This morning Prof Jacobson observed IRS reaped hatred of Tea Party sown by Democrats and the media.
A Tweeter responded:
@leginsurrection Douthat makes the same point, in a NYer’s version of the argument nytimes.com/2013/05/12/opi…
— Tampa (@S1CT) May 12, 2013
Indeed. Douthat laid out the case of The Taxman vs. the Tea Party in a bit more detail. (more at memeorandum)
Our own era’s Brown Scare followed a similar pattern. Early in President Obama’s first term, a Department of Homeland Security report predicted an increase in right-wing extremism, citing real threats but also employing “a definition of extremist so broad,” Reason magazine’s Jesse Walker noted, that “it seemed to include anyone who opposed abortion or immigration or excessive federal power.”
As the Tea Party movement gathered steam, liberals consistently echoed the D.H.S. report’s themes, warning that the movement’s fringier elements and often-overheated rhetoric (which were real enough, and worth criticizing) were laying the groundwork for a wave of far-right violence.
Invoking J.F.K.’s assassination and Oklahoma City, these critics then leapt to connect the dots every time a kook pulled a gun or set off a bomb somewhere — whether it was a lone neo-Nazi shooting a guard at the Holocaust museum in Washington, the apparent murder (ultimately ruled a suicide) of a census worker in rural Kentucky, or even the failed Times Square bombing (which turned out to be the work of a would-be jihadist, but not before Michael Bloomberg had suggested that it might be “someone with a political agenda that doesn’t like the health care bill or something”).
James Taranto observed:
This @douthatnyt piece is terrific, and gutsy for a NYT columnist. nytimes.com/2013/05/12/opi…
— James Taranto (@jamestaranto) May 12, 2013
That’s true, especially when you consider that last year, the editors of the New York Times argued The I.R.S. Does Its Job in subjecting Tea Party organization to extra scrutiny. The editors of the New York Times don’t appear to have weighed in on the emerging I.R.S. scandal, but the editors of the Washington Post, to their credit, have.
In Playing politics with tax records, the editors of the Washington Post are devastating.
“Mistakes were made,” the agency said in a statement. IRS official Lois Lerner explained that staffers used a “shortcut” to sort through a large number of applications from groups seeking tax-exempt status, highlighting organizations with “tea party” or “patriot” in their names. The IRS insisted emphatically that partisanship had nothing to do with it. However, it seems that groups with “progressive” in their titles did not receive the same scrutiny.
If it was not partisanship, was it incompetence? Stupidity, on a breathtaking scale? At this point, the IRS has lost any standing to determine and report on what exactly happened. Certainly Congress will investigate, as House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) promised. Mr. Obama also should guarantee an unimpeachably independent inquiry.
One line of questioning should focus on how the IRS’s procedures failed to catch this “shortcut” before its employees began using it. Another should center on how this misguided practice came to light, and on what the IRS planned and plans to do about it. Ms. Lerner was responding to a question when the news first came out; it’s not clear whether the government intended otherwise to disclose what had happened. Nor have officials been clear whether disciplinary measures have been taken.
Will other liberal and Democratic leaning media outlets have the guts follow the lead of the Post?
Pardon me while I toot my own tweet.
Amazing that Geithner couldn’t figure out Turbo Tax but his Treasury Dept. figured out how to use the IRS as a political tool.
— David Gerstman (@soccerdhg) May 12, 2013
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Comments
My cynical side causes me to wonder if the NYT and WaPo are allowing critical coverage for two basic reasons: The witch hunt DIDN’T find anything incriminating so it cannot be said to be ‘justified’. And now that the cat is out of the bag, shining light on it gives them some comfort whenever there is a GOP administration and they want to start their own investigation. In other words, now that it is in the light of day, do everything to make sure there are no liberal victims in the future.
I started reading the comments on Ross Douthat’s article and it was like watching a train wreck, I found myself unable to look away. As many times as I’ve seen NYT readers’ ideology trump everything, it never ceases to send a chill up my spine.
It makes me wonder if next these same people will be ready to excuse their side for acts of terror, or for violation of rights provided for under the Constitution or for worse….wait, what was I thinking? The already do.
We live in dangerous times.
In the Collective, that ol’ totalitarian urge is never far below the surface.
See burning, books WRT “science” professors. And they are totally NOT self-aware.
Most of my friends are leftists, some pretty far gone (comes with being a musician).
I was recently in a conversation where one contended that the Nazis were “wildly popular” and “came to power because the people wanted their program, nothing was foced on them”.
Democrats / Progressives / Liberals = Corporatists. The difference between Progressive Corporatism and Fascist Corporatism is merely that the Fascists were Nationalists while Progs/Dems/Libs of course are multi-nationalists.
In other words: The only difference between a Nazi and a Democrat is that the Nazis loved their country.
Sadly, that extends, in most cases, to the anti-semitism espoused by the nazis.
Bill Ayers, in whose living room Obama launched his political career, is on record saying that when the revolution comes (here in America), about 25 million will have to be sent to be “re-educated”.
Later in his career, after describing his “success” in helping shift the curriculum in our schools radically leftward, thereby “pre-educating” generations of leftists, he revised his estimate down to 10 million.
Mr. Obama also should guarantee an unimpeachably independent inquiry.
An interesting choice of words. Barack Nixon Obama will allow no inquiry he can’t control.
Blah.
I have posted that theI IRS have & will go after those who threaten the Cabal. In the movies everyone fears the I R S above all – only they could touch Al Capone & the mafia.
Once these institutions gather enough ideological band of brothers – they are a threat. The EPA. Began a Crucifixion campaign in SE States – happily shilling for their beloved admin.
I am afraid several other institutions are on the march unless somehow stopped somehow.
Douthat’s column is terrific? What a load of crap. He can’t help but spew leftist propaganda in every paragraph.
JFK’s assassination? Seriously? The Left still refuses to acknowledge the fact that he was killed by a communist. His brother was killed by a muslim. They’ll cook up the most absurd conspiracy theories to deny both.
They also still can’t grasp the fact that nazi’s are socialists. Always have been, always will be.
Keep reading .. it gets better as it goes
Aaradin, I read it that Douthat was citing such charges as examples of how ridiculous the anti-tea-party sentiment got.
FWIW, Sirhan Sirhan was a Palestinian Christian with Jordanian citizenship who was anti-Zionist
You really have to read the comments below Douthat’s piece.
For those old enough to remember, this IRS stuff is truly Nixonian and no self-respecting Democrat can turn a blind eye to what was one of the impeachment charges against Nixon.
It’s easy to pick out the age group by their comments.
Actually, Kennedy was a far worse offender, IRS wise.
In 2011, senior IRS officials knew that tea party groups were targeted.
Some in the media are still pretending it was lower-level employees.
The politically corrupt IRS has been working in conjunction with the politically corrupt Dept of Injustice to target conservatives. Remember this – From The Blaze, 07AUG2012:
“The casino company owned by Mitt Romney’s wealthiest supporter, Sheldon Adelson, is now in the Department of Justice’s crosshairs. That revelation is making the media rounds today, as someone in the Los Angeles U.S. Attorney’s office leaked word of a money laundering investigation involving Las Vegas Sands Corp. to the Wall Street Journal.
So now Adelson, a man who claimed he would donate up to $100 million
to ensure Romney wins the upcoming presidential election, could find
out how the wheels of justice really turn under President Obama’s watch.
This revelation is as unsurprising as it is disgraceful.
Government officials will no doubt claim the timing of the probe is coincidental, but that is asking us to believe a lot. The investigation deals with possible money laundering stretching back years ago. So the U.S. Attorney’s Office in LA had to go public with the accusations today? Unless the statute of limitations for these crimes expires Nov. 6 (they don’t), what reason could there be for bringing for these accusations to light right before the political conventions?
To suggest the timing of this had no political motive strains credulity. The timing is indeed everything.”
FYI: AFTER THE 2012 ELECTION WAS OVER, THIS DOJ ACTION AGAINST ADELSON – WHICH WAS PURE POLITICAL HARASSMENT AND INTIMIDATION – WAS DROPPED.
Quoting the WAPO editiorial:
“…Mr. Obama also should guarantee an unimpeachably independent inquiry…”
Pardon my cynical reading of this sentence, but does this mean the WAPO is urging Mr. Obama to initiate some kind of investigation which is, in all ways, above-board and beyond reproach, let the chips fall where they may? Or one which is slippery enough to insure that the results cannot be attacked on the basis of bias or political skullduggery while it also magically fails to find evidence which will serve as a basis for a bill of impeachment? 🙂 I’m sorry, but I can’t help but think that such is a possibility given the progressive media’s horrible record of subservient lackey-ism.
If the WAPo thinks the Obama administration can set up its own self-investigation and get an honest result, I think we’ve got a great way to save a boatload of fed budget money – let individual and corporate taxpayers conduct their own tax audits.
WaPo is urging BHO to come up with a better cover story, so they can get back to cult of personality worship services.
In light of the fact that must readers here at LI conform to the view that MSM outlets such as NYT, WaPo, LAT and pundits like Gregory, Mathews, Stephanapoulos, etc., are all undeniably biased against any who would question the POS and his administration why would this blog bother to post any comments from those sources? Why give them free “press?”
I’m with AOS on this. Boycott ALL the fothermuckers. Don’t read, don’t link, don’t google. Ignore. Or do anything you can think of to hasten their demise. Discredit and dismiss at every opportunity. Instead, cite sources friendly to the side of truth.
Though I understand the sentiment, I am against any total boycott, except the part about not providing links to MSM articles. First, I need and want to know what my opposition is thinking and doing, and second, the best way to refute socialist liberals is to let them speak. Example:
Recently, in Detroit, fast food workers demanded a pay raise from minimum wage to over $15 per hour, an instant more than doubling of their incomes. The stated positive effects? They believe that if they double their incomes it can only improve the economy, thereby creating even more $15 per hour French fry jobs, and so on, throughout the economy.
That idea is so stupid, so ignorant of basic economics, ignorant of basic math even, there can be no better refutation than to let it stand in the sunlight for all to see.
The MSM is going in the tank across the board. It is not just because of technological changes away from print to the internet – MSM cable and broadcast TV is tanking too. It is their bias, the way they purposely offend 50% of the market, that is causing their downfall.
The microcosm of the liberal MSM is Joe Biden. If you’d never heard him speak, just reviewed his resume, you might think he’s quite an accomplished fellow. But the minute he opens his mouth…..
I say let them talk and let as many people as possible hear them.
We are only as strong as the GOP officials we elect. At this point, we’re weak because of our collective choices.
We will one day look back and see the election of little Miss Boehner as Speaker at this point in history as a far greater mistake than the election of ‘Barack Obama.’
I still assert this: John Boehner is being blackmailed.
No one is this much of a coward.
This is government tyranny, exactly why the Founding Fathers gave us the 2nd Amendment. The 2nd guarantees us the 1st.
In all fairness, The WaPo is clearly a Left Outlet overall, but the editoial board has a strong “good governance” streak. The Editoral Board is far to the right of the NYT.
Sure – remember the Sarah Palin emails. Great governance. Asking for Palin haters to come in & beaver away next to staff..
WaPo just wanted the hit & were ready to overthrow their hired journos for free labor.