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An End to Fair Elections
Townhall.com ^ | February 13, 2014 | Betsy McCaughey

Posted on 02/13/2014 10:31:44 AM PST by Kaslin

The Obama administration and New York's senior senator , Democrat Chuck Schumer, are conspiring to muzzle critics of the Democratic Party before this fall's midterm elections. Literally to outlaw free speech. They are rushing through a change in IRS regulations that would prevent Tea Party organizations and other not-for-profits called 501c4s from engaging in customary pre-election activities such as get-out-the vote drives, debates and forums, and brochures rating the candidates. The regulation would even prohibit these groups from criticizing incumbent office-holders within 60 days of a general election ..

This regulation would destroy fair elections. It would silence 501c4s, many of which support Republican causes, while imposing no restraints on labor unions, the shadow army of the Democratic Party. Unions are exempt. They will be free to use phone banking, door-to-door canvassing, and advertising for their candidates, while Tea Party groups are gagged. . It's like letting one football team suit up for the game, while barring the rival team from wearing shoes or helmets.

Schumer laid out the plan in a speech on January 23, 2014. He bashed Tea Partiers as "a small but extreme part of America," called their commitment to smaller government "quack medicine" and said their "undue power" and "stranglehold over our politics and policies" must be broken.

He said, "It is clear we will not pass anything legislatively as long as the House of Representatives is in Republican control but there are many things that can be done administratively by the IRS..." .

The proposed IRS regulation Schumer is advocating would trample the U.S. Constitution's guarantee of free speech and assembly. Moreover, it far exceeds how federal law allows the IRS to constrain the political activities of non-profits. In short, it is a lawless attack on political speech.

Schumer's intolerance toward his political rivals makes you wonder whether he belongs in the U.S. Senate. at all, much less chairing the committee overseeing voting rights and election law. God help us.

Schumer shows no shame over siccing the IRS on his political rivals. The Obama administration, on the other hand, claims on the pages of the Federal Register that the proposed regulation is needed because of the "lack of a clear and concise" set of rules about what non-profits can do. That's a lie.

The IRS has used the same rules to grant tax exempt status since 1959, and applications were processed without confusion until 2010. That, apparently, was when Lois Lerner, Director of the Tax Exempt Division at the IRS, began singling out groups bearing the words “ tea party” or “patriot” for scrutiny and harassment. The proposed regulation would codify the abusive tactics she tried to hide by pleading the Fifth before Congress last spring.

The IRS scandal is not over. It’s just beginning. Congressmen Darrell Issa called the proposed regulation “a veiled attempt to stifle the exercise of constitutionally protected peech". Numerous Republican lawmakers asked the newly appointed IRS Commissioner John Koskinen to withdraw the regulation. But Koskinen was noncommittal, saying he could only do what is in his control.

That is the problem. This is not an IRS scandal. President Obama and Democratic Party chieftain Chuck Schumer are willing to sacrifice the fairness of our two party system -- the jewel in America's crown -- to push through their agenda. How else to explain the failure of the FBI, tasked with investigating IRS abuses, to ever interview even one alleged victim? Yet Obama shrugs that there wasn’t a smidgen of corruption.

Not a smidgen? An overflowing cauldron. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp (R.MI) vowed last week that “the Committee will fight any and all efforts to restrict the rights of groups to organize, speak-out and educate the public, just as unions are allowed to do.” Sounds good. But what can one house of Congress do? The president has a vast regulatory machinery to make a sham of the 2014 elections and all this nation stands for.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Editorial; Politics/Elections; US: New York
KEYWORDS: betsymccaughey; chuckieschumer; demonrats; electionfraud; elections; freespeech; mccaughey; riggedelections; schumer

1 posted on 02/13/2014 10:31:44 AM PST by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

With spineless Republicans in Congress, Democrats do what they want whenever they want and get away with it. What laws? There is no representation for the American people.


2 posted on 02/13/2014 10:35:11 AM PST by Dapper 26
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To: Kaslin
n/p..USAG E. Holder et al, is still in charge of 'Rat voter fraud.

3 posted on 02/13/2014 10:38:32 AM PST by skinkinthegrass (The end move in politics is always to pick up a gun..0'Caligula / 0'Reid / 0'Pelosi)
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To: Kaslin; COUNTrecount; Nowhere Man; FightThePower!; C. Edmund Wright; jacob allen; Travis McGee; ...

Nut-job Conspiracy Theory Ping!

To get onto The Nut-job Conspiracy Theory Ping List you must threaten to report me to the Mods if I don't add you to the list...

4 posted on 02/13/2014 10:44:12 AM PST by null and void (<--- unwilling cattle-car passenger on the bullet train to serfdom)
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To: Kaslin

Memo to author:
Elections are already rigged....that horse has left the barn....


5 posted on 02/13/2014 10:47:00 AM PST by matginzac
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To: Dapper 26

The republicans WANT the TEA PARTY destroyed... they are not gutless... they are IN ON IT!


6 posted on 02/13/2014 11:00:48 AM PST by LibLieSlayer (FROM MY COLD, DEAD HANDS! BETTER DEAD THAN RED!)
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To: Kaslin

This is a direct result of allowing Obastard to use the IRS as a weapon against his political enemies. They are codifying the very acts Lois Lerner took the Fifth to prevent admitting.


7 posted on 02/13/2014 11:04:20 AM PST by Cyber Liberty (H.L. Mencken: "The urge to save humanity is almost always a false front for the urge to rule.")
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To: Kaslin
Schumer's intolerance toward his political rivals makes you wonder whether he belongs in the U.S. Senate.

He belongs on Dancing With The Stars.

Dancing the Tyburn Jig.

8 posted on 02/13/2014 11:12:34 AM PST by DuncanWaring (The Lord uses the good ones; the bad ones use the Lord.)
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To: Kaslin

Schumer’s intolerance toward his political rivals makes you wonder whether he belongs in the U.S. Senate. at all

There is not a doubt in my mind, he should be in jail.
Of course this attitude of his is a plus for democrats.


9 posted on 02/13/2014 11:17:36 AM PST by tet68 ( " We would not die in that man's company, that fears his fellowship to die with us...." Henry V.)
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To: Kaslin

BTTT!


10 posted on 02/13/2014 11:28:48 AM PST by neverdem (Register pressure cookers! /s)
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To: null and void

dad gum it. you just can’t trust those tea party folks can you?


11 posted on 02/13/2014 7:54:19 PM PST by Nifster
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To: Dapper 26; matginzac; LibLieSlayer
It all makes sense if the DC denizens are considered to be members of one party, the uniparty.

We send Tea Partiers, and half go rino or worse.

It is flat out silly to think, as many at FR do, future voting alone can reverse what voting in the past has not.

12 posted on 02/14/2014 1:52:25 AM PST by Jacquerie (An Article V state amendment convention is our only hope.)
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To: Kaslin

If you’re involved in the Tea Party, 9/12, or ANY other grassroots groups, the new IRS rules will make it ILLEGAL for you to:

Mention a candidate up for re-election within 60 days of an election. That includes every single member of the House of Representatives – you won’t be able petition your own representatives.
Register voters.
Call for the election or defeat of a political candidate.
Hold candidate forums so voters can decide who would best represent them.


13 posted on 02/14/2014 7:27:30 AM PST by KeyLargo
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To: Jacquerie

Well, I don’t begrudge anyone their need for hope...
But I hear you...my hope is gone that we ever have a “clean” national election again.


14 posted on 02/14/2014 9:39:53 AM PST by matginzac
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