When the IRS Targeted Liberals

[crossfire]

While few are defending the Internal Revenue Service for targeting some 300 conservative groups, there are two critical pieces of context missing from the conventional wisdom on the “scandal.” First, at least from what we know so far, the groups were not targeted in a political vendetta - but rather were executing a makeshift enforcement test (an

Comments

[hinoema]

Hypocrisy is only acceptable if it's Republicans doing it. Didn't they get them memo?

[alexvdl]

So... people making ethics complaints, and the IRS then investigating them, is the same as the IRS targeting conservative groups? I'm not saying that the IRS targeted those groups maliciously. But these two things are NOT the same.

[crossfire]

Correct.

What do you think about the IRS targeting All Saint's and the NAACP? Is that the same as the IRS targeting tea party groups?

[alexvdl]

I think that if there is an ethics complaint, that the IRS is obligated to look into it. The articles linked even mentioned it. "The tax code bars nonprofits, including churches, from endorsing or campaigning against candidates in an election." So two years after the election, when the allegations of campaigning against Bush came to light through a complaint to the IRS, the IRS investigated it. Same charges were leveled against the NAACP, the IRS investigated that as well. THAT article mentions that both liberal and conservative groups leveled numerous complaints against one another (in that election year), and the IRS looked into them as well.

In the cases mentioned in this article, outside groups are using the IRS as a tool to bring discredit upon their opponents. In the current scandal, it's all endemic to the IRS.

[crossfire]

Do you think the IRS should continue to investigate non-profits to make sure they are not endorsing or campaigning against candidates in an election?

ETA: Ah! I understand what you're saying now. And I agree. The false equivalency I was talking about stems from conservatives pretending like the current scandal is a Librul Conspiracy, rather than a problem endemic to the IRS.

(Sorry for multiple edits. It's late. :-/)

[underlankers]

Ah, hypocrisy, thy name is politics.

[rhysande]

I have no problem with the IRS red flagging 501(c)(4) organizations with Tea Party and Libertarian terms in their names for further investigation. My real issue here is why isn't the IRS red flagging all political- and partisan- sounding terms and mission statements? "Democrat(ic)", "Liberal" and "Progressive" should also be on the list, and if those terms are already on the list of red flags, why is the IRS not revealing it or the media not reporting it?