IRS scandal: Wherever Lois Lerner goes, ‘prayer interrogations’ seem to follow

Over at The Weekly Standard, Mark Hemingway has a brutal write-up on a less examined part of the career of Lois Lerner, the director of the IRS exempt organizations division. Lerner is the supposedly “apolitical” official who first admitted her agency had been targeting conservative groups Friday before last.

Between 1986 and 2001, Lerner served as head of investigations for the Federal Election Commission. From that post, Hemingway relates, she launched a lengthy, very expensive and ultimately fruitless investigation of the Christian Coalition. And in Hemingway’s explanation of it, you might recognize some of the “investigative” tactics that have been mentioned in connection with the current IRS scandal.

During the Christian Coalition investigation (which looked into alleged illegal coordination with campaigns), attorneys deposed Lt. Col. Oliver North, who had run for Senate in Virginia in 1994. Hemingway produces a stunning transcript of this deposition, in which the FEC’s attorney ruthlessly interrogates North about an offhand remark he made in a letter, thanking Christian Broadcaster Pat Robertson for his “kind regards and prayers.”

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