledged that some of the oil will be exported, but insisted the pipeline would be an economic boon.

“The fact of the matter is that those refining jobs down in the gulf coast and the jobs that would be supported with the actual building of the Keystone Pipeline are good, high-paying jobs, and they would contribute greatly to those local economies,” Farnsworth said.

Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R., Tenn.) said the amendment is an attempt to “predetermine an action.”

”First thing’s first,” Blackburn said. “Let’s get to the point where we’re not having to spending billions of dollars a day on OPEC or countries that do not mean us well.”

Blackburn and other Republicans said the bill’s supporters are happy to engage in debate over the export provisions and other expected amendments.

“If House Democrats, supported by President Obama, want to oppose the jobs, economic growth, and energy security provided by the construction of the Keystone Pipeline, that is a debate we are happy to have,” a House leadership aide said.

Democrats will offer nine amendments in total. Rep. Bobby Rush (D., Ill.) will propose language that would strike provisions limiting court challenges to the pipeline’s construction. Environmentalist lawsuits are expected if the pipeline is approved.

Rush and other Democratic opponents of the Keystone Pipeline supported similar provisions limiting court challenges to the Trans-Alaska pipeline when Congress considered the project in 2004, Farnsworth said.

Rep. Mike Pompeo (R., Kan.), a cosponsor of Terry’s bill, said opposition to the pipeline is rooted in politics, not policy.

“The Keystone XL Pipeline has become the ‘shiny object’ that the hyperpartisan Left uses as a litmus test for President Obama’s commitment to the radical green agenda,” Pompeo said in an email.

“Fact is, hundreds of miles of pipelines have been built these past few years in the United States and there are also many pipelines crossing the U.S.-Canada border,” he added.

Pompeo said he does not want a floor fight—he just wants the pipeline built.

“We just want to see the project completed so we can have more jobs and cheaper energy for working families,” he said. “The quicker that happens without obstruction from the radical Left, the better.”

Later on in the hearing Rep. John Mica (R., Fla.), questioned former IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman about the salary and bonuses Lerner earned from 2009 to 2012 and Shulman’s political leanings.

JOHN MICA: Well, did you know, for example, Ms. Lerner who is head of it got a total of $740,000 between 2009 and 2012, over $42,000 in bonuses? Would you check off on bonus? And she was the one that was going to sit there and testify but didn’t. Do you check off –

DOUGLAS SHULMAN: That number does not sound familiar. I didn’t individually make decisions. But I probably signed off on overall agency compensation.

MICA: Have you participated in the political process, could you tell the committee of your political participations, donations?

SHULMAN: My whole life?

MICA: Well, yes. Are you — I don’t know your background. I heard you were appointee of one administration. But what is your history of participation?

SHULMAN: My full life history of participation in politics, I don’t want –

MICA: For example, contribute to parties and groups?

SHULMAN: Yeah, I mean, sorry, to the best of my recollection, I have. I haven’t in a long time. Didn’t make any contributions while I was IRS commissioner.

“We weren’t prepared, and that wasn’t acceptable,” said Rep. Martha Roby (R., Ala.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee’s investigative panel of the Sept. 11, 2012, attacks on U.S. diplomatic facilities that claimed four American lives.

Rep. Buck McKeon (R., Calif.), chairman of the full committee, said Pentagon officials communicated that the State Department had not asked for “backup” prior to the attack.

“Even though it was 9/11 and we were in a little higher state of readiness, we weren’t in a position to be supportive of those who lost their lives in Benghazi,” McKeon said.

He added that sequestration cuts to the Pentagon’s budget would make it more difficult to respond to similar attacks in the future.

Neither McKeon nor Roby would share details from the hearing, citing the secret and top-secret classifications of the information shared.

“This is an ongoing investigation,” Roby told reporters after the briefing. “A lot of our questions were answered. We have a lot more questions that need further clarification.”

McKeon also addressed reports that the FBI has identified five suspects in the attack who remain at large due to the administration’s insistence on trying them in civilian courts.

“The war on terror, I think, is a war, and at times I get the feeling that the administration wants to treat it as a crime,” McKeon said. “I think we’re at war. We ought to face up to that fact and act accordingly.”