Rule #4 RIDICULE IS MAN’S MOST POTENT WEAPON: Direct from the Saul Alinsky handbook Rules for Radicals that urges radicals to ridicule the opposition, Democratic Rep. Gerald Connolly asks IRS Official Sarah Hall Ingram if she is a witch or has consorted with the devil.
Representative Gerald Connolly (D-VA) parodied the “witch hunt”-like nature of House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa’s ongoing investigation into the Internal Revenue Service, asking IRS official Sarah Hall Ingram if she were a witch or had consorted with the devil. Ingram is the Affordable Care Act Office Director. The House Oversight Committee is investigating whether Ingram shared tax data with the White House, outside her narrow legal parameters, to assist with legal challenges against Obamacare. She denies the charge.
“Let’s get things out of the way,” Connolly said at the start of his congressional questioning. “Have you ever read The Crucible by Arthur Miller? What is it about?”
“Well, I’m from New England, so I’m familiar with the original story,” Ingram said. “The Salem witch trials.”
“You’re under oath; have you been consorting with the devil?” Connolly asked, drawing laughter. Connolly also asked if Ingram could fly, or had been trying to corrupt the youth of Salem; she pled not guilty.
Have you been consorting with the devil?
Are reports that you can fly, accurate?
Have you been involved in any way in trying to pervert our youth — in Salem or anywhere else?
You received an award in the Bush administration for excellence in public service, the highest award for anyone in the IRS, is that correct? Did the devil have anything to do with that award?
We now know that Bush administration manufactured evidence about weapons of mass destruction to justify the invasion in Iraq. Were you involved in that? Because you received an award from President Bush, so there is a connection.
— Rep. Gerald Connolly
He then turned to her record under the George W Bush administration: “You received an award in the Bush administration for excellence in public service, the highest award for anyone in the IRS, is that correct? Did the devil have anything to do with that award?”
“I was not part of either the nomination process or the awarding,” Ingram said. (Not a no!)
“We now know that Bush administration manufactured evidence about weapons of mass destruction to justify the invasion in Iraq,” Connolly said. “Were you involved in that? Because you received an award from President Bush, so there is a connection.”
“No, sir,” Ingram replied.
“All right,” Connolly said. “If that’s your testimony…”
Conolly’s parody occurred during the hearing examining the IRS’s role in implementing and enforcing Obamacare. Led by Chairman Darrel Issa (R-CA) with a colorful and suspicious history, Republicans are attempting to clarify redacted email between Hall Ingram and members of the Obama administration that included mention of 6103, a rule that requires tax return information to be kept confidential and prevents officials from disseminating the information beyond a small group of IRS officials. Sarah Hall Ingram denied sending tax return information to the White House, but she is accused forwarding illegal data to assist the Obama administration in winning legal challenges against Obamacare.
Hall Ingram, earning a salary of about $175,000 annually, headed the IRS division that scrutinized political groups applying for 501 (c4) status when several of the political groups claimed severe delays in their consideration. She received bonuses of more than $100,000 from 2009 to 2012 while the office targeted conservative Tea Party, evangelical and pro-Israel groups for harassment. Hall Ingram, now serving as IRS Director of the Affordable Care Act office, testified that after the targeting scandal, which included admitted targeting of political groups applying for tax-exempt status, that the “IRS has created new processes to protect the tax information that would be accessed when consumers apply for insurance through ObamaCare’s exchanges.”
Van Halen Runnin’ with the Devil.
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