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Strassel: The IRS Scandal Started at the Top
Wall St. Journal ^ | 5/17/2013 | Kimberly Strassel

Posted on 05/17/2013 3:46:18 AM PDT by SueRae

Was the White House involved in the IRS's targeting of conservatives? No investigation needed to answer that one. Of course it was.

President Obama and Co. are in full deniability mode, noting that the IRS is an "independent" agency and that they knew nothing about its abuse. The media and Congress are sleuthing for some hint that Mr. Obama picked up the phone and sicced the tax dogs on his enemies.

But that's not how things work in post-Watergate Washington. Mr. Obama didn't need to pick up the phone. All he needed to do was exactly what he did do, in full view, for three years: Publicly suggest that conservative political groups were engaged in nefarious deeds; publicly call out by name political opponents whom he'd like to see harassed; and publicly have his party pressure the IRS to take action.

Mr. Obama now professes shock and outrage that bureaucrats at the IRS did exactly what the president of the United States said was the right and honorable thing to do. "He put a target on our backs, and he's now going to blame the people who are shooting at us?" asks Idaho businessman and longtime Republican donor Frank VanderSloot.

At the White House, President Obama addresses the IRS scandal, May 15. . Mr. VanderSloot is the Obama target who in 2011 made a sizable donation to a group supporting Mitt Romney. In April 2012, an Obama campaign website named and slurred eight Romney donors. It tarred Mr. VanderSloot as a "wealthy individual" with a "less-than-reputable record." Other donors were described as having been "on the wrong side of the law."

(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: impeachnow; irs; partisanmediashill; partisanmediashills
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Last straw for me. Nothing this government tries to do has any relevance unless and until the IRS is defanged. Is there a broom big enough?
1 posted on 05/17/2013 3:46:18 AM PDT by SueRae
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To: SueRae

The real cleanup is the shadow government behind this puppet show


2 posted on 05/17/2013 3:47:39 AM PDT by ronnie raygun (Yesterdays conspiracies are todays truths)
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To: SueRae
The IRS Scandal Started at the Top

Flag@WhiteHouse.gov

3 posted on 05/17/2013 3:49:35 AM PDT by Roccus
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To: SueRae

bump


4 posted on 05/17/2013 3:50:18 AM PDT by GeronL (http://asspos.blogspot.com)
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To: ronnie raygun
The real cleanup is the shadow government behind this puppet show

That will take massive layoffs and downsizing across the board in all departments and agencies and new directives from new leaders based upon cost effectiveness.etc...

5 posted on 05/17/2013 3:50:23 AM PDT by taildragger (( Tighten the 5 point harness and brace for Impact Freepers, ya know it's coming..... ))
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To: SueRae

It isn’t going away.

We have the most corrupt Government today that we have ever had.
Corrupt and incompetent.


6 posted on 05/17/2013 3:50:56 AM PDT by Venturer
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To: taildragger

“The real cleanup is the shadow government behind this puppet show”

“That will take massive layoffs and downsizing across the board in all departments and agencies and new directives from new leaders based upon cost effectiveness.etc... “

The shadow government, the puppet masters who are working Obama’s and some other’s strings, are not government employees. Think about it....


7 posted on 05/17/2013 3:58:41 AM PDT by snoringbear (E.oGovernment is the Pimp,)
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To: SueRae

As CEO of the federal government the president, that’s you Obama, is responsible for all the misdeeds committed by his subordinates. If Obama would spend less time golfing, vacationing, fundraising and throwing lavish parties and more time governing and overseeing those he has delegated to be responsible for running the government, he would not facing all the scandals erupting about him. Obama is so incompetent and detached that there are likely more scandals waiting to erupt.


8 posted on 05/17/2013 3:59:14 AM PDT by monocle
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To: SueRae

The IRS is only part of it.

I think it’s true that Obama only had to signal his perceived enemies by mentioning them publicly, but I don’t buy the argument that the audits, etc. were nothing but the uncoordinated, unplanned response of underlings trying to be helpful.

This is an Alinskyite strategy and was planned at the very top, probably with the help of Ayers (a regular WH visitor), Axelrod, Rahm Emmanuel (remember him?) and Jarrett. Obama isn’t smart enough to come up with the plans on his own, but he’s very good at using his public persona to carry them out. He did the same in Chicago, tarring his “enemies” while spouting his community organizer rhetoric and also busily delving into and releasing their divorce records, property tax records and anything else he could use to destroy them.


9 posted on 05/17/2013 3:59:51 AM PDT by livius
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To: SueRae

There are letters from democrats in high places to the IRS, telling them to investigate certain conservative groups, as to their non profit status.

Al Franken was among them.


10 posted on 05/17/2013 4:00:31 AM PDT by Graybeard58 (_.. ._. .. _. _._ __ ___ ._. . ___ ..._ ._ ._.. _ .. _. .)
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To: AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Berosus; bigheadfred; Bockscar; ColdOne; Convert from ECUSA; ...

Thanks SueRae.


11 posted on 05/17/2013 4:04:13 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (Romney would have been worse, if you're a dumb ass.)
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To: SueRae

It has become so bad with seventy plus years of Leftist entrenchment within the bureaucracies (since Wilson) in support of the departments under the executive branch the only way to fix this is to clean out every department wiping out every supporting bureaucracy, and leaving nothing but the bare constitutional government the founders designed.

That would be flushing the government bowl, but to do so would require flushing the Congressional bowl about three to four consecutive pulls of the chain, which would be several election cycles. Years.


12 posted on 05/17/2013 4:05:56 AM PDT by rockinqsranch (Proud contributer to the Free Republic Q-2 Freepathon.)
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To: SueRae

Kim says,”Tag, you’re it” to Obama. Great article.


13 posted on 05/17/2013 4:06:12 AM PDT by wiggen (The teacher card. When the racism card just won't work.)
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To: Graybeard58

We will find out that asking for an investigation is slimy but legal.You know what?
We the People have no rights except those allowed us by our rulers.
The nation turned upside down.


14 posted on 05/17/2013 4:10:05 AM PDT by wiggen (The teacher card. When the racism card just won't work.)
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To: SueRae

No Hope....Big Change.


15 posted on 05/17/2013 4:12:27 AM PDT by Dallas59 (Q: The worst president in US history?)
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To: SueRae
Last straw for me. Nothing this government tries to do has any relevance unless and until the IRS is defanged. Is there a broom big enough?

Not "defanged" .... the entire IRS and their political gestapo ways need to be eliminated entirely. The IRS needs to be flat out abolished.

Only then should we begin to talk about what replaces it (fair tax, flat tax, national sales tax, etc..) but job #1 right now of ALL CONSERVATIVES and those who've been HARASSED by the IRS at Obama's mere mentioning of their names is the absolute total ABOLISHMENT of the IRS.

Who are the REAL terrorists in this country? Not Al-Qaeda, the OBAMA IRS.

16 posted on 05/17/2013 4:16:26 AM PDT by usconservative (When The Ballot Box No Longer Counts, The Ammunition Box Does. (What's In Your Ammo Box?))
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To: Venturer
Americans have become inured to the corruption and mediocrity.

Don't forget, American exceptionalism itself has been demonized.

17 posted on 05/17/2013 4:17:10 AM PDT by SMARTY ("The man who has no inner-life is a slave to his surroundings. "Henri Frederic Amiel)
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To: Graybeard58

Mayb it’s easy to break the law if you don’t KNOW the law.

These people lost their moral compass a LOOOOONG time ago!


18 posted on 05/17/2013 4:18:16 AM PDT by SMARTY ("The man who has no inner-life is a slave to his surroundings. "Henri Frederic Amiel)
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To: SueRae
This feral government ONLY rules by threat and control... they no longer have the CONSENT OF THE PEOPLE. obama is illegitimate as president and possibly as an American. Everything we knew as fact is coming to be exposed... and nothing is beyond this demonic creature known as hussein. Our system seems to be trying to right itself... support that effort and do not tear it down... because the next path is one that no sane man wants to travel.

LLS

19 posted on 05/17/2013 4:18:36 AM PDT by LibLieSlayer (FROM MY COLD, DEAD HANDS!)
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To: SueRae

20 posted on 05/17/2013 4:19:14 AM PDT by Zakeet (If idiots could fly, Washington would be an airport)
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