Former Cincinnati politicians called for Congress to clear the city’s “good name and reputation” in an op-ed published Tuesday in the Cincinnati Enquirer.
Former Democratic Rep. Tom Luken, who also served as mayor of Cincinnati, and Hamilton County auditor Dusty Rhodes asserted that the alleged decision to target Tea Party-aligned nonprofit groups came not from Ohio but from Washington:
Congressman Charles Rangel said, “There’s a cancer in Cincinnati.” That is just another example of how our region is taking collateral damage in IRS scandal. The Cincinnati area is being portrayed as a hotbed of rogue, corrupt IRS employees.
We are fed up with this constant refrain, which has been picked up by the media blaming the scandal on local IRS workers. We believe the problem originated in Washington. The Enquirer “fact-checked” remarks at Cincinnati’s national Town Hall meeting on the subject. When will you “fact check” the White House?
The pair encouraged Congress to complete a full investigation so that the responsibility for the alleged targeting may rest “squarely where it belongs.”
An Inspector General report determined in May that there was no evidence connecting the White House to the IRS’ targeting of conservative groups.