WASHINGTON -- An attempt by the National Republican Congressional Committee to embarrass Democrats went awry on Thursday, when the group published a blog post riddled with errors.
The post, titled "31 Democrats Who Are Huge Fans of the IRS Investigating Conservative Groups," tried to connect Democratic lawmakers to the ongoing IRS scandal. It pointed to Democrats who sent a letter to the IRS in 2012, asking the agency to investigate nonprofit organizations connected to super PACs.
The post included the names and photographs of the Democrats, along with the introduction, "Turns out these House Democrats were very interested in helping the IRS out. In March 2012, 32 House Democrats wrote then-IRS Commissioner Dan Shulman asking him to investigate conservative 501 (c) (4) groups. Do any of them represent you in Congress?"
Shulman's first name, however, is Doug, not Dan. A screenshot of the post:
It also turns out that two of the people in the list don't represent anyone in Congress because they've retired. Former Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-N.Y.) retired in January, and former Rep. Bob Filner (D-Calif.) left to serve as the mayor of San Diego after winning election in November 2012:
The list of Democrats also included Rep. Luis Gutierrez (D-Ill.). While he remains in office, the man pictured was not the congressman; it's the former mayor of Medellín, Colombia -- Luis Pérez Gutiérrez:
The blog post was originally published on the NRCC website Thursday morning, but was removed in the early afternoon.
NRCC spokesman Daniel Scarpinato told The Huffington Post, "This was an early draft that was not meant to be posted publicly because it had not yet been edited."
The IRS has admitted to targeting conservative organizations seeking tax-exempt status if they had the words "tea party" or "patriot" in their names. The acting chief of the agency resigned on Wednesday.
Elise Foley contributed to this report.
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