If you are going to send someone to let a very nasty cat out of the bag, perhaps it should be someone who knows something about cats and bags. Lois G. Lerner, "the IRS official who oversees tax-exempt groups," was not such a person. She had enough of a tin ear to actually use the Nixonian expression "mistakes were made." She said that she was not good at math, which is not really helpful when you are speaking for the IRS.
Conservative activists have been complaining for years that the IRS was harassing them. I have been, up until now, a bit skeptical. It just seemed like the risk of such shenanigans would far outweigh the likely benefits. Well, those conservatives were right. From the WaPo:
The Internal Revenue Service on Friday apologized for targeting groups with "tea party" or "patriot" in their names, confirming long-standing accusations by some conservatives that their applications for tax-exempt status were being improperly delayed and scrutinized…
About 75 groups were selected for extra inquiry — including burdensome questionnaires and, in some cases, improper requests for the names of their donors — simply because of the words in their names, she said in a conference call with reporters.
All on its own this is a major scandal. It is a blatantly partisan misuse of the tax power. As the WaPo puts it in a subsequent editorial:
A BEDROCK principle of U.S. democracy is that the coercive powers of government are never used for partisan purpose. The law is blind to political viewpoint, and so are its enforcers, most especially the FBI and the Internal Revenue Service. Any violation of this principle threatens the trust and the voluntary cooperation of citizens upon which this democracy depends.
At the very least, this was an attempt by someone in the IRS to intimidate critics of the Obama Administration. Using the words "tea party" and "patriot" makes it clear who the targets were. The left has been on a full court press to discredit tea party activists since they first emerged. The request for donor lists makes it clear that the purpose was intimidation. Give to the tea party and win yourself an audit! The IRS inquistors also demanded detailed lists of the organizations members. Vee know who you are. As the WaPo puts it, this is inimical to the basic principles of a constitutional democracy.
In less than a day, the scandal ratcheted up a notch. From the Politico:
Senior Internal Revenue Service officials knew employees were singling out conservative groups for extra scrutiny as early as 2011, according to a watchdog agency's report set to be released next week, POLITICO has confirmed from a congressional source.
The disclosure that senior officials knew agents were flagging applications containing the words "patriot" or "tea party" contradicts public statements by former IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman…
"There's absolutely no targeting. This is the kind of back and forth that happens to people" who apply for tax-exempt status, Shulman told a House Ways and Means subcommittee in March 2012.
Can you say code red? Whether Commissioner Shulman deliberately lied to a House subcommittee will likely become a matter for judicial inquiry. If he did, that is probably contempt of Congress. If the Politico report is correct, then "Senior" IRS officials knew that he was providing false information to that committee. They managed to keep quiet about it until well after the election.
Critics of the Obama Administration have often accused it of being authoritarian or worse. I think that the proper term, about which there is no longer any doubt, is Nixonian.
We are unlikely to find out that President Obama knew anything about what the IRS apparatchiks were doing. We know more than enough about the culture that took root in the executive branch under his tenure. His petulant campaign against Fox News set the template. Any institution that does not adore him is suspect. Deceiving the press and the public are instinctive reactions on the part of his subordinates whenever his political interests are threatened. That is Nixonian enough for government work.
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Posted by: Aroruned | Tuesday, May 14, 2013 at 11:08 AM