IRS UNION BOSS COLLEEN KELLEY: The Missing Link to Obama?

By Lawrence Sellin

On March 31, 2010, the day before the Inspector General's report says the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) began its scheme to target tea party and conservative groups, the White House Visitors Log reveals that President Barack Obama met with IRS union boss Colleen Kelley.

In a notable feat of investigative journalism, American Spectator reporter Jeffrey Lord exposed what appears to be an unholy alliance among the White House, Democrat members of Congress and the thousands of IRS employees, who are members of the far-left, anti-Tea Party National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU).

The NTEU, which supported Obama in 2008 and 2012, through its political action committee, raised $613,633 in the 2010 cycle, giving 98% of its contributions to anti-Tea Party Democrats. In 2012, the figure was $729,708, with 94% going to anti-Tea Party candidates.

NTEU's Kelley has a long history of interaction with the Obama Administration, first meeting in the White House on January 30, 2008, a mere ten days after his first inauguration, which she described:

"We are looking for a return to what we used to call partnership. I don't really care what it's called. For me, it's about collaboration."

Think about it.

IRS union-member employees financed anti-Tea Party candidates, while in their official positions blocked, audited, or intimidated Tea Party and conservative groups and were urged to do so in letters from Senate Democrats Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Tom Udall (D-NM), Al Franken (D-MN), Max Baucus(D-MT, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee which oversees the IRS), Michael Bennet (D-CO), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and Carl Levin (D-MI), as well as Rep. Peter Welch (D-VT).

And all of it, apparently, was at least condoned if not directed from the White House.

Lord, who says that Obama is being re-cast from America's first black president to a black Nixon, posed some important questions about the White House connection to the IRS scandal:

• Did the President himself ever discuss the Tea Party with Kelley?
• Did the President ever communicate his thoughts on the Tea Party to Kelley -- in any fashion other than a face-to-face conversation such as e-mail, text, or by phone?
• What was the subject of the Obama-Kelley March 31, 2010 meeting?
• Who was present at the Obama-Kelley March 31 meeting?
• Was the Tea Party or any other group opposing the President's agenda discussed at the March 31 meeting, or before or after that meeting?
• Is the White House going to release any e-mails, text, or phone records that detail Kelley's contacts with not only Mr. Obama but his staff?
• Will the IRS release all e-mail, text, or phone records between Kelley or any other leader of the NTEU with IRS employees?
• What role did Executive Order 13522, which gave the NTEU a greater role in IRS decision-making, play in the IRS investigations of the Tea Party and all the other conservative groups?

I believe Lois Lerner supervised illegal activities by the IRS, facilitated by NTEU boss Colleen Kelley and initiated by the White House and the Democratic Party.

The IRS scandal also highlights the potential for corruption when public-sector unions and politicians "collaborate" in a pursuit of personal power and profit.

Lawrence Sellin, Ph.D. is a retired colonel with 29 years of service in the US Army Reserve and a veteran of Afghanistan and Iraq. Colonel Sellin is the author of "Restoring the Republic: Arguments for a Second American Revolution ". He receives email at lawrence.sellin@gmail.com.