What the hell did you expect him to say?

AP:

The ousted chief of the Internal Revenue Service is telling Congress that his agency made errors in targeting conservative groups seeking tax-exempt status, but he says the mistakes were not the result of partisan views.

In a prepared statement, former acting IRS commissioner Steven Miller was ready to tell the House Ways and Means Committee on Friday that the screening system agency workers set up was designed to deal with a growing caseload of groups seeking tax-exempt status. Miller said it was not due to "any political or partisan viewpoint."

He says that the IRS has instituted new processes designed to prevent the problem from occurring again.

Miller was testifying in Congress' first hearing into the targeting of tea party and other conservative groups by the IRS.

That's his story and he's sticking to it - except there was no "growing caseload of groups seeking tax exempt status" when the program began in 2010. In fact, applications were down at that time.

Besides, the political ramifications are so obvious that whoever came up with this idea - and whoever implemented it - should be fired for abject stupidity. If they are so tone deaf that they are unaware that using political designations to cull applications isn't inherently political - and an egregious abuse of power -  they have no business being in any position of responsibility in government that requires critical thinking skills. Are we supposed to believe that the workers who implemented this program never heard of "tea party" before and had no clue of what they were about?

These aren't "mistakes." It is "wrongdoing" - perhaps criminal, perhaps not. But whichever it is, we want to hear someone testify before congress who says "this was my idea" and then go from there.