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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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To: plain talk

The only reason this came out is because it takes headlines off Benghazi. You can’t impeach someone for incompetence or lousy oversight. Benghazi has impeach written all over it. This is a scandal, but I don’t think there is any there here at least for Obama.


61 posted on 05/17/2013 6:41:44 AM PDT by When do we get liberated? (A socialist is a communist who realizes he must suck at the tit of Capitalism.)
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To: SueRae

Amen Sister and thanks for fighting!

LLS


62 posted on 05/17/2013 6:58:18 AM PDT by LibLieSlayer (FROM MY COLD, DEAD HANDS!)
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To: Biggirl

It’s way over due.


63 posted on 05/17/2013 7:08:09 AM PDT by Venturer
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To: SueRae
I’m done with the nicey-nice crap. Hold those Town meetings again THIS year, it will make 2009 and 2010 look like an ice cream social.

Right on, right on!

64 posted on 05/17/2013 7:26:36 AM PDT by Jane Long (While Marxists continue the fundamental transformation of the USA, progressive RINOs stay silent.)
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To: SueRae

Little Friday research project, for anyone who might be interested ( as I am ) and has the time.

There was a similar IRS scandal during the Clinton years. Tapered off, maybe overshadowed by Lewinsky ( or the gvt shutdown in the first term) At the time the IRS said that Conservative groups were being targeted only because IRS agents were picking out targets from groups named in the press. Since Conservative groups got more press coverage, they’d naturally end up being targeted more ...


65 posted on 05/17/2013 7:35:14 AM PDT by tanknetter
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To: Democrat_media; SueRae
It’s the crime and the cover up

OBAMA using the IRS to rig the election ,to shut down the tea party so he’d win, to audit Republican donors etc. those are huge crimes

. . . but as this most excellent article (which I would have posted if you hadn’t, thanks SueRae) makes as its main point,
The use by a president of innuendo to smear private citizens who have never been convicted of anything is malfeasance.
Consider Obama’s comment, "If I had a son, he'd look like Trayvon,” as an example. What federal action might not flow from that!

Theoretically we have a presumption of innocence. But if you get to be too inconvenient, or too convenient a target, to Barak Obama . . .

Any defendant who has been smeared by the president should be able to put the onus on the government to prove that the prosecution is not manifesting “fear or favor” towards the president. The criterion for conviction should rise from “beyond a reasonable doubt” up almost to “philosophical certainty.”

66 posted on 05/17/2013 8:30:42 AM PDT by conservatism_IS_compassion (“Liberalism” is a conspiracy against the public by wire-service journalism.)
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To: sandboxshooter

You pin a couple of the lower ranks and they will sing. Works in street crime all the time...and this is far far worse.


67 posted on 05/17/2013 1:08:03 PM PDT by SueRae (It isn't over. In God We Trust.)
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