for tax-exempt status based solely on political views is completely unacceptable. it is a disservice to the american people. but let me be clear. it is also disservice to apply a partisan lean to an issue that concerns all americans. since the days of the bush administration, groups with very political leanings have been scrutinized. every single person in this room knows this. we must be honest with ourselves and with each other. this has nothing to do with red versus blue. in fact, for the past 10 years all of the irs commissioners have an republican appointees, appointed by president george bush. between 2004 and 2006, many liberal groups, including the nacp, a progressive church and an environmental group were targeted by the bush administration.
sierra club was the worst at 70% granted, 11 out of 15. you add up some other groups and we had 75 out of 82 granted like that, because of course these are the groups that the epa has decided are the favored groups. that s chris tere for horner who authored the research. he accused the agencies trying to throw hurdles in front of the conservative groups but largely plot the liberal ones. the acting administrator told congress two weeks ago that the agency policy is to treat everybody the same and that it s inspector general may investigate. the agency told us, quote, the office of inspector general received from the environmental protection agency the official request to look into this matter just over a week ago. the request is currently under review at the oig at this early stage. congressman tim murphy, republican of pennsylvania who is a member of the house, energy and commerce committee that is investigating all this. he says treating conservative and liberal groups differently
necessary coach today, joe? no, but i could use one. jon: what about the political impact? we just heard congressman jim mcdermott from washington state in the hearing suggesting that there have been abuses directed at democrats in the past as well. is there going to be trouble for the administration because of all of this? look, i think it s clear that there will be. and, look, there may well have been some progressive groups that were hit like this. but that is no defense of an any of it. you have to be appalled what they were telling the stories about the i.r.s. s abuses of them. that is unreasonable defense. i thought the acting director made the better case yesterday that you have to admit that there was abuse and a failure, and that we have to get all the facts out. i think that is what the
lerner and i don t know the answer to any of that. the one thing i m convinced of from both the democratic side on that committee, congressman levyn and the republicans, they are going to get to the bottom, or to the top of where this goes, and that s going to be and we need to, because this has to get fixed, it can t happen again. jon: but you re a political adviser, i mean if you were to get on the horn with president obama this afternoon and start talking to him about what he should do as a result of all this. i mean these ordinary americans getting up there in front of congress and telling some hard rendering stories, frankly, and pleading their cases very well, what would you tell the president about the political impact here? well one of the things i think that congressman levyn did today was apologize to the groups that were abused. i mean, they deserve an apology, you know, something really wrong