House turns aside effort to impeach IRS commissioner

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House turned aside an eleventh-hour drive Tuesday by hard-right conservatives to impeach the IRS commissioner, with most Republicans concluding the effort could hurt Congress' hopes of getting a fast start on President-elect Donald Trump's agenda next year.

Judiciary panel chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., has declined to endorse the impeachment effort, underscoring a belief by many Republicans that the actions by the IRS chief, John Koskinen, don't merit removal.

[...] Republicans said in interviews that a House vote to impeach Koskinen — which would prompt a Senate trial that could last weeks — would slow Congress' 2017 work on taxes and other issues and give Democrats ammunition to argue the GOP was excessively partisan.

Pelosi spokeswoman Caroline Behringer said conservatives were trying to do "President-elect Trump's dirty work for him" by sparing him from removing Koskinen from leading the agency Trump says has been auditing him.