When Douglas Shulman was asked Wednesday by Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., for some of the “many reasons” he might visit the White House 118 times during his tenure at the IRS, the tax agency’s former commissioner displayed a profound disrespect for Congress by hastily replying, “the Easter Egg Roll with my kids.” The flash of disdain in his facial expression and tone of voice suggest Shulman was not at that point merely seeking to leaven an otherwise tense situation with a little soft humor.
To be sure, Shulman hastened to follow his insult with a more serious list of reasons for his multiple visits, which totaled 129 in 2010 and 2011, not the widely reported 118, according to Earl Glynn, special projects coordinator of WatchdogLabs.org. Shulman’s additional reasons are portrayed as revolving around planning the central role to be performed by IRS under Obamacare. There is a surface plausibility to that explanation because topping the list of senior Obama advisers with whom Shulman met was Nancy DeParle, then-director of the White House Office of Health Reform and later deputy chief of staff for policy, and her special assistant, Sarah Fenn. According to Glynn’s analysis of the White House visitors logs, Shulman met with DeParle and/or Fenn at least 94 times.
