Arrest Lois Lerner

The scandal at the IRS is bigger than Obama. The entire integrity of the Federal government has been compromised by the actions of Lois Lerner and her cohorts. This is the USA, we do not permit government officials to abuse their authority for partisan purposes. The actions of Lerner are straight out of the Hugo Chavez playbook.

The basic rule is that US government employees are protected from legal liabilities if their actions fall within their job. Lois Lerner's actions violated every principle of ethics and she should be punished to the full extent of the law including jail time and forfeiture of her pension. Employees are protected from liability in the case of an honest mistake if they believed they were acting within the law or were just incompetant. Lerner's actions rise to malfeasance and was well aware of her violations of the law and is not protected.

The GOP needs to play hardball with the IRS and treat it as a corrupt agency. I do not favor collective punishment in most circumstances. In this case,the actions are so heinous that they dwarf Watergate. The goal should be to smoke out all the managers who had anything to do with the illegal activities of Lerner and the subsequent cover up.

1) Pay and Hiring freeze at the agency until employees step forward and co-operate with the investigation of Lerners activities and cover up.

2) Criminal prosecution of those responsible for ethics violations.

3) Early retirement for those eligible.

4) Demotion and reduction in grade and reassignment to other agencies for lower level participants.

Those who assist the prosecution of Lerner should be awarded step increases.

Lerner may fancy herself an Obama loyalist. Lets see how she fancies herself when her actions cause financial hardship on her peers.

Violating the very core of ethical standards for partisan purposes is a heinous crime. Anyone familiar with the ethics training that government employees get annually know that these abuses are prominently covered in annual training. Lerner is allegedly a lawyer and as such should be held to a higher standard.