How Out Of It Is Bob Woodward?

My initial reaction to the Daily Caller’s rigged chart of White House visits by the IRS head, Douglas Shulman, was O’Reilly’s and Woodward’s. But in a matter of seconds, it was clear that there was a grotesque distortion. Later, we got to the bottom of the question, and found nothing there. A definitive piece by Garance Franke-Ruta also put the matter to rest.

But O’Reilly is, as we know, immune to facts when they get in the way of smearing Obama as a second Nixon. That’s no surprise. Roger Ailes runs a tight propaganda ship, just as he did when he worked for, er, Nixon. But why is Bob Woodward joining in? Here he goes again:

“This fiction that somehow [The IRS is] totally an independent agency is absurd,” the legendary journalist said Monday on “The O’Reilly Factor” on Fox News, saying that in the Nixon era, the Treasury secretary refused to audit Democratic groups when the IRS commissioner was asked to do so by the White House. “Clearly in the pipeline, lots of people knew some of this or should know it. And I agree, this should be investigated, but you know who should lead the investigation? President [Barack] Obama.”

Notice that his one piece of evidence that the White House meddles with the IRS is from the criminal Nixon administration. Any evidence apart from that, Bob? Have you even seen the careful reports proving this a fake story? Do you even care? And by what authority should the White House investigate an agency designed to be as independent of the White House as possible? Can you imagine the ratings Ailes would get out of Obama doing that? Those who should investigate are not those now recklessly accused. The Congress should find out if there’s anything of substance there, and so far, no dice.

Whence Woodward’s bile? Irrelevance in Obama’s Washington, one senses. But aiding and abetting Roger Ailes, who crafted Nixon’s media strategy in 1968? That’s more than bile. It’s bitter.