Free Republic

A key House GOP lawmaker says the Internal Revenue Service continued to target conservative political groups even after approving their applications for tax exempt status. … Rep. Charles Boustany of Louisiana said Wednesday that conservative groups were also subjected to special scrutiny even after their applications were approved. …

It’s “inconceivable” that President Obama was unaware that the IRS was targeting conservative groups, House Speaker John Boehner said today. “It would be inconceivable in my operation that my staff would know it and I wouldn’t,” the Ohio Republican told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos on “Good Morning America.” “It just doesn’t pass the straight-face test. How could – how can your chief of staff – your general counsel know, and you not know?” Obama has said that he first found out about the outcome of an inspector general audit when the report was released publicly, but his aides say they...

Coming out of the weekend, after a brutal week for their president, the media held tight to a little lifeboat in an ocean of bad news: Polls from CNN and The Washington Post had Obama's approval rating at 53% and 50%, respectively. But Monday was a lifetime and countless revelations ago, and today, four newer polls all show Obama's approval rating sinking below 50%. Fox News has Obama upside down with 45% approving of the president and 51% disapproving. Rasmussen shows a similar trend with 46% - 53%; as does The Economist, 45% - 51%. Gallup sits at 49% -...

Is the tea party getting its groove back? Shouts of vindication from around the country suggest the movement's leaders certainly think so. They say the IRS acknowledgement that it had targeted their groups for extra scrutiny—a claim that tea party activists had made for years—is helping pump new energy into the coalition. And they are trying to use that development, along with the ongoing controversy over the Benghazi, Libya, terrorist attacks and the Justice Department’s secret seizure of journalists’ phone records, to recruit new activists incensed about government overreach. … The tax-agency scandal—it has led to the acting IRS commissioner’s...

Hollywood couldn’t have scripted it better: A rebel group of engaged activists, derided and harassed by authorities, becomes the obsession of a powerful political machine, leading to the demise of … the machine. Now, because today’s Internal Revenue Service scandal involves rebellious conservatives pitted against a progressive government, this true story is not likely to hit the big screen. However, given the fact that misuse of the IRS was one of the charges that brought about the end of the unpopular Nixon administration, the irony of potentially having something similar happen to the press’ favorite president is sweet, indeed! Frankly,...

Cleta Mitchell, one of Washington’s most respected elections attorneys, told Newsmax she has tangible proof that high-ranking IRS officials in Washington were fully aware of the agency's campaign to target conservative groups for heightened scrutiny, despite their denials. And she thinks the president knew about the practice too. If proven, she said, it could be an impeachable offense. Mitchell, in an interview with Newsmax TV on Tuesday, said she was told by a Cincinnati IRS agent that applications by two of her conservative clients were being processed by—and would ultimately be approved or denied—in Washington. She said she also is...

The rabbit hole is getting ever deeper for the embattled IRS. Last Friday, Lois Lerner of the IRS tax-exempt-organizations division, issued an apology for the targeting of conservative groups in the screening process for 501c(4) tax-exempt status. She also claimed then that only low-level employees in a Cincinnati office had been guilty of singling out groups containing the words “tea party” or “patriot.” However, a report reviewed by both The Wall Street Journal and Reuters has indicated that the questions of who initiated the practice and how the conservative groups were targeted are more complicated than previously thought. The report...