Author: Hondo

Remember that “IRS thing” Doc Baily and I have each written about previously here at TAH?  You know, where private advocacy groups were apparently targeted for “special attention” by the IRS based on political philosophy, ethnicity, or  because they “contradict the Administration’s public policies”?

Well, it’s possible that’s not all that was going on.  According to an article at the Daily Caller yesterday, it appears that information might have also been “leaked” by a person or persons at the IRS for partisan political purposes.  Specifically, it appears that paperwork showing a donation made by GOP Presidential candidate Mitt Romney to the National Organization for Marriage (which received a large amount of airplay during the last Presidential campaign) may have been leaked by the IRS.

If you’re thinking that’s illegal – you’re correct.  See the Daily Caller article for details.

Separately, in a book written well before this latest IRS brouhaha became public, former SECDEF Donald Rumsfeld indicated that corporate executives often refrain from public criticism of the President or his policies out of fear of possible future retaliation by government agencies.   He indicates that corporate executives often considered possible actions by the IRS, SEC, congressional committees, and other government agencies before voicing public opposition.

Rumsfeld does not come out and state that he has knowledge of such abuse.  However, the implication is reasonably clear:  corporate executives have seen enough “temporal coincidences” between public statements against Presidential positions or polices and additional regulatory scrutiny to notice – and to be wary.

Stay tuned.  This looks to be getting “curioser and curioser” with each passing day.

It seems that those questionable IRS activities that Doc Bailey wrote about the other day appear to be a little broader than just a targeting of Conservative advocacy groups for auditing.  The Washington Post reports that a somewhat broader group of organizations was apparently targeted for “special attention” by our “esteemed” Tax Lords.  What other groups, you might ask? Well, I’ll let the Post tell you:

The documents, obtained by The Washington Post from a congressional aide with knowledge of the findings, show that on June 29, 2011, IRS staffers held a briefing with senior agency official Lois G. Lerner in which they described giving special attention to instances where “statements in the case file criticize how the country is being run.” Lerner, who oversees tax-exempt groups for the agency, raised objections and the agency revised its criteria a week later.

But six months later, the IRS applied a new political test to groups that applied for tax-exempt status as “social welfare” groups, the document says. On Jan. 15, 2012 the agency decided to target “political action type organizations involved in limiting/expanding Government, educating on the Constitution and Bill of Rights, social economic reform movement.,” according to the appendix in the IG report, which was requested by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee and has yet to be released.

It also seems that Jewish groups may have been included in those singled out for additional scrutiny by the IRS.  According to the Jewish Press,

. . . in 2010, the passionately pro-Israel organization Z STREET filed a lawsuit against the IRS, claiming it had been told by an IRS agent that because the organization was “connected to Israel,” its application for tax-exempt status would receive additional scrutiny.  This admission was made in response to a query about the lengthy reveiw (sic) of Z STREET’s tax exempt status application.

In addition, the IRS agent told a Z STREET representative that the applications of some of those Israel-related organizations have been assigned to “a special unit in the D.C. office to determine whether the organization’s activities contradict the Administration’s public policies.”

Yeah, I’d guess someone’s got some ‘splainin’ to do here.  And I kinda wonder who else might be on that “enemies list” at the IRS – and who gave it to them.

Oh, and that “bastion of conservative thought” Joe Klein seems kinda pissed about the IRS targeting conservative groups, too.  I wonder if he’s going to go totally bonzo when he sees these new revelations.