Free Republic

Could the twin eruption of the Benghazi and IRS scandals over the past few days derail the Obama administration’s gun control agenda, despite the insistence of Vice President Joe Biden that at least four U.S. Senators are willing to revive gun regulation proposals on Capitol Hill? On a political scale, it's a cataclysm on par with the Mount St. Helens eruption a generation ago. However, President Obama reportedly said Monday morning that the IRS revelation is an "outrage" and he called the Benghazi flap a "politicdal sideshow" according to a report in the Seatte Times. He wants the IRS abusers...

Lois Lerner, the senior executive in charge of the IRS tax exemption department and the federal employee at the center of the exploding scandal over the IRS targeting of conservative, evangelical and pro-Israel non-profits, was given $42,531 in bonuses between 2009 and 2011.

In May 2011, Drew Ryun, a conservative activist and former Republican National Committee staffer, began filling out the Internal Revenue Service application to achieve nonprofit status for a new conservative watchdog group. He submitted the paperwork to the IRS in July 2011 for a research site called Media Trackers, which calls itself a "non-partisan investigative watchdog dedicated to promoting accountability in the media and government." Although the site has investigated Republicans like Ohio Gov. John Kasich and Florida Gov. Rick Scott, the site's organizers are unapologetically conservative. Eight months passed without word from the agency about the group's application, Ryun...

The same Democratic chairman of the Senate Finance Committee who this week is calling for hearings into IRS activities, specifically called on the IRS to engage in that very conduct back in 2010. And he wasn't the only one. Just last year, a group of seven Senate Democrats sent another letter to the IRS urging them to similarly investigate these outside political organizations.

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Let me start digging into this IRS Stack that I have here. UK Daily Mail: "When a Tennessee lawyer asked the IRS for tax-exempt status for a mentoring group that trained high school and college students about conservative political philosophy, the agency responded with a list of 95 questions in 31 parts, including an ultimatum for a list of everyone the group had trained, or planned to train. "'Provide details regarding all training you have provided or will provide,' the IRS demanded. 'Indicate who has received or will receive the training and submit copies of the training...

With the law suit against the IRS for Medical Records, a question arises whether conservative groups should follow suit by filing class action suits. What if, as a result, we would no longer need Freep-A-Thons. Or suppose that the NRA would have even more money to spend on TV commercials. What if the T.E.A. Party would be become a major player in the US Political system... Certainly, many pro-life groups could use the shot-in-the-arm that money from the IRS might provide. On the other side, this is contrary to conservative beliefs: government waste, i.e., having to pay out millions of...

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- Last week, the IRS admitted it targeted groups with Tea Party or patriot in their name for extra scrutiny. The groups were applying for tax exempt status. True the Vote is one group based here in Houston. True the Vote was the subject of harsh critique during the election season for some of their polling place monitoring work. Critics said it was designed to hurt Democratic candidates. It may be one of the things the IRS was looking at to keep the group from being tax exempt. But after three years of intense IRS questioning and investigations...

Conservative group says IRS approved non-profit status after applying with ‘liberal-sounding name’ The Ticket By Chris Moody, Yahoo! News | The Ticket – 46 mins ago In May 2011, Drew Ryun, a conservative activist and former Republican National Committee staffer, began filling out the Internal Revenue Service application to achieve non-profit status for a new conservative watchdog group. He submitted the paperwork to the IRS in July 2011 for a news site called Media Trackers, which calls itself a "non-partisan investigative watchdog dedicated to promoting accountability in the media and government." Although the site has investigated Republicans like Ohio Gov....

Startling allegations are emerging in the midst of the Internal Revenue Service scandal. Dr. Anne Hendershott, a devout Catholic and a noted sociologist, professor and author, says that she believes she may have been one of the IRS's targets. Hendershott claims that the IRS audited her in 2010 and demanded to know who was paying her and "what their politics were." LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Hendershott says she received a phone in May of that year in which she said she was being audited. A letter that followed on May 19, 2010 solidified the IRS's request to meet...

Via Mediaite, it took a few days but at last we have some fall guys. It’s ludicrous, of course, to think the problem was limited to two people — the IG report last night specifically blamed ineffective management and, as Guy Benson reminds us, we already know that knowledge of the harassment went all the way up the chain — but pay attention to the fine print in the video clip at 1:22. Miller, the commissioner, apparently acknowledged that the IRS’s mishandling of this went beyond the two “rogues.” Evidently they’re setting up to put most of the blame on...