The IRS and those White House meetings

Washington Examiner Editorial:

When Douglas Shulman was asked Wednesday by Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., for some of the "many reasons" he might visit the White House 118 times during his tenure at the IRS, the tax agency's former commissioner displayed a profound disrespect for Congress by hastily replying, "the Easter Egg Roll with my kids." The flash of disdain in his facial expression and tone of voice suggest Shulman was not at that point merely seeking to leaven an otherwise tense situation with a little soft humor.

To be sure, Shulman hastened to follow his insult with a more serious list of reasons for his multiple visits, which totaled 129 in 2010 and 2011, not the widely reported 118, according to Earl Glynn, special projects coordinator of WatchdogLabs.org. Shulman's additional reasons are portrayed as revolving around planning the central role to be performed by IRS under Obamacare. There is a surface plausibility to that explanation because topping the list of senior Obama advisers with whom Shulman met was Nancy DeParle, then-director of the White House Office of Health Reform and later deputy chief of staff for policy, and her special assistant, Sarah Fenn. According to Glynn's analysis of the White House visitors logs, Shulman met with DeParle and/or Fenn at least 94 times.

It is important to note that DeParle was not simply a health care-focused policy wonk, but rather a veteran government operative serving Democratic presidents. Prior to working in the Obama White House, DeParle was director of the Health Care Financing Administration under President Clinton and also worked for him at the Office of Management and Budget. She is, to be sure, best known for her role in the Obamacare campaign, including her "Internet Brigade" idea. That was to be a taxpayer-funded swarm of Internet-based snitches dedicated to exposing and opposing those judged to be spreading "disinformation about health insurance reform."

But DeParle's role in the Obama inner circle was not limited to health care issues. She was also part of the administration's political strategizing, as seen in a Feb. 25, 2011 memo from Obama Department of Energy political appointee Dan Carol to DeParle warning about the "wave of GOP attacks that are surely coming over Solyndra and other inside deals that have gone to Obama donors and underperformed." It was in that same memo that Carol recommended firing then-Energy Secretary Steven Chu, so DeParle clearly was a participant in White House political strategizing on highly sensitive political issues other than health care reform.
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Schulman does come across as a jerk.  But Congress should question DeParle about these meetings to determine whether they talked about the Tea Party and how to deal with them.  Since we are not getting straight answers yet, we will have to broaden the inquiry.