Do you approve of media confronting Lois Lerner in her neighborhood? (Reader Poll)
Do unto others? Or, what goes around comes around?
(Reader Poll at bottom of post)
Jason Mattera of the Daily Surge recently filmed an unannounced confrontation with former IRS employee Lois Lerner in her own neighborhood.
Lerner fled his camera and tried (unsuccessfully) to seek refuge in a neighbor’s home:
VIDEO: Lois Lerner Tries Barging Into Neighbor’s Home To Evade Questions
Lois Lerner attempted to bust into a neighbor’s home uninvited, in a desperate attempt to avoid answering questions about her involvement in the targeting of conservative groups.
Jason Mattera, author of the explosive new book CRAPITALISM: Liberals Who Make Millions Swiping Your Tax Dollars, recently caught up with the disgraced former IRS official in her ritzy neighborhood outside Washington, D.C.
Mattera, who publishes the Daily Surge, asked Lerner if she had any regrets for her role in the ongoing IRS corruption case, and if she wanted to take the opportunity to give a genuine apology to conservatives for using the force of government to harass and single them out.
But, similar to her testimony before Congress where she pleaded the fifth, Lerner didn’t show any remorse, and, on a more latent level, showed her disregard for people’s privacy rights in general. In the video above, you can see Lerner fleeing from Mattera as she rushes through what appears to be a random person’s front yard.
Here’s the video:
This may seem invasive and inappropriate, but as Jason Mattera asks her in so many words, is it any more inappropriate than the way Lerner used her position at the IRS to target average Americans?
In fact, this is a tactic the left has been using for quite a while.
In 2010, busloads of SEIU protesters descended on the private home of a Bank of America executive who they perceived as a political enemy.
The house was empty, except for a teenager who hid in the bathroom fearing for his life.
Nina Easton, who you may know from her writing and media appearances, lived next door and described the scene:
What’s really behind SEIU’s Bank of America protests?
Last Sunday, on a peaceful, sun-crisp afternoon, our toddler finally napping upstairs, my front yard exploded with 500 screaming, placard-waving strangers on a mission to intimidate my neighbor, Greg Baer. Baer is deputy general counsel for corporate law at Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500), a senior executive based in Washington, D.C. And that — in the minds of the organizers at the politically influential Service Employees International Union and a Chicago outfit called National Political Action — makes his family fair game.
Waving signs denouncing bank “greed,” hordes of invaders poured out of 14 school buses, up Baer’s steps, and onto his front porch. As bullhorns rattled with stories of debtor calls and foreclosed homes, Baer’s teenage son Jack — alone in the house — locked himself in the bathroom. “When are they going to leave?” Jack pleaded when I called to check on him.
Baer, on his way home from a Little League game, parked his car around the corner, called the police, and made a quick calculation to leave his younger son behind while he tried to rescue his increasingly distressed teen. He made his way through a din of barked demands and insults from the activists who proudly “outed” him, and slipped through his front door.
“Excuse me,” Baer told his accusers, “I need to get into the house. I have a child who is alone in there and frightened.”
I’d really like to know what Legal Insurrection readers think about this. Am I making an unfair comparison? Was Jason Mattera’s ambush of Lois Lerner unfair or is it what Glenn Reynolds describes as punching back twice as hard?
So what do you think. After viewing the video, and considering how it must feel for any controversial public figure (do unto others?) to be confronted where s/he lives, was the questioning of Lerner a good thing?
Poll Open until Noon (Eastern) on Thursday, October 9, 2014:
Featured image via YouTube.
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Comments
knives cut both ways…
if the Left doesn’t like it, they can suck it. they always cry when other people use their tactics against them.
They dealt the hand, now they gotta play it out!
Let’s ask the Palin family if there is any comparison.
My thought exactly. This is nothing compared to what the Palins endured, and they Palins did nothing wrong, none of them. They were hounded for their political views, not for the malfeasance we see here.
I wish the right had the cojones to treat these libtards as they treat us.
The neighborhood action had no other purpose than to embarrass a person who you guys don’t like. What you don’t get is that nobody feels sorry for you. All she did was concentrate on the side that everybody knows is the worst abuser of the 503 rules. The Hatch Act doesn’t allow her to do that, so she resigned. Case closed. Get over it. Typical gop bullying tactics. Says more about you than it does about Lerner.
I don’t like it. It will come back around. The left traditionally owns these tactics. I loath unions and the “organizers” on the left that shamelessly use these tactics.
While she is scott free IRS employees have been intimidated and threatened. Think of all the whistle blowers this Executive has squashed..
We are on the side of the righteous and we have to fight. She should be in prison along with Cummings. The whole Obama cadre should be in prison. Things have gone well past acceptable in this country. I say it’s high time citizens like Mattera and Project Veritas start breaking norms.
As a union guy once said to me, “It’s a negotiation.” Lets raise their cost!
This has been the staple of 60 minutes and the like for the better part of 30 – or is it 40? – years.
My suggestion to anyone who doesn’t want to talk to the media is to not talk to the media. When they step on your lawn, you can tell them to get off or you’ll have the cops show them the way off.
“I don’t like it. It will come back around.”
In a sense it already came back around. And if the left starts whining, please please please start showing video of Morley Safer, Dan Rather, Mike Wallace and the rest of the 60 Minutes hosts playing gotcha’ journalism, and THEN ask for the clarity between the two actions.
A purported public servant who has refused to provide a public accounting of her on the job actions, by claiming Fifth Amendment protection no less, is not deserving of the sort of respect one would afford to a common stranger.
She should be greeted with open scorn, and disrespect at every occasion. Everything up to, but not crossing into criminality should be her lot in life.
Time was it would have been tar and feathers. When someone goes so far wrong the normal rules no longer apply.
Was at first going to click “Strongly Disapprove” because the tar & feathers option wasn’t offered, then relented.
Strongly approve it is. She can choke on it.
Actually, I public whipping with a buggy whip would not be that far out-of-line! The woman is a thief of the ‘public’ trust and a deceptive liar. Cutting her tongue out and cutting off here lips might be a little to far (maybe), but most things short of that she has earned in spades! Can I use the term ‘spade’ without being called a racist?
The Golden Rule cuts both ways…the Left did NOT object when union officials, OWS fleabags showed up at the homes of Wisconsin GOP officials and bankers. So at this point who am I to to suggest unilateral disarmament???
Lerner was in public and was confronted publicly.
First of all, that is a very unfair comparison. One person (or two, including the videographer, even three if there’s a sound guy) who is there to confront LL and ask her direct questions on camera is WAY different than a busload of aggressive people with bullhorns who at least appear to be out of control.
Second, a so-called public servant, living in multi-million dollar luxury, who has avoided all accountability where actual laws were broken (release of private information to 3rd parties) absolutely deserves to be questioned by ANY MEDIA that will do it, and if that ends up being some blogger in his pajamas, that’s still MEDIA.
I have no love for Lerner and what she did, but this simply smacks of stooping to the nasty level of the Liberal media, which I despise.
Lerner is a criminal who should be in jail. If John Boehner won’t get it done then she gets what she deserves in another way – public ridicule and scorn.
Politicians all stick up for one another even when they are on opposite sides for fear they might find themselves in similar situations some day.
The more publicity Lerner gets the more pressure the DC bunch will have on them to actually show us they work for us – instead of themselves.
I agree. This vile skank witch is lucky she lives in modern times. It’s not too many years ago that should would have been tarred, feathered and probably hung and dismembered for the disgusting illegal shit she pulled.
I hope that every last day of her life is hell on earth. She and her progressive scum co-conspirators deserve the worst that can come to them.
She belongs in prison. That doesn’t mean she should be harassed.
I approve of the news media beating that woman to a bloody pulp until she confesses who put her up to the harrasement! How’s that!? She not only belongs in prison she belongs under the prison. I’m tired of this administration’s gross misuse of the law.
I don’t believe that Lerner should be confronted on her own lawn. But I would like for her to be paralyzed with fear. Seized with spontaneous diarrhea. Worried sick. Unable to eat. Sleepless. Shaking like a leaf. Wondering if she will end up in jail. All those things the average taxpayer experiences when confronted by the IRS.
When you walk out your front door and onto the street (or sidewalk) you are in a public area and are effectively fair game at that point. So long as confrontations like this are kept to public areas I have no problem with actions like this even if it takes place in the targets own neighborhood. When you are a very well known person (for good or ill) you had best be ready for what the world has waiting for you when you step out that door.
Yes, I do approve. Karma is a bitch and she relished IRS harassment that she unleashed on the public.
HASN’T THIS WOMAN SUFFERED ENOUGH?
HASN’T THIS WOMAN SUFFERED ENOUGH?
Suffered enough? She hasn’t begun to suffer. She has ducked questioning by the people’s representatives, after asserting ‘innocence’ of acts which the Inspector General discovered on her watch. And compounded the crime by participating in multiple erasures of electronic records of her acts and directions when still a power figure.
Her suffering won’t even begin until she’s under indictment and on oath.
Take her pension. Illegal, criminal behavior by a public official is grounds for losing your publicly-funded pension.
She was only keeping an eye on Tea Party groups for us. You know, a lot of those groups have, like war veterans. And Christians!
Owww, ‘Enry ‘Awkins! Your humor is escaping some!
Well, he/she is Insufficiently Sensitive.
(No offense to InsuffSens – sarcasm is difficult to detect when unfamiliar with the poster).
No. She doesn’t deserve paparazi treatment. No one does. She deserves a comprehensive audit. Of her own freewill, she determined her sentence.
Oh, well. Anarchy serves the interest of the left-wing establishment.
Something about “push back twice as hard”.
She needs a bigger meaner dog that she can claim as a dependent on her tax return.
No justice, no peace!
That is simply mean…
I LIKE it…!!!
I certainly do approve.
Make them live by their own rules.
First time I’ve ever been embarrassed to frequent this site. Media tactics are out of hand. The “fight fire with fire” argument doesn’t hold water to me when it can be anyone’s rights and personal lives being trampled upon.
I voted undecided and I felt a bit ashamed doing that.
Yes I agree, as Professor Reynolds has also pointed out frequently, the ruling calls is insufficiently afraid of the public.
Fear of public scorn is a far milder deterrent than tar and feathers.
#WAR
Doing the job the lame stream media refuses to do.
Whats not to like?
It depends on the nature of the interaction. Here Lerner’s reaction was so disproportionate to the level media contact – even to the point of creating a disturbance to her neighbor – I’d have to say she was just unwilling to accept responsibility of making herself a public figure.
Very different than having a large unruly mob besiege a private residence, or having a media circus camping out in front of one’s doors 24/7.
Did the people who disapprove of Lerner being confronted approve of Romney softballing Obama in the presidential debates?
The right is bringing a Nerf bat to every fight with the left, which brings flamethrowers and semi-automatics.
And Lerner herself referred to Mattera as the press when she was trying to get her neighbor to let her in.
I approve wholeheartedly of Mattera’s actions, just as I vehemently disapprove of Lerner terrorizing her elderly convalescing neighbor. The gutless fools on the right had better wise up fast; they are the left’s enablers.
Those situations are nowhere near equivalent. Of course, I thought Romney should hammer Obama in the debates.
I have to say I’m conflicted about this one.
I am opposed to this being done in general. With that being said…
The Progressives will never get the message that this type of conduct is unacceptable unless we start using it against THEIR people, and make them SCREAM about it, then call them out as being hypocrites for the fact that they used these same tactics for years and approved of others doing so.
If they dare to call us out as hypocrites for using tactics that we so long decried, we can easily point out to them that we tried TELLING them that these tactics were uncivil and were told “go pound sand.” So now we’re SHOWING them the tactics are uncivil by making them suffer by the sword that they used against us for so long.
You get a clip of someone like Jon Stewart or Bill Maher defending OWS for protesting at BOA Counsel’s house as a “public figure” and a clip of him decrying approaching Learner as a “private individual” and play them back to back on a LOOP on one of the major networks and everybody will shut up REALLY quickly lest their OWN hypocrisy be exposed the same way.
Well, where else are they going to go to ask her questions?
Her alleged actions are too egregious and she has (so far) evaded blame and/or punishment commensurate with her crime.
And that doesn’t count the damage she has done to the unwritten contract between a US citizen and the US government.
And that is that everyone must abide by the rules. They may be unfair or capricious but they are the rules.
This woman and the Democrat party and the Unions have decided they are above the law and that they and they alone can make or break the law with impunity and without notice.
If your enemy will do anything to win and you will not, you lose.
I do not like Mattera’s approach at all. Never have. For all the sensationalized “She was trying to break into her neighbors’ house” headlines, what nobody pointed out was that Mattera and his crew were tresspassing on those innocent neighbors’ property, making him as bad as Lerner.
You can’t shame lefties, especially with the MSM guarding their backs. Tactics like this aren’t likely to sway anyone.
If it isn’t posted and he hasn’t been asked to leave by the owner, and he’s in the common area between the public sidewalk and front door, it isn’t trespassing.
It’s an unfair comparison because Baer was a private citizen attacked for doing his job, the protest was manipulative and abusive. I’d feel this was an unfair intrusion on Lois Lerner’s privacy except, (1) she’s accused of abusing her power as an IRS official, and (2) she’s dodging accountability. She had an opportunity to do this the easy way. She’s chosen the hard way.
On your poll I checked Somewhat Approve.
I’m glad to see someone pose this question instead of just metaphorically slapping him on the back with attaboys.
It was very inappropriate to follow her onto personal property. IANAL but I suspect it might have been illegal for him to be on the property uninvited (& for her also).
Questions on the street are fair game.
I approved so strongly that I opened another browser and voted twice. And since that worked I opened a third browser and voted a third time.
By embracing lawlessness, the government, with Lois Lerner being the lawlessness poster child, has effectively declared war against the American people. We need to fight back. As is said, “All’s fair in love and war”. Our Founders did it against the King.
A long-term hobby horse of mine is how so many of the world’s ills can be attributed to the almost complete divorce between actions and consequences. Take the issue of over-lenient sentencing for repeat offenders, for example. Obviously, the criminals’ actions are not met with appropriate consequences, but neither are those of the judges responsible. Similarly, prosecutorial over-reach is almost never punished, and when it is, the penalties are nugatory. Cops that go overboard might cost the city or municipality where they work a tidy sum, but this is taxpayers’ money. They have almost no skin in the game. And repulsive little jacks-in-office like Lerner hide behind dubious cloaks of immunity. It is the duty of the public they have betrayed to visit affliction upon them. They need to be reminded, forcefully if necessary, which way the employer/employee arrow points. There is no way their behaviour will be corrected otherwise.
Those who oppose confrontation seem to think that if we refrain from fighting back, somehow TWANLOC will not attack us. They are the enemy. Our country has lost the rule of law, let alone civility. There are no more rules, at least rules that apply to both sides. The supposed “opposition party” the Institutional Republicans will not stand up for the law. The MSM scoffs at even handed application of the law. So you create consequences for the enemy in any way you can.
I don’t believe that Lerner should be confronted on her own lawn.
She wasn’t. She was first confronted on public right of way, which is ‘dedicated to the use of the public forever’. She chose to retreat to someone else’s private property, and made herself a nuisance to its convalescent resident – demanding entry, and then a call to the police – as if she were some kind of authority. When the owner returned, it was she who was told to get out, not the press crew.
And she absolutely should be confronted, having abused her powers both at FEC and IRS, as if she were a ruler and not a public servant. Worse, the MSM is in cahoots with her and refuses to do its proper job of investigating. Jason Mattera has picked up the mantle of responsibility that the MSM has abandoned, and more power to him.
I would prefer that scum like Lerner be held accountable through the legal system but as long as Washington protects their own, that’s just not going to happen.
It’d have been better if Lois Lerner was confronted in her prison cell.
Any misery that comes Lerner’s way is well-deserved. She is no better than an sociopath gangster in the ‘protection rackets.’ She is no better than In fact, she is less better.
May her misery be great and may it continue for the rest of her days.
If LL were anything approaching innocent she would have done the same as Rick Perry, smiled broadly for the camera’s and told the truth.
Instead she is hiding behind lawyers, shrubbery (saying bushes would have been misunderstood), and neighbors doors (willing or not) and hiding the truth.
Next we’ll be seeing a slow chase in a white explorer and a crew of ambulance chasing attorneys.
I’m not conflicted at all about this.
She has about 6 more rings of hell to pass through to be in the stand in the same room of loss of privacy the Palin has endured. I say we should send her through at least 4 or 5 more rings.
Though I deplore Mr Materra’s tactics, I will admit to having great pleasure seeing Lois Lerner squirm.
Lois Lerner could stop Jason Mattera in his tracks by simply telling the truth
Where else can they interview her? Everything she does now would be considered by the Left to be her “personal time & space”. Its not like a reporter can ask questions of her at a press conference. She took the 5th instead of testifying, and then violated its terms by giving an “interview” to a very friendly source (ie. it wasn’t an interview at all, but a platform to spew lies).
So, yeah, no holds barred on this.
This woman illegally used her position and her agency as a political cudgel to punish those she disagreed with, then hid behind the legal protection of the 5th Amendment to shield herself from harm.
She has continued to hide behind the “law” to keep from having to admit to her intentional criminal acts.
Meanwhile, those she targeted have not been allowed to benefit from the same legal system which is protecting her.
She is the one who chose to play by the Law of Man, rather than follow the Rule of Law – now she can suffer the consequences of her decision.
[…] have justified Mattera's invasive approach as justified because he is targeting her just as she targeted the […]
I usually cringe at Jason Mattera’s tactics, mostly because he uses false pretenses to approach someone, pretending to be a fan, or sympathetic to their cause, before blasting them. But, oddly enough, merely being a relentless, tough interviewer to this loathsome scumbag criminal doesn’t make me cringe, at all.
To all those who suggest he shouldn’t have chased her up to the neighbors’ door, I couldn’t disagree more. If he hadn’t done that, we never would have seen just how little her neighbors think of her. To have the neighbor woman refuse to let her inside, and the old guy say he didn’t want her in his house, was priceless footage that never would have happened if Mattera hadn’t been persistent. A win for the good guys, with credit to Mattera. No amount of humiliation would make me feel sympathetic to that evil witch.
Whoops. Meant to post that over at the Greg Gutfeld story.
Copy. Paste.