IRS Continues to Lie to Congress

"You folks didn't think I was kidding when I said I was going use the government to punish my enemies, did you?"

A good write-up from Investors Business Daily. Check out the whole thing at this link.

From IBD:

The tangled web of IRS deceit unravels a bit more with news recycled backup tapes of lost emails still exist and statements before a federal judge that Lois Lerner's hard drive was irreparably damaged were untrue. 

Deliberately destroying evidence pertaining to the investigation of possible criminal activity is a crime. So is lying about it to Congress and the courts as part of a cover-up of that activity.  

[...]  

In response, the IRS said under oath that the hard drive from Lerner's computer was destroyed and recycled, echoing earlier testimony from Commissioner John Koskinen.
The reason given for Lerner's hard drive — possibly containing incriminating emails from and to the former head of the IRS Tax Exempt division — being destroyed and recycled, according to the IRS in the affidavit, was that a team of its technical experts had determined the drive was irreparably damaged and had to be recycled. 

Except that was not true. 

On Tuesday, House Ways and Means Committee investigators said that they had a chance to talk to the technical experts inside the IRS who actually examined Lerner's computer, and that the experts said the hard drive in question was merely "scratched" and most of the data on it was indeed recoverable.  

[...]  

As we and others have noted, the desire to use the IRS to punish political enemies was one of the articles of impeachment against President Nixon. 

That President Obama's IRS may have actually been doing it, we believe, is sufficient motive to go along with the opportunity the IRS had to destroy the incriminating evidence that was possibly one of the reasons Lerner pleaded the Fifth Amendment in testimony before Congress.

Lawlessness, using the wheels of government agencies to intimidate and "punish" political adversaries, all the while blaming the opposition for making up phony scandals. Just another day in the Obama presidency. Well that and a lot of snarky comments and golfing...

WSJ: Why Would Democrats Circle the Wagons Around IRS after Feigned Outrage at the IRS Scandal?

"Look, my administration and its minions merely pick on racists and sellouts. Okay? They have it coming. Because voting is the best revenge. And, by the way, that's why voter ID laws are racist. This all makes sense if you think 'correctly'"

A good question.

From The Wall Street Journal piece by Kimberly A. Strassel:

Democrats quickly dropped any feigned outrage over IRS targeting and circled the wagons around the agency. Why? The targeting was outrageous, the public was fuming, and nobody likes the IRS. Joining with Republicans would have only been right and popular.   

That is, unless Democrats are worried. As the Camp [House Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp] timeline and details show, the IRS responded to liberal calls to go after conservative groups. Democrats weren't just sending letters. Little noticed in the immediate aftermath of the IRS scandal was a letter sent May 23, 2013, by Carl Levin and (Republican) John McCain to the new acting director of the IRS disguised as an expression of outrage over IRS targeting. Artfully hidden within it was Mr. Levin's acknowledgment that his subcommittee on investigations had for a full year been corresponding and meeting with IRS staff (including Ms. Lerner) to ask "why it was not enforcing the 501(c)(4) statute."  

What was said in the course of that year? How much specific information was demanded on conservative groups, and how many demands dispensed on how to handle them? Good questions.  

In 2012, both the IRS and Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings were targeting the group True the Vote. We now have email showing contact between a Cummings staffer and the IRS over that organization. How much more contact was there? It's one thing to write a public letter calling on a regulator to act. It's another to haul the regulator in front of your committee, or have your staff correspond with or pressure said regulator, with regard to ongoing actions. That's a no-no.  

The final merit of Mr. Camp's letter is that he's called out Justice and Democrats. Mr. Camp was careful in laying out the ways Ms. Lerner may have broken the law, with powerful details. Democrats can't refute the facts, so instead they are howling about all manner of trivia—the release of names, the "secret" vote to release taxpayer information. But it remains that they are putting themselves on record in support of IRS officials who target groups, circumvent rules, and potentially break the law. That ought to go down well with voters.

But Obama assured us it was just some rogues in Cincinnati and then later that there wasn't an smidgen of evidence about all this.

Could the Obama-in-chief have lied to the American people?! Say it ain't so.

Rep. Elijah Cummings Linked to IRS Scandal

Rep. Elijah Cummings (D)

Surprised? You shouldn't be. Obama and the Democrats were adamant about maintaining control of the presidency, and obsessed with keeping political power out of the hands of the rising conservative factions in America. Breaking laws meant for little people is all in a days work for these people.

Besides what's the point of political power if you can't lord it over your lessers. Isn't that right Rep. Cummings?

From the Washington Examiner's article by Susan Ferrechio:

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., has accused the panel's top Democrat of prompting the Internal Revenue Service in 2012 to target a conservative organization applying for non-profit status. 

Issa said records obtained last week from the IRS show communications from the office of ranking member Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., about True the Vote, a Texas-based, non-profit conservative group that aims to prevent voter fraud.  

The communications at one point involved Lois Lerner, the ex-IRS official whom Issa's panel is poised to hold in contempt of Congress on Thursday for refusing to provide testimony about her involvement in targeting conservative groups. 

“The IRS and the Oversight Minority made numerous requests for virtually identical information from True the Vote, raising concerns that the IRS improperly shared protected taxpayer information with Rep. Cummings’ staff,” a statement from the Oversight panel reads. 

According to Issa, Cummings and his staff sought “copies of all training materials used for volunteers, affiliates, or other entities,” from True the Vote. 

Five days after the Cummings inquiry, the IRS sent True the Vote an email requesting “a copy of [True the Vote’s] volunteer registration form,” “… the process you use to assign volunteers,” “how you keep your volunteers in teams,” and “how your volunteers are deployed … following the training they receive by you.” 

Issa said Cummings and his office asked for more information in January 2013 about True the Vote, this time getting Lerner involved. 

At one point, an email revealed, Lerner asked her deputy, “Did we find anything?” 

When the deputy said she had not received any new information, Lerner responded, “thanks – check tomorrow please.” 

Issa said Cummings had previously denied asking the IRS about True the Vote. 

At a February subcommittee hearing, when Issa asked whether his office may have put True the Vote “on the radar screen” of the IRS, Cummings said the accusation was “absolutely incorrect and untrue.”

How can there be any question that the partisan IRS was targeting conservative groups?

From Jim Hoft at The Gateway Pundit:

The IRS Conservative Targeting Scandal involved:

• Hundreds of conservative groups were targeted
• At least 5 pro-Israel groups
• Constitutional groups
• Groups that criticized Obama administration
• At least two pro-life groups
• An 83 year-old Nazi concentration camp survivor
• A 180 year-old Baptist paper
• A Texas voting-rights group
• A Hollywood conservative group was targeted and harassed
• Conservative activists and businesses
• At least one conservative Hispanic group
• IRS continued to target groups even after the scandal was exposed
• And… 100% of the 501(c)(4) Groups Audited by IRS Were Conservative

The only real question is who was responsible. I'm sure it all has nothing to do with Obama and IRS official Sarah Hall Ingram's 155 visits to the White House.

Shocker: IRS Offices Firmly Side with Obama and Democrats

"The IRS dares to dream, dares to see the coming age of light. It will be a a glorious era of enlightenment... where federal bureaucrats shall reign over the huddled masses of pathetic non-government workers."

The IRS has become Obama's political attack dogs. Doubtlessly, their partisan attacks and leaks of Republicans' tax records and donor lists influenced the presidential race and very possibly changed the outcome.Would you expect anything else?

From The Washington Times article by Stephan Dinan (via Drudge):

Even as the IRS faces growing heat over Lois G. Lerner and the tea party targeting scandal, a government watchdog said Wednesday it’s pursuing cases against three other tax agency employees and offices suspected of illegal political activity in support of President Obama and fellow Democrats. 

In one case the Office of Special Counsel, which investigates federal employees who conduct politics on government time, said it was “commonplace” in a Dallas IRS office for employees to have pro-Obama screensavers on their computers, and to have campaign-style buttons and stickers at their office.  

In another case, a worker at the tax agency’s customer help line urged taxpayers “to re-elect President Obama in 2012 by repeatedly reciting a chant based on the spelling of his last name,” the Office of Special Counsel said in a statement. 

OSC said it is seeking “significant disciplinary action” against that employee. 

Another IRS employee in Kentucky has agreed to serve a 14-day suspension for blasting Republicans in a conversation with a taxpayer.  

“They’re going to take women back 40 years,” the IRS employee said in a conversation that was recorded. The employee also said that “if you vote for a Republican, the rich are going to get richer and the poor are going to get poorer.”

[...]  

The federal Hatch Act prohibits most government employees from conducting politics on government time. OSC is charged with looking into those violations.   

The accusations come as the IRS is still facing tough questions from House Republicans over its targeting of conservative groups seeking nonprofit status.

I'm sure it's just some individuals that just happen to work there and not a systemic/cultural problem caused by public sector unions. I mean suggesting that would just be crazy talk. Right, Wisconsin and Scott Walker?

DOJ Refuses Request for Special Prosecutor in IRS Scandal

"A Democrat partisan investigating Democrats suppressing their political opposition? I see no conflict here. I mean... enemies have to be punished."

What?! Holder the partisan hack is refusing to investigate partisan attacks from the White House?

Shocker.

From Breitbart:

The Holder Department of Justice (DOJ) rejected a request from Texas Senator Ted Cruz to appoint a special prosecutor for the investigation into the IRS scandal in a letter released this week. The DOJ argued that it saw no apparent conflict of interest with its current investigator Barbara Bosserman—who has contributed thousands of dollars to Obama and other Democrats according to recent Breitbart News reports.  

Despite the DOJ's denial of his request, the junior Texas Senator's office said it will not give up the fight to hold the Obama Administration accountable. A Cruz spokesperson told Breitbart Texas, "We will certainly push back...This is an issue that Cruz remains committed to." 

In response to the DOJ's denial of his request, Cruz said in a statement, "It is the height of hypocrisy for the Obama Administration to claim that the investigator leading the investigation into the IRS's illegal program has no conflict of interest. The investigator is a partisan Democrat who has donated over six thousand dollars to President Obama and Democrat causes… Nobody should trust a partisan Obama donor to investigate the IRS's political targeting of President Obama's enemies." 

Cruz sent his initial request to Attorney General Eric Holder on January 22. He wrote in a letter, "It strains credulity to say that, out of the over 114,000 employees of the Department of Justice, the only possible choice to lead the investigation was a major political donor to President Obama. This, on its face, is a significant conflict of interest... General Holder... I would ask you to immediately appoint a special prosecutor, with meaningful independence, to investigate the IRS' illegal targeting of conservative groups."  

Nearly two months later on March 10, the DOJ responded to Cruz in writing. A letter signed by Peter J. Kadzik, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General, said that the appointment of a special prosecutor "is not warranted." Kadzik admitted in his letter that such an appointment is permitted when a DOJ investigation presents a conflict of interest--but he denied the presence of any such conflict. Bosserman's name was not mentioned in the letter. [emphasis mine]

Holder is the worst attorney general in recent history. His "Fast and Furious" programs resulted in hundreds of deaths in Mexico and several in the U.S. It's hardly surprising that the Obama flunky is denying a special prosecutor, but it helps that this request forces the DOJ to dig themselves a little deeper into the muck over the IRS scandal.

Obama's Politicizing of the IRS to Attack Domestic "Enemies"

"All of you are to be punished at my whim. Such is the way of the Light-bringer."

Remember, it's all about division, enemies and revenge.

From George Will at The Washington Post: (h/t Instapundit):

The most intrusive and potentially most punitive federal agency has been politicized; the IRS has become an appendage of Barack Obama’s party. Furthermore, congruent with exhortations from some congressional Democrats, it is intensifying its efforts to suffocate groups critical of progressives, by delaying what once was the swift, routine granting of tax-exempt status.  

So, the IRS, far from repenting of its abusive behavior, is trying to codify the abuses. It hopes to nullify with new rules the existing legal right of 501(c)(4) groups, many of which are conservative, to participate in politics. The proposed rules have drawn more than 140,000 comments, most of them complaints, some from liberals wary of IRS attempts to broadly define “candidate-related political activity” and to narrow the permissible amount of this.  

Lerner is, so far, the face of this use of government to punish political adversaries. She knows what her IRS unit did and how it intersects with the law, and for a second time she has exercised her constitutional right to remain silent rather than risk self-incrimination. The public has a right to make reasonable inferences from her behavior.  

And from Obama’s. After calling the IRS behavior “outrageous,” he now says there is not a “smidgen” of evidence of anything to be outraged about. He knows this even though the supposed investigation of the IRS behavior has not been completed, or perhaps even begun. The person he chose to investigate his administration is an administration employee and a generous donor to his campaigns.  

Obama breezily says there was nothing more sinister than “boneheaded decisions” by wayward and anonymous IRS underlings. Certainly boneheadedness explains much about this administration. Still, does he consider it interesting that the consequences of IRS boneheadedness were not randomly distributed but thwarted conservatives?  

[...]  

Speaking of questions: Can anyone identify a Democratic Senate candidate whose tax records were leaked, as Christine O’Donnell’s were when she was the Republican candidate in Delaware in 2010? Is it a coincidence that in January 2011, after Catherine Engelbrecht requested tax-exempt status for two conservative groups she founded in Texas — King Street Patriots and True the Vote — the Engelbrecht family business was notified of its first IRS audit? Does James Comey wonder why (this was before he became FBI director), five months after Engelbrecht’s tax-exemption request, FBI agents appeared seeking information about attendees at the King Street Patriots meetings? Were five subsequent FBI contacts “checking in” for “updates” on the group’s activities really necessary? Why did the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives show a sudden intrusive interest in the Engelbrechts’ business, which has nothing to do with alcohol or tobacco or firearms or explosives? [emphasis mine]

I know most people are reluctant to believe this, but Obama and the Democrats have turned the agencies of the government into instruments of political punishment and intimidation. After the economically disastrous policies of the Obama Administration, the White House made a calculated decision to use executive government agencies to squelch criticism and attack political rivals.

This really shouldn't be a surprise to anyone familiar with the thought of the American Left. The Left has thrived on the strategies of division (divisions based in gender, race, economic levels, etc.) and assigning blame-- as Obama has exemplified repeatedly during his presidency. And an unfortunate but predictable result of these strategies is anger, and a usually misplaced self-righteous indignation.

Both play heavily into the Obama and Democrats' illegal attacks against conservatives and whoever they deem worthy of their ire. You see, the Left attacks conservatives because the Left truly, truly believes that conservatives deserve to be punished for whatever sleights they can creatively conjure up-- and they are thoroughly trained in that rather dubious skill. Be it "White privilege," historical wrongs seen through the light of today's mores (going back to The Crusades and well beyond), or simple lies designed to infuriate (for example "Lee Daniels' The Butler" as I've mentioned before), the Left has produced legions of people well-trained at finding fault to focus their ire and who now levy political punishments.

It will not stop, until all of those responsible within our government are held accountable for this deliberate targeting-- no matter how high the responsibility lies. And it is a fantasy that the buck stops with Lerner.

The WSJ Has an Interesting Timeline Regarding the IRS Scandal

"The Light-bringer has no time for false controversies and fake scandals. I'm too busy trying to find that filmmaker that started that protest in Benghazi."

Gee, when you lay it all out like this, it looks as there may be smidgen of a scandal and a touch of an abuse of power.

From Bradley A. Smith at The Wall Street Journal (h/t Instapundit):

Now consider the following events, all of which were either widely reported, publicly released by officeholders or revealed later in testimony to Congress. These are the dots the media refuse to connect:  

• Jan. 27, 2010: President Obama criticizes Citizens United in his State of the Union address and asks Congress to "correct" the decision.  

• Feb. 11, 2010: Sen. Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) says he will introduce legislation known as the Disclose Act to place new restrictions on some political activity by corporations and force more public disclosure of contributions to 501(c)(4) organizations. Mr. Schumer says the bill is intended to "embarrass companies" out of exercising the rights recognized in Citizens United. "The deterrent effect should not be underestimated," he said.  

• Soon after, in March 2010, Mr. Obama publicly criticizes conservative 501(c)(4) organizations engaging in politics. In his Aug. 21 radio address, he warns Americans about "shadowy groups with harmless sounding names" and a "corporate takeover of our democracy." 

• Sept. 28, 2010: Mr. Obama publicly accuses conservative 501(c)(4) organizations of "posing as not-for-profit, social welfare and trade groups." Max Baucus, then chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, asks the IRS to investigate 501(c)(4)s, specifically citing Americans for Job Security, an advocacy group that says its role is to "put forth a pro-growth, pro-jobs message to the American people."  

• Oct. 11, 2010: Sen. Dick Durbin (D., Ill.) asks the IRS to investigate the conservative 501(c)(4) Crossroads GPS and "other organizations."  

• April 2011: White House officials confirm that Mr. Obama is considering an executive order that would require all government contractors to disclose their donations to politically active organizations as part of their bids for government work. The proposal is later dropped amid opposition across the political spectrum. 

• Feb. 16, 2012: Seven Democratic senators— Michael Bennet (Colo.), Al Franken (Minn.), Jeff Merkley (Ore.), Mr. Schumer, Jeanne Shaheen (N.H.), Tom Udall (N.M.) and Sheldon Whitehouse (R.I.)—write to the IRS asking for an investigation of conservative 501(c)(4) organizations.  

• March 12, 2012: The same seven Democrats write another letter asking for further investigation of conservative 501(c)(4)s, claiming abuse of their tax status. 

• July 27, 2012: Sen. Carl Levin (D., Mich.) writes one of several letters to then-IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman seeking a probe of nine conservative groups, plus two liberal and one centrist organization. In 2013 testimony to the HouseOversight and Government Reform Committee, former IRS Acting Commissioner Steven Miller describes Sen. Levin as complaining "bitterly" to the IRS and demanding investigations. 

• Aug. 31, 2012: In another letter to the IRS, Sen. Levin calls its failure to investigate and prosecute targeted organizations "unacceptable." 

• Dec. 14, 2012: The liberal media outlet ProPublica receives Crossroads GPS's 2010 application for tax-exempt status from the IRS. Because the group's tax-exempt status had not been recognized, the application was confidential. ProPublica publishes the full application. It later reports that it received nine confidential pending applications from IRS agents, six of which it published. None of the applications was from a left-leaning organization. 

• April 9, 2013: Sen. Whitehouse convenes the Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism to examine nonprofits. He alleges that nonprofits are violating federal law by making false statements about their political activities and donors and using shell companies to donate to super PACs to hide donors' identities. He berates Patricia Haynes, then-deputy chief of Criminal Investigation at the IRS, for not prosecuting conservative nonprofits.  

• May 10, 2013: Sen. Levin announces that the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations will hold hearings on "the IRS's failure to enforce the law requiring that tax-exempt 501(c)(4)s be engaged exclusively in social welfare activities, not partisan politics." Three days later he postpones the hearings when Lois Lerner (then-director of the IRS Exempt Organizations Division) reveals that the IRS had been targeting and delaying the applications of conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.  

• Nov. 29, 2013: The IRS proposes new rules redefining "political activity" to include activities such as voter-registration drives and the production of nonpartisan legislative scorecards to restrict what the agency deems as excessive spending on campaigns by tax-exempt 501(c)(4) groups. Even many liberal nonprofits argue that the rule goes too far in limiting their political activity—but the main target appears to be the conservative 501(c)(4)s that have so irritated Democrats. 

• Feb. 13, 2014: The Hill newspaper reports that "Senate Democrats facing tough elections this year want the Internal Revenue Service to play a more aggressive role in regulating outside groups expected to spend millions of dollars on their races."

Oh, who does The Wall Street Journal trying to kid... There's not a smidgen of evidence to outraged over. It was all just some misguided patriots in Cincinnati...

IRS Scandal Continues-- Rep. Camp: 100% of Groups Audited by IRS Were Right-Leaning

"Anyone who believes that the Light-bringer would use the IRS to intimidate and harass political opponents is a racist. The IRS hates racists."

From The Wall Street Journal piece by John D. McKinnon: (h/t Sweetness & Light)

A Republican House committee chairman said the Internal Revenue Service targeted tax-exempt conservative groups for audits, widening the scope of GOP ire over the agency’s oversight of political activities. 

House Democrats pushed back, saying Republicans were seeking to use the IRS controversy to score political points with their conservative base in an election year.
The IRS has been under scrutiny since an inspector general’s report last May found that the agency had targeted conservative groups for lengthy and heavy-handed review of their applications to become tax-exempt organizations under section 501(c) 4 of the tax code. The controversy led to significant management shakeups at the IRS and generated a slew of congressional investigations, some of which are still going on. 

On Tuesday, House Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp [sic] (R., Mich.) said his committee’s continuing investigation has found that the IRS also singled out established conservative tax-exempt groups for audits. 

“We now know that the IRS targeted not only right-leaning applicants, but also right-leaning groups that were already operating as 501(c)(4)s,” Mr. Camp said in a statement. “At Washington, DC’s direction, dozens of groups operating as 501(c)(4)s were flagged for IRS surveillance, including monitoring of the groups’ activities, websites and any other publicly available information. Of these groups, 83% were right-leaning. And of the groups the IRS selected for audit, 100% were right-leaning.” [emphasis mine]

Okay, so 100% of the groups targeted and audited by the IRS during a tight election were right-leaning. That proves nothing.

Furthermore, Obama has assured all of us that this is a fake scandal... right after he was done being "outraged" by it.

Just how much of Obama's crap are we supposed to believe? You know...disbelieve and not be considered racist.

Tea Party Groups Tell Congress Harassment Continues

"Bow before me and my golden halo. And remember dissenters will visited by the ATF, OSHA, FBI, EPA, etc. Oh, and you're all racist!"

But Obama reassured us that there wasn't any harassment in the first place...

From The Washington Examiner:

Tea Party officials told a congressional panel Thursday they are still being targeted for harassment despite claims by President Obama and top IRS officials that the illegal activities were stopped last year. 

“It's shocking, it's repugnant, it's infuriating,” Becky Gerritson told a subcommittee of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. “And most troubling of all, those responsible have not stopped.” 

Gerritson is president of the Wetumpka Tea Party Inc. in Wetumpka, Ala. She said IRS officials demanded names of everybody who attended the group's meetings, as well as names of donors, texts of speeches given and biographies of the speakers.   

The Wetumpka group applied for 501(c)(4) non-profit status in May 2010 but was not approved until July 2012. The process normally takes only a few months. 

Catherine Englebrecht described the government's response to her Houston-based True the Vote group's nonprofit application in 2009 as “the weaponization of government.”
She said she and her husband experienced multiple business and personal tax audits, as well as visits by officials from the FBI, OSHA, ATF and EPA. 

Neither she nor her husband had ever before been audited, and their 20-year-old high-tech manufacturing business had no previous OSHA inspections. 

“All of these incursions into my affairs began after filing applications for tax exemption,” Englebret said. “There is no other remarkable event, no other reason, to explain away how for decades I went unnoticed but now find myself on the receiving end of inter-agency coordination into and against all facets of my life, both public and private.” 

The hearing was the latest round in an intensifying battle between President Obama and House Republicans following a senior IRS official's admission in May 2013 that the tax agency had targeted and harassed more than 200 Tea Party, conservative and evangelical groups during the 2010 and 2012 campaigns. Only seven liberal groups were subjected to similar treatment. 

Obama initially described the IRS actions as “unacceptable” and promised a full investigation, but more recently he has called the controversy “a phony scandal.”
In an interview with Fox News' Bill O'Reilly that was broadcast before last Sunday's Super Bowl activities, Obama said there “isn't a smidgen of evidence” of corruption in the scandal.

Clearly there's no political harassment here. Obama said there "isn't a smidgen of evidence." So now I'm convinced.

Obama's political harassment is beneath contempt. This is kind of crap that Argentina would pull back in the day-- prior to the military dictatorship following Peron. It is unacceptable by any people in a free-thinking country.

But hey... it's racist to disagree with Obama. Or something.

Has FBI Become Just Another Political Crony Organization?

"Hey, it's only against the law if someone is there to enforce the law."

A more appropriate question might be, could it be anything else while under the auspices of a political crony like Eric Holder?

From an editorial in Investor's Business Daily:

According to a leak to the Wall Street Journal, the Federal Bureau of Investigation "didn't find the kind of political bias or 'enemy hunting' that would amount to a violation of criminal law." And so, nobody was likely to be prosecuted for the most blatant politicization of a federal agency within memory. 

All the Bureau found was a "mismanaged" agency that enforced rules "it didn't understand." In other words, nothing to see here, move along. 

That's strange stuff for an agency whose most implicated regulator, Lois Lerner, invoked her Fifth Amendment rights against self incrimination in congressional testimony last year. That she came to congressional attention was only because of her calculated announcement that the IRS had in fact targeted Tea Party groups for special scrutiny — that's right, admitted to breaking the law — in a preemptive attempt to paint her abuse of power as a customer service problem. 

Her minions lied that it was only the work of low-level bureaucratic bumblers in Cincinnati. And after that sleazy string of favors that coincidentally benefited her president, she was permitted to retire on a full pension. 

The reality is, the acts reeked of political targeting, the most illegal of acts, a corrupt use of government power, and a worthy target of checks and balances provided by the FBI in the name of law and order. 

But for some reason, the FBI has neither interviewed the Tea Party activists targeted for intrusive scrutiny, nor has it noticed anything amiss in light of the White House's rabid attacks on Tea Party activists. It hasn't noticed the Tea Party's demonstrable political strength in its large gatherings during the most intense period of its political targeting, nor noted the president's record of "joking" about investigating political opponents.
And it hasn't picked up the clue from the Center for Responsive Politics showing that IRS employees donated to Obama's campaign by more than 2 to 1 over Tea Party-tied Republicans — let alone that the prosecutor chosen by the president to look into this case is a fat-cat donor to Obama.  

[...]  

It's interesting to note that Rep. Darrell Issa of California announced Tuesday that a top FBI official suddenly won't cooperate with the House Oversight Committee after meeting with a top Justice Department political appointee. Issa says the FBI is stonewalling. 

Back in 1974, the IRS was fulsomely praised for resisting President Nixon's orders to investigate his political foes. Today, it's held some 100 White House meetings over the course of the Tea Party's political ascent and been caught red-handed persecuting them.
As for the FBI, its fall is even more disturbing. It was once was known for its squeaky clean image and willingness to enforce the law without fear or favor. 

Today, it's slid so far into the Washington morass it no longer considers law enforcement its prime mission. About a week ago, it quite questionably declared its top mission "national security" — an abrogation of its congressionally mandated mission. 

As such, can the public now trust the FBI or the IRS? 

"The growth of government has been accompanied by increasing cronyism that has undermined the rule of law and perceptions of fairness," wrote the Heritage Foundation in its latest ranking of global economic freedom, in which the U.S. fell out the top 10. 

If the FBI won't enforce the law anymore, who will?
 

The IRS scandal stinks all along the line. Obama's victory will always have an asterisk behind it. Using the IRS, EPA, and other alphabet soup federal organizations to intimidate donors and organizers, in an attempt to disrupt a rival's campaign is some of the most thuggish tactics used my modern American presidents. Obama is a disgrace.

Reuters: FBI doesn't plan charges over IRS scrutiny of Tea Party

 

"The Light-bringer of Dreams gives orders, and the Justice Department obeys. So it is now, and it shall always be,"

Of course not. Eric Holder is heading up the Justice Department. If it was up too him, Holder would jail all of the Tea Party for daring to disagree with Obama.

There will be no real answers until (and if) there's an IG investigation.

From Reuters (h/t Instapundit):

The FBI is not planning to file criminal charges involving the Internal Revenue Service's extra scrutiny of the Tea Party and other conservative groups, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, citing law enforcement officials. 

The newspaper quoted officials as saying that investigators probing the IRS actions, which unleashed a political furor in Washington, did not uncover the type of political bias or "enemy hunting" that would constitute a criminal violation. The evidence showed a mismanaged agency enforcing rules it did not understand on applications for tax exemptions, the Journal reported.  

[...]  

In May, a senior IRS executive made an unexpected public apology at a legal conference for what she described as improper scrutiny by the agency of conservative political groups. 

The apology set off weeks of investigation and controversy, culminating in findings that Tea Party-linked political groups applying for tax-exempt status had been subjected to extra review and delay by employees at an IRS Cincinnati field office.

Nice summary from Reuters, huh? That's reality for these people... there was never even a problem until an "IRS executive made an unexpected public apology."

These people really are shameless Leftist flacks trying to control reality.

WSJ: Obama and IRS Planning to Target Tea Party Again in Advance of 2014 Elections

"Dissenting voices against my fundamental transformation of America are all racist. They shall be punished by the hand of federal agencies... as shall all the enemies of the Light-bringer."

ObamaCare driving down your poll ratings? Then just go with the tried and true tactic of using federal power to attack your political opponents.

From The Wall Street Journal piece by Kimberly A. Strassel:

President Obama keeps claiming that he had no knowledge of the Internal Revenue Service's abusive muzzling of conservative groups. That line is hard to swallow given that his Treasury and IRS are back at it—this time in broad daylight.  

In the media blackout of Thanksgiving week, the Treasury Department dumped a new proposal to govern the political activity of 501(c)(4) groups. The administration claims this rule is needed to clarify confusing tax laws. Hardly. The rule is the IRS's new targeting program—only this time systematic, more effective, and with the force of law. 

That this rule was meant to crack down on the White House's political opponents was never in doubt. What is new is the growing concern by House Ways and Means Committee investigators that the regulation was reverse-engineered—designed to isolate and shut down the same tea party groups victimized in the first targeting round. Treasury appears to have combed through those tea party applications, compiled all the groups' main activities, and then restricted those activities in the new rule.  

"The committee has reviewed thousands of tax exempt applications," says House Ways & Means Chairman Dave Camp. "The new regulation so closely mirrors the abused tea-party group applications, it leads me to question if this new proposed regulation is simply another form of targeting."  

Here's how it works. To get or keep tax-exempt status, 501(c)(4) organizations must devote a majority of their work to their "primary" social-welfare purpose. Most tea party groups were set up with a primary purpose of educating Americans on pressing problems—the size of government, the erosion of the Constitution—and did so mainly via nonpartisan voter guides, speakers forums, pamphlets or voter-registration drives.  

What the proposed Treasury/IRS regulation would do is to re-categorize all these efforts as "political activity"—thereby making it all but impossible for tea party groups to qualify for 501(c)(4) status. Say an outfit's primary purpose is educating voters on our unsustainable debt, which it does mainly with a guide explaining the problem and politicians' voting records. Under the new rule, that guide is now "political activity" (rather than "social welfare"), which likely loses the group tax-exempt status. 

The rule, in other words, is not designed to provide helpful "guidance" on allowable activities. It was designed, rather, as Mr. Camp explains, "to put tea party groups out of business."  

[...]  

Consider the timing. This "proposed guidance"—while technically pending public comment—puts conservative groups on immediate notice that it could be enforced at any moment. It is clearly designed to have a chilling effect on any group gearing up for next year's midterms, just as the first round of targeting was designed to dampen conservative participation in the 2010 and 2012 elections.  

Democrats are daily directing government against their political opponents—via Congress, the SEC, the FEC. Yet IRS Acting Commissioner Danny Werfel wants Americans to think this latest IRS rule is just about providing "clarity." And the White House continues to insist that it was unaware of the previous targeting.  

The political insult is that President Obama is using his new targeting rule to wiggle out of liability for the last round. The same president who in May was "outraged" by the IRS's actions now says it was all just some confusion over tax law (which his new rule fixes). He told Chris Matthews last week that the media had hyped what was a few poor IRS souls in Cincinnati who were "trying to streamline what is a difficult law to interpret . . . And they've got a list, and suddenly everybody's outraged." 

Everybody was outraged to discover the IRS was secretly targeting the president's political opponents. They might be more outraged that the White House is now using the IRS to do the same thing in the brazen light of day.

Ah, the Obama Administration... If it isn't baldly lying and passing unpopular laws to take away your health insurance, if it isn't covering up various blunders that result in multiple deaths (Benghazi, Operation "Fast and Furious"), if it isn't running the American economy into the ground, then its trying to use the federal agencies to attack political opponents.

It is amazing to me how fast and how far the United States has fallen while under Obama's watch.

Not Much Changed in IRS Following Election Year Scandal

"Look, let's forget about the IRS scandal... That's old news. Let's just watch as the IRS objectively enforces ObamaCare. No pressure on conservatives and their evil corporations will be applied. Trust me."

The IRS was effective in helping to sway the election, allowing this super successful roll out of ObamaCare. Would the Democrats really want to change anything that targets conservatives and helps the Dems retain control of the federal government?

From the USA Today article by Deirdre Shesgreen and James Pilcher (via Instapundit):

More than six months after a top Internal Revenue Service official acknowledged the agency inappropriately scrutinized the applications for tax exemption by tea party and other conservative groups, the scandal has faded from the headlines and moved to Congress' back burner. 

But it's unclear how much has changed inside the IRS to fix the underlying problems that led to the targeting. 

Some argue the agency has taken significant steps to revamp a flawed review process that left certain groups waiting years for approval and subjected others to intrusive, burdensome questioning. 

"A great deal has changed at the IRS to prevent this from happening again," said Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, the top Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, one of three congressional panels to investigate the matter. Cummings cited leadership changes, better training for managers and screeners, and a streamlined application processes, among other things.

It's somewhat amusing that Democratic Rep. Cummings has pretty much admitted that the IRS was indeed pretty much toting Obama's water during an election year. But don't worry, it won't happen again... until it does and then they'll "fix" things again.

Here's a rundown of what's changed — and what hasn't: 

• The IRS' top ranks have been purged 

The Obama administration has installed new leadership in key posts at the agency. Lois Lerner — who as the director of the IRS' exempt organizations division became the public face of the scandal — has resigned. And the IRS' commissioner, Steven Miller, is long gone. 

"The IRS has removed five of its most senior managers," said Rep. Sander Levin of Michigan, the top Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee, another panel investigating the matter. 

But not everyone thinks the leadership turnover at the IRS has translated into a better review process. 

Marcus Owens, a Washington-based tax attorney and former director of the IRS' exempt organizations division, said he fears the IRS unit has been weakened by the departures of senior staff. Seasoned lawyers such as Holly Paz, who served as a senior technical manager, helped create the legal standards that front-line agents followed, he said. But Paz left and was replaced by a non-lawyer, Owens said. 

With her and others out, "That's a lot of new faces in new roles, with a lot of backlog facing them from the get-go," Owens said. "I worry that delays (in reviewing applications) are only going to get worse at this point." 

• A ban on BOLOs 

One of first steps by the new IRS commissioner, acting chief Danny Werfel, was to ban the use of watch lists — also known as BOLOs, for "Be On the Look Out" lists. Such lists were used by workers in the Cincinnati field office to flag certain applications for extra scrutiny. 

An inquiry by the Treasury's internal watchdog concluded Cincinnati-based IRS employees used "inappropriate" criteria — by targeting applications from groups with words such as "tea party," "patriot" and "9/12" in their names — to send applications into a lengthy review process. Werfel said officials later discovered the use of other BOLOs, some with terms describing liberal groups. 

The IRS chief subsequently barred the use of all such watch lists. Now, screeners in Cincinnati are instructed to make assessments based on a group's activities and purpose, "not names or labels," Werfel said at a September hearing before the Ways and Means Committee. 

• New review process with more neutral instructions for front-line workers 

Werfel said in September that he's moved "aggressively" to improve screening methods and bolster training for IRS employees charged with reviewing applications for tax-exempt status. It's an often difficult task, requiring screeners to figure out how much political activity these non-profit groups are engaged in — and whether it is extensive enough to preclude them from receiving tax-exempt status. Werfel said the IRS has issued new instructions to screeners on the best ways to determine the extent of an organization's political campaign intervention. 

But the IRS has not detailed what specific guideposts have taken the place of the BOLOs. And there's some indication that the new guidance isn't all that clear.
One IRS worker told congressional investigators that he was giving all applications from political advocacy groups a secondary screening, no matter what. Without the BOLOs, "we really don't have any direction," this Cincinnati agent, whose name was not released, told the panel's staff. 

• Murky decades-old rule still in place 

The law governing certain tax-exempt groups — those organized under the 501(c)(4) section of the IRS code — states that they should be "operated exclusively for the promotion of social welfare." But in 1959, the IRS issued a rule saying such organizations could participate in other activities as long as it was not their "primary" activity. 

The switch from requiring such groups to operate "exclusively" for social welfare to making that their "primary" purpose opened the door for such groups to become involved in politics. And the IRS has never given its screeners a clear definition of "primary."
"There's no bright-line test," Paz told congressional investigators — a complaint echoed by others. 

Critics say that until the rule is changed or clarified, the underlying problem will remain, with IRS workers struggling to measure a group's political activity without a good sense of how much is too much. 

"The problems here ... are not going to be solved by training workers in Cincinnati, even though that's fine," said Fred Wertheimer, president of Democracy 21, a campaign finance reform advocacy group. "The solution to this problem is a clear, bright-line test that properly implements a statute that says c4s should engage only in social welfare (activities)."

Another scandal under-addressed and then swept into the "I-sure-hope-they-forget-about-this" bin.

And the Obama machine rolls on...

Poll: Majority Believe IRS Targeted Tea Party Groups, Few Think IRS will Be Punished

"They did my bidding and they shall be exonerated by the Light-bringer that I am!"

Yeah, that's pretty much what you would expect. In the Age of Obama political cronies doing the illegal bidding of their master are rarely punished-- unless pay outs to retire early or being put on paid vacations until the scandal blows over count as punishment.

From the Sunshine State News piece by Allison Nielsen (h/t Instapundit):

The Internal Revenue Service's decision to target tea party and other conservative groups created a lot of controversy earlier this year, but while most American voters believe the IRS broke the law, very few think government employees will be charged with any crime.

A new Rasmussen Reports poll found 53 percent of likely U.S. voters believe the IRS broke the law when it targeted tea party and other conservative groups, while only 24 percent disagree.

But only 17 percent believe it is even somewhat likely that criminal charges will be brought against any government employees for IRS's targeting of these groups. Seventy-four percent consider criminal charges unlikely. This number includes 27 percent who say charges are not at all likely.

Just this week, the senior IRS official whose office probed the conservative groups resigned and is allegedly seeking immunity before she testifies before the congressional committee investigating the issue.

The IRS originally said the decision was made by low-level officials in its Cincinnati office, but has since backed away from that claim.

Cynicism is the new normal under Obama. And why not? The revolutionary aspects of Leftist dogma is based around cynicism of the old regime and faith in the Leftist creeds. It's easy to create cynicism, but hard to create faith-- especially in a failed political theory that has frequently resulted in genocide.

IRS Continues Evading Congress-- Has Produced Only 10% of the Documents Demanded by Congress

"Why don't folks just leave this alone! I won, and now I you shall face me only on bended knee!"

Still not surprised. The IRS really doesn't want to show how deep the involvement was with the White House, nor how much it likely effected the election.

From the CNS News article by Terence Jeffrey:

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee--which is probing the Internal Revenue Service’s discriminatory treatment of Tea Party and conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status--says the IRS has thus far handed over to the committee only about 10 percent of the documents the IRS itself has said are responsive to the committee’s demands for documents.  

The committee subpoenaed the Treasury Department for relevant documents from the department and the IRS more than seven weeks ago at the beginning of August. 

“To date, the IRS has produced to the committee only about 10 percent of all responsive materials that it has identified,” the committee’s majority staff said in a memo to committee members last Tuesday.  

Committee staff confirmed to CNSNews.com today that the IRS has not produced a significant number of additional documents since that memo was circulated on Sept. 17, and that as of the afternoon of Monday, Sept. 23, the IRS’s total production of documents to the committee remained only about 10 percent of those the IRS has said are responsive 

“In his letter of August 2, 2013, Acting Commissioner Werfel represented to the committee that the IRS has identified 660,000 responsive documents,” said the Oversight Committee majority staff memo. “The committee has received only 63,000 pages.”  

[...]  

As reported by the Washington Times, Lois Lerner--who refused to answer questions on 5th Amendment grounds when she appeared in the Oversight Committee on May 22--retired from the IRS today.  

Chairman Issa later issued a statement saying the committee still wants to take her testimony. 

“Lois Lerner’s exit from the IRS does not alter the Oversight Committee’s interest in understanding why applicants for tax exempt status were targeted and inappropriately treated because of their political beliefs,” Chairman Issa said in a statement this afternoon. “We still don’t know why Lois Lerner, as a senior IRS official, had such a personal interest in directing scrutiny and why she denied improper conduct to Congress. Her departure does not answer these questions or diminish the Committee’s interest in hearing her testimony.” 

In June, the Oversight Committee approved a resolution stating that Lerner had waived her 5th Amendment right against self-incrimination when she appeared before the committee because she voluntarily made an opening s statement to the committee before refusing to answer its questions.

This scandal is huge. And still the IRS and other federal agencies are dragging their feet. They're likely waiting for the 2014 elections hoping for a Democrat landslide. Good luck with that.

IRS Has Not Destroyed Conservative Donor List, Despite Promise

"We must have the list of the unbelievers!"

Why am I not surprised?

From the National Review Online piece by Eliana Johnson (h/t Instapundit):

The House Ways and Means Committee says that, despite the IRS’s promises to destroy the donor lists it demanded from tea-party and other conservative groups, it has discovered those lists in the case files it has reviewed in the course of its investigation into the targeting scandal. A Ways and Means Committee source tells National Review Online that, of the 27 groups asked for a list of donors, the committee identified 24 as conservative. Former acting IRS commissioner Steven Miller told the committee in May that a majority of the groups from whom donor lists were requested were not tea-party groups; a commitee [sic] spokeswoman surmised that Miller was using a narrow definition of “tea party” that did not apply more broadly to conservative groups. 

Requests for donor lists, which applicants for 501(c)(4) status are not required to disclose, raised concern because if a group’s application for tax exemption is approved, the application, including the donor list, becomes public. Groups have raised concerns that making their donors public will deter potential donors. The IRS previously told the committee that it would destroy the lists, which Miller conceded were “not necessary.”  

“When we saw that it happened, we asked that, you know, if they hadn’t sent them in, we reached out and said, don’t send them in,” Miller told the committee in May. ”If they had sent them in we said, you know, we’re not gonna use these, and we didn’t. You will not find them used in any of these cases.” 

Acting IRS commissioner Danny Werfel is scheduled to testify at a Ways and Means Committee hearing on Wednesday afternoon, where lawmakers are expected to ask him about the issue.

Would you really expect them to? The Left wants to bring pressure against their political opponents as possible and found that harassing businesses, sometimes to the point of closing, is an effective pressure to use. What better way to be re-elected when incompetence is exposed at every turn? It's the Chicago way brought to national level politics in the Age of Obama.

IRS Targeted Tea Party Because of Anti-Obama Rhetoric

The haloed Obama does not allow for dissent. Woe and audits shall befall all who dare to question the Light-bringer's wisdom.

Which is pretty much a surprise to no one. But everyone watch your back if you dare question the Dear Leader's will.

From the USA Today article by Gregory Korte (h/t Instapundit):

Newly uncovered IRS documents show the agency flagged political groups based on the content of their literature, raising concerns specifically about "anti-Obama rhetoric," inflammatory language and "emotional" statements made by non-profits seeking tax-exempt status. 

The internal 2011 documents, obtained by USA TODAY, list 162 groups by name, with comments by Internal Revenue Service lawyers in Washington raising issues about their political, lobbying and advocacy activities. In 21 cases, those activities were characterized as "propaganda."

Propaganda? Well MSNBC better look out. Oh, that's right! Anti-Obama propaganda... my bad.

The list provides the most specific public accounting to date of which groups were targeted for extra scrutiny and why. The IRS has not publicly identified the groups, repeatedly citing a provision of the tax code prohibiting it from releasing tax return information.  

[...]  

On Nov. 16, 2011, IRS lawyers in Washington sent a list of cases to front-line agents in Cincinnati, along with comments and guidance on how to handle political organizations.
Tax law experts say those comments appear to show IRS employees trying to apply the murky rules governing political activities by social welfare groups. 

But the American Center for Law and Justice, a nonprofit legal institute that represents 23 of the groups appearing on the IRS list, said it appears to be "the most powerful evidence yet of a coordinated effort" by the IRS to target Tea Party groups. 

"The political motivations of this are so patently obvious, but then to have a document that spells it out like this is very damaging to the IRS," said Jay Sekulow, chief counsel for the ACLJ. "I hope the FBI has seen these documents."  

[...]  

Five groups were flagged as having "anti-Obama" materials in their applications or on their websites. 

For instance, the IRS said the website of the Patriots of Charleston contains "negative Obama commentary." Though the IRS didn't cite examples, a November 2011 article on the group's site says: "Obama's and the Democrats' track record of disaster is based upon a combination of their ignorance and their fundamental desire to convert America into a ruling class of wealthy all-powerful elitists and a single class of serfs." 

"The web site, as we explained to them on multiple occasions, is really a blog" that members can submit commentary to, said Joanne Jones, the group's vice chairwoman. "I'm not going to tell you we weren't political. We were to an extent, but we were within the limits of the law. For example, there's one clear-cut issue: We did not endorse candidates." 

"To focus in on somebody saying something anti-Obama," she said, "it's almost like the speech police there. It's disturbing. It's the kind of overreach that leads into Obamacare."

It seems like free speech becomes a bit of a relative thing when attached to government tax exemptions, doesn't it?

I really do not understand why people are not more upset about the Obama Administration harassing political opponents in the lead up and in the very midst of a tightly contested election. Are people really willing to accept all of this now? Are we so jaded and clever that we willingly allow the government to harass  political opponents?

UPDATE: And let us not forget, as The Washinton Times points out, how IRS officials were "acutely aware" that Obama wanted a crackdown on the Tea Party and other critics. The Light-bringer must but only ask, and he shall receive.

"Phony" IRS Scandal Still Going Strong

"Folks are just using PHONY scandals to diminish my sterling economic recovery!"

From an IBD editorial:

IRS-Gate: From stonewalling Congress to Federal Election Commission collusion to harassment of already-tax-exempt conservative groups, the IRS scandal metastasizes. Someone high-up was clearly giving orders. 

'Phony scandals," to use President Obama's term, should not generate near-daily news coverage from a media that would like nothing better than to see its dream president let off the hook. Yet everywhere you look comes another bolt of lightning keeping this Frankenstein monster "alive!": 

• In addition to conservative organizations being ultra-scrutinized in applying for tax-exempt status, existing conservative groups like Morton Blackwell's Leadership Institute, around since 1979, and the Claire Booth Luce Policy Institute, founded in 1993, were slammed with costly audits by Obama's IRS in the months before the 2012 election. 

• With the IRS providing just a fraction of the documents requested, House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., on Tuesday accused acting IRS commissioner Danny Werfel of systematically attempting "to delay, frustrate, impede and obstruct" the panel's probe. 

• National Review reports that on-leave IRS tax-exempt division head Lois Lerner was in e-mail contact with at least one attorney at the Federal Election Commission — where she used to work — to whom she apparently gave tax status information of a conservative group, the American Future Fund, before the FEC lawyer recommended "that the commission prosecute it for violations of campaign-finance law." The FEC also asked about the conservative American Issues Project. 

• A House Ways and Means Committee analysis found conservative groups were asked three times as many questions by the IRS and had longer delays than left-wing groups seeking tax-exempt status. 

• A June 26 letter made public last Thursday from the IRS inspector general to House Ways and Means Ranking Democrat Sander Levin of Michigan "makes it clear the inspector general believes Tea Party groups did have it worse than progressives," the left-leaning National Public Radio conceded. 

• While President Obama claimed when the IRS scandal came to light in May that "It's inexcusable ... and I'm angry about it," Politico reports this week that tax-exempt organizations commissioner Sarah Hall Ingram received "bonuses of $26,550 to $35,400 in fiscal years 2010, 2011, and 2012 ... 15 to 20% of her annual salary," while Lerner from 2006 to 2012 "was paid a combined total of $110,035 in bonuses." And senior IRS official Faris Fink, better known as Mr. Spock in the IRS' taxpayer-funded "Star Trek" parody, got "$149,506 in bonuses between 2007 and 2012." Clearly, someone above them was pleased. 

• Appearing on Fox News Sunday, Treasury Secretary and ex-White House chief of staff Jack Lew didn't sound like someone sure that the IRS probes would find nothing: "I'm not saying it's done. We will cooperate with all of the ongoing investigations." 

• At his "phony scandals" press briefing a week ago Tuesday, White House crisis manager Jay Carney was so intent on distracting reporters from IRS-gate and the other Obama scandals, he uttered the term "middle class" no fewer than 17 times — astonishing, considering that median household income is down 5%, almost $3,000, from the year Obama took office.

Weird how Leftist politics tend to lead to bureaucratic corruption and economic turmoil. It's almost as if there's something basically wrong with Marxist creed. Strange...

Did the FEC and IRS Collude to Target Conservative Groups?

"I'm really tired of all these phony scandals. I mean sure I targeted conservatives but they're all crazy and a threat to all correct thinking people everywhere."

It certainly appears possible.

From the NRO article by Eliana Johnson:

Embattled Internal Revenue Service official Lois Lerner and an attorney in the Federal Election Commission’s general counsel’s office appear to have twice colluded to influence the record before the FEC’s vote in the case of a conservative non-profit organization, according to e-mails unearthed by the House Ways and Means Committee and obtained exclusively by National Review Online.

The correspondence suggests the discrimination of conservative groups extended beyond the IRS and into the FEC, where an attorney from the agency’s enforcement division in at least one case sought and received tax information about the status of a conservative group, the American Future Fund, before recommending that the commission prosecute it for violations of campaign-finance law. Lerner, the former head of the IRS’s exempt-organizations division, worked at the FEC from 1986 to 1995, and was known for aggressive investigation of conservative groups during her tenure there, too.

“Several months ago . . . I spoke with you about the American Future Fund, a 501(c)(4) organization that had submitted an exemption application the IRS [sic],” the FEC attorney wrote Lerner in February 2009. The FEC, which polices violations of campaign-finance laws, is not exempted under Rule 6103, which prohibits the IRS from sharing confidential taxpayer information, but the e-mail indicates Lerner may have provided that information nonetheless: “When we spoke last July, you had told us that the American Future Fund had not received an exemption letter from the IRS,” the FEC attorney wrote.

The timing of the correspondence between Lerner and the FEC suggests the FEC attorney sought information from the IRS in order to influence an upcoming vote by the six FEC commissioners. The FEC received a complaint in March 2008 from the Minnesota Democratic Farmer Labor Party alleging that the American Future Fund had violated campaign-finance law by engaging in political advocacy without registering as a political-action committee. The American Future Fund responded to that complaint in June 2008, telling the commission that it had applied for tax exemption in March of that year and was a “501(c)(4) social-welfare organization that was organized to provide Americans with a conservative and free-market viewpoint and mechanism to communicate and advocate on the issues that most interest and concern them.” According to the e-mail correspondence, a month after receiving the American Future Fund’s response, the FEC general counsel’s office — which is prohibited under law from conducting an investigation into an organization before the FEC’s six commissioners have voted to do so — contacted Lerner to investigate the agency’s tax-exempt status.

Nothing to see here. Move on. Move on.