( D . C . Visit , continued from page 1 )
Darrell Issa ' s House Oversight Committee Hearing on Wednesday , the 22nd , to convey our TPM ordeal to the committee tasked to investigate the improper conduct of IRS employees who had engaged in these " targeting " activities . Because John Kerr and I had already spoken about the possibility that this might occur , I suggested that both of us would be willing to participate and Keli accepted the offer . While the trip was hastily arranged and our travel to and fro included long delays in connecting cities , ( Memphis going , and D . C . and Minneapolis returning ) due to weather-related " handovers " from the tornado that had just devastated Moore , Oklahoma , we had a wonderful and life-changing experience . After checking into our hotel that evening around 7:00PM , we received a message that we were to meet with Jenny Beth Martin , Co -Founder and National Coordinator of Tea Party Patriots at another hotel nearby at 8:00PM . We walked over and met Jenny Beth who had arranged for us and other Tea Party leaders to be interviewed by The Wall Street Journal Senior Special Writer , Monica Langley , who was working on a piece that would put a " public face " on the matter that will appear the in the WSJ late in the week of 5 / 27 / 2013 or in the Weekend Journal on 6 / 1 / 2013 . We finished up around midnight and returned to our hotel-- exhausted from the long day , but exhilarated by our involvement in such an important issue that will now be thoroughly exposed . The next morning we were up early and on our way to the Rayburn Building to attend the hearings . Because seating is limited and the lines start forming at 4:30AM , TPP actually hires people to stand in line until their folks arrive at 9:00AM--so John and I were at the front of the line . We were also among the few non-politician , political staffers , journalists / photographers / videographers allowed in the hearing room and were able to observe the entire proceedings from 9:30AM ' til 1:00PM ( the committee actually adjourned around 1:30PM ). Because the session ran long , we were asked to met at 1:15PM with the committee ' s senior staffers to brief them relative to our experience and transmit the key correspondence and questionnaires that were exchanged between TPM / HTP and the IRS . That meeting lasted ' til 2:30PM and involved other leaders from Tea Party groups from New Jersey , Colorado , Tennessee , Texas , and Pennsylvania , all of whom had very similar stories to relate and documents to transmit . The staff asked if we would be willing to return to appear before the committee at a later date , and we all committed to do so . The next day , Thursday May 23rd , we were to have met with the Senate Committee that is looking into the matter , as well . But , as we soon discovered , most of D . C . starts the beginning of a long weekend ( in this case Memorial Day ) by leaving town on Thursday , so John and I were at loose ends . Deciding to make the most of our time , we hastily arranged meetings with our Congressmen ;
( me with David Schweikert , ( R ) AZ 6th District and John with Paul Gosar , ( R ) AZ 4th District ) to explain why we were there and tell the TPM / HTP story . Both were extremely interested--Schweikert gave us 45 minutes and Gosar , who is a sitting member of the House Oversight Committee and was in the room Wednesday asking probing questions of the witnesses , allowed us 20 minutes ,
TPM Past President John Kerr in Washington D . C .
even though he was between meetings . Both gentlemen agreed that this was a very important issue and one that would not disappear soon and almost certainly involved the very highest levels of the administration . We came away from those brief meetings with a sense that our representatives do care and will follow this story to its eventual conclusion , putting proper measures in place to ensure that this does not happen again . The rest of our time that Thursday was involved in seeing the sights , touring the Capitol Building and the Library of Congress before hailing a cab to the airport for our return
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Pono Press , June 2013 , Page 2