The ONE Question to Be Asked at EVERY Round of the IRS Scandal Hearings

Glenn Reynolds, God bless 'im, continues Instapundit's coverage of the investigation into the IRS scandal (Update: thanks for the link).

All that is good and proper.

(Related: Witness the Unbelievable Amount of Racism That Exists Among Conservatives and in the Tea Party)

But at this stage of the leftist takeover of America, investigating the scandal, however important, is still secondary to the main issue at hand — having the Tea Parties' applications approved and thus have conservatives fully ready for the election fight of 2014.

Here is a recommendation I would like to make to all Congressmen involved in the conducting of hearings of Treasury officials.

Every hearing should start out with statements and questions along the following lines:

Now, Mrs. Lerner/Mr. Lew (or whoever is being questioned), you — obviously — realize that the whole background to this scandal is the improper politicization of the Internal Revenue Service, do you not? Good. And you realize that what occurred was a blatant display of double standards, do you not? Very well. And you recognize that the process was unfair and inappropriate, don't you, and that there was no reason to keep Such-and-Such-a Tea Party waiting for months, indeed for years? Good.

So: there do not seem to be any disagreements about that…

And so I have the following question for you:

Why is it that Such-and-Such-a Tea Party has not yet indeed received approval of its tax-exempt status?

Why is it that — six months later after the scandal broke — its members are still waiting to receive approval of their status?

Indeed, why was the first thing you did when you returned to your office following the previous hearing — scratch that: following the very first hearing, six months ago — not to gather, of your own volition (!), the application papers of Such-and-Such-a Tea Party — indeed, to gather the applications of all the Tea Parties throughout the nation on hold — mark them approved, and mail them out the same day? (Alright, one day or two later would also have been acceptable…)

Don't you think that would create goodwill among the members of this body? And among the American public?

So, now that you do not seem to have thought of taking this step of your own volition, I have this follow-up question to ask you:

What are you waiting for? When will you send out these approvals?

Maybe you are planning to wait until the 2014 elections are over?… Or maybe until the 2016 elections are over?… Until those elections are won (at least partially) by the Democrat Party?… Maybe you plan on waiting even longer, and sending the approval notices out after November 2020?… Hm?…

Indeed, it is not every committee hearing that should start out with variants on the question "What are you waiting for?" and on the statement "I do not understand why you haven't already taken this step", it is every single Congressman's allotted time that should so start!

I have an idea, Mrs. Lerner/Mr. Lew (whoever), a really wild, extravagant idea just popped into my head: how about when you go into the office tomorrow morning, the first thing you attend to is to have the Tea Party approvals in the mail by tomorrow evening? And when you come to the next round of hearings (or whoever is the next IRS official to appear before this committee), you (or they) can tell us that the issue has been taken care of? How about that? Wouldn't that be a great step forward?

Let 'em hear it again and again — and again.

Make 'em squirm.