A bridge (toll) too far?

Another big event I haven't been talking about is Chris Christie's debacular handling of a crisis that seems to be entirely of his own making; that being the closure of toll lanes to the George Washington Bridge, apparently as political retaliation against the Mayor of Fort Lee.

Rachel Maddow had a nice run-down of the weaknesses and failures of Christie's explanations in his long, rambling "mea culpa" (well, that's what it was supposed to be, but it ended up being more of a "woe is me; look whom I trusted").

Even if you believe everything Christie said in that statement, though, I still think Christie has to go.  Because either he cares nothing about who gets hurt by his political retaliations, or he allows his underlings to play so fast and loose that they do the same.  Either way, he needs to go.  Even if nothing comes of the Hoboken Mayor (Dawn Zimmer)'s accusations that Hurricane Sandy aid was withheld as retaliation for not supporting a particular development that Christie wanted finished (and that would surprise me, given that the person in charge of that aid (Guadagno) admitted that a meeting took place as Zimmer claims, but that the discussion went differently.  But Zimmer is the one with detailed notes).

Anyway, despite my lukewarm endorsement of Christie after his re-election, he's got to go.

IRS Scandal (?)

I really don't understand all the uproar over what's going on at the IRS.  Yes, it probably shouldn't have happened (almost certainly not, but I actually haven't heard enough details to be positive), but what is the IRS supposed to do in cases like these?

Well, here's a good run-down from tax policy expert David Cay Johnston:

Congress requires the IRS to review every application for tax-exempt status to weed out organizations that are partisan, political, or that generate private gain. Congress has imposed this requirement on the IRS, and its predecessor agencies, since 1913.

So, it is likely that something that shouldn't have happened, did.  But we shouldn't lose sight of the fact that the IRS shouldn't be giving blanket approvals for tax filing status (and, perhaps more importantly, for purposes of hiding donations and donors).

There's quite a few other important points made in Johnston's article.  Check it out, and wish that most of those breathlessly talking about Watergate-level scandal had done so (because they obviously haven't).