Posted on 06/24/2014 4:03:37 PM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
Article Two of the impeachment drawn up against former President Richard Nixon was his attempted misuse of the Internal Revenue Serviceto target his political enemies.
Approached by the Nixon administration with an “enemies list of about 200 Democrats” to investigate, then-IRS Commissioner Johnine Mac Walters refused “to do what he considered unthinkable.”
And now, with the new IRS scandal brewing in the Obama administration, Walters, 93, spoke exclusively to David Dykes from GreenvilleOnline.com to “resume his personal quest, not for vindication, but to validate his rejection of Nixon’s ordered tactics while Walters was commissioner of Internal Revenue.”
Dykes reported Walters account of being handed the enemies list by Nixon White House counsel John Dean during the 1972 election year.
Walters was stunned by the list, he wrote in his book “Our Journey,” the article said.
The article continued the account:
Walters, in disbelief, walked out with the enemies list, a reaction he said was a mistake. A couple of days later, he showed the list to Secretary of the Treasury George Shultz, his boss, and said that in his opinion the IRS should do “absolutely nothing” with it, Walters wrote in his book and recalled in the interviews.
The secretary glanced at the list, threw it back across his desk and said, “Do it,” meaning lock it up in the commissioner’s safe and do nothing further, Walters wrote.
He personally sealed the list, locked it in the safe and told no one at the IRS he had it, Walters said.
“We did not touch a single person on that list,” he said.
“The story is interesting because the IRS wouldn’t do it,” the former director of the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum Tim Naftali said. “It didn’t happen, not because the White House didn’t want it to happen, but because people like Johnnie Walters said ‘no.’”
The Republican Walters told Dykes he is very concerned about the recent scandal involving the IRS targeting of conservative groups. The investigation into what Obama knew and when he knew it continues.
However, the article noted, Walters said, “in an administration largely remembered for its abuse of power, he stood his ground with Nixon’s aides.”
“In my opinion, of all the things I did for IRS while commissioner, the most important one was to deliver that enemies list unsealed to Larry Woodworth [then-executive director of the Joint Tax Committee],” Dykes quoted from Walters’ book. “Because then we could say with absolute certainty that IRS never began any audit or investigation of any name on that list because of the list.”
“It also kept him out of jail, Walters wrote.”
Just for comparison sake to the current IRS abuse, here is the relevant Nixon article of impeachment:
He has, acting personally and through his subordinates and agents, endeavored to obtain from the Internal Revenue Service, in violation of the constitutional rights of citizens, confidential information contained in income tax returns for purposes not authorized by law, and to cause, in violation of the constitutional rights of citizens, income tax audits or other income tax investigations to be initiated or conducted in a discriminatory manner.
Watch Walters’ interview here:
Special Prosecutor. People flip when facing jail.
Clinton used the IRS to attack people.
The one nice thing about Obama is that he makes Nixon look absolutely virtuous. Now do you miss Tricky Dick?
is Walters a Republican? I would think so as the commish is appointed.
FDR, Kennedy, Johnson and Clinton used the IRS against their enemies.
Nixon asked and got rebuffed. 2nd count on his impeachment for “endeavoring” to use the IRS in a non discriminatory method violating civilians const. rights.
I don’t think Carter ever asked, but could be wrong.
The IRS is another subsidiary of the DNC, just like the media. They were only too happy to go after every conservative group - Heritage, American Spectator, CATO, etc... - during the Clinton Administration. They weren’t going to go after anyone on behalf of a Republican, so this guy shouldn’t feel too noble about resisting.
Tricky Dick would have at least defended US interests.
“Haiphong is the major port and third largest city in North Vietnam. The majority of North Vietnam’s imports arrive through the port of Haiphong, which is connected by railroad with Hanoi. During the Vietnam War, Haiphong was a major supply depot and was heavily bombed from 1965 until 1968, when bombing was curtailed by President Johnson. During the attacks, much of the population was evacuated and the industry dispersed.”
“In 1972, the Nixon administration kindled a major controversy when the president ordered the renewal of bombing of Hanoi and Haiphong (April 16) and the mining of Haiphong Harbor as well as other harbors and inland waterways in North Vietnam (May 9). In addition, U.S. naval forces increased raids against coastal installations and put into effect a naval blockade of the North Vietnamese coastline. In a televised speech to the nation on May 8, 1972, Nixon defended his escalation of the air and sea war as crucial to cut off the flow of supplies to North Vietnamese troops fighting in the South and to protect the lives of American forces still in Vietnam. Also, Nixon contended that the raids and the minings were calculated to pressure the North Vietnamese government into resuming critical negotiations to achieve peace in Vietnam.”
Johnson suspended bombing of Hanoi and Haiphong ports in 1968. The regrettable thing about Nixon is that it took him 4 years to figure out that the little slopes were not going to bargain in good faith until they had something to lose. I heard about that time that what really did the trick were mines that were nearly undetectable and almost impossible to disarm. That is what got Lee Duc Toad off of his ass in Paris and back to the table. (Misspelling of Northviet gook negotiators name is intentional. :))
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