"Randolph Thrower, 100; IRS chief under Nixon" by Matt Schudel | Washington Post March 22, 2014
WASHINGTON — Randolph Thrower, who served two years as commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service under President Nixon before clashing with the administration over appointments and its efforts to punish political enemies, died March 8 at his home in Atlanta. He was 100....
It was only after he left his position in 1971 that Mr. Thrower’s battles with the Nixon White House came to light. He had agreed in 1969 to set up a special group to investigate the tax-exempt status of ‘‘subversive organizations.’’
It was one of the articles of impeachment back then, and a big deal.
As time went on, Mr. Thrower grew resistant to the strong-arm tactics of the Nixon administration. In 1973, he revealed to a Senate select committee investigating the Watergate scandal that in 1970 the White House asked Mr. Thrower to hire John Caulfield, a top lieutenant of Nixon aide John Ehrlichman, to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms, then a branch of the IRS.
After Mr. Thrower rejected Caulfield, who was known for his phone-tapping skills and other dirty tricks, the next applicant offered by the White House was G. Gordon Liddy, later convicted as a Watergate conspirator. Mr. Thrower turned him down as well.
Now we have an agency dedicated to just that.
The White House then demanded that Mr. Thrower hire Caulfield to lead a special enforcement unit at the IRS, under Mr. Thrower’s control. He again refused, saying the IRS commissioner had no need for ‘‘a personal police force.’’
Documents provided to congressional committees indicated that the White House asked Mr. Thrower to direct the IRS to audit the tax returns of Nixon’s opponents, including journalists, Democratic congressmen, and leaders of the antiwar and civil rights movements.
‘‘There was a great suspicion at the White House that IRS was Democratically oriented,’’ Mr. Thrower told The New York Times in 1974....
Well, it is now!
Believing that Nixon would be alarmed by such partisan meddling, Mr. Thrower sent a memorandum to the president, requesting a meeting. Instead, Mr. Thrower received a phone call from Ehrlichman, telling him he was fired.
Mr. Thrower announced his resignation for ‘‘personal reasons’’ on Jan. 26, 1971. Five days earlier, in a private memo, later made public, Nixon had written: ‘‘May I simply reiterate for the record that I wish Randolph Thrower, commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, removed at the earliest feasible opportunity.’’
Lerner also resigned.
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Some of you may think I'm subdued and melancholy about the lack of impeachment hearings, and I am; however, I also recognize it doesn't really mean much and could make matters worse. It looks now as if Obama is pulling off the war agenda because he doesn't want to be seen as the president who destroyed AmeriKa. He's going to leave that to the next tool.
