These IRS and DOJ scandals are among the worst excesses I’ve seen, says … Andrea Mitchell

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Allahpundit @ Hot Air:

Via Newsbusters, if you’ve got reporters now saying stuff like this on the air at Obama TV, you’ve got something. I’m pleasantly surprised that she named two different scandals as big deals, as there seems to be a developing strategy (on Twitter at least) among lefties to choose just one as the “real scandal” as a way of minimizing the rest. If that’s how this shakes out, the AP/DOJ showdown will quickly become the “real scandal,” partly because it’s legitimately troubling, partly because the media has a professional stake in it, and partly because it probably has the least amount of “legs” for Republicans as an electoral issue before the midterms. (Although don’t put it past some especially committed lefties to conclude that the real scandal here is, naturally, the GOP.) The flaw in that strategy, though, is that the IRS story simply won’t stop growing; pause here and take a gander at just the last 16 hours or so of our front page. This clusterfark may reach the point where it’s narrative-proof, even if the narrative involves beating O up over a different scandal in the name of limiting the damage.

Speaking of which, the IRS’s own narrative is likely to shift soon to “we agonized over what we were doing and came to realize it was wrong.” That’s a lie. According to HuffPo, which has seen the appendix to the forthcoming IG report, it was only when complaints from tea-party groups started trickling into the media last year — causing some “respectable” media outlets to laugh — that the agency started to clean up its act. To think, if only the DOJ had snooped on those reporters too to shut them up, there might be tea-party harassment ongoing to this day:

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Looks like there may be an EPA scandel too!

@Randy:

EPA Targeted Conservatives Too

The Conservative Enterprise Institute examined FOIA requests made between Jan. 2012 and spring 2013. What they found was a pattern. Green groups including “the Natural Resources Defense Council, EarthJustice, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, The Waterkeeper Alliance, Greenpeace, Southern Environmental Law Center and the Center for Biological Diversity” had fees waived 92 percent of the time.

By contrast, FOIA requests made by the Franklin Center or the Institute for Energy Research were all denied. Requests made by CEI were denied 93 percent of the time. Judicial Watch and the National Center for Public Policy Research had their requests denied 50 percent of the time.

Asked for comment on the situation, Benjamin Cole of the Institute for Energy Research said his group’s requests for information were met with “indifference, delays, and outright denials.” Cole called it the “president’s bureaucratic blockade.”

“This has been the most closed and unaccountable government since transparency laws were enacted. And when the administration does provide answers — either in the form of document production or official statements — they are either heavily redacted, intentionally misleading, or outright lies.”

IRS kept shifting targets in tax-exempt groups scrutiny: report

When tax agents started singling out non-profit groups for extra scrutiny in 2010, they looked at first only for key words such as ‘Tea Party,’ but later they focused on criticisms by groups of “how the country is being run,” according to investigative findings reviewed by Reuters on Sunday.

More Flag terms: groups focused on making “America a better place to live.”, ‘Tea Party,’ “Patriot’ and ‘9/12’ “Government spending, Government debt, or taxes; Education of the public via advocacy/lobbying to ‘make America a better place to live;’ and Statements in the case file (that) criticize how the country is being run.” But then it changed again in January 2012 to cover “political action type organizations involved in limiting/expanding government, educating on the constitution and bill of rights, social economic reform/movement,” n May 2012, the criteria for scrutiny were revised again to cover a variety of tax-exempt groups “with indicators of significant amounts of political campaign intervention (raising questions as to exempt purpose and/or excess private benefit),”


‘Special unit’ went after pro-Israel Jewish groups…

Both kinds of applications are processed in the same Cincinnati office.

Legal filings show that the problems for Z Street — and apparently for other Israel-related groups — stemmed from an obscure unit in the Cincinnati IRS office: the “Touch and Go Group.” One of the so-called TAG Group’s duties was to weed out applications that might be coming from organizations which might be used to fund terrorism.

In response to Z Street’s lawsuit, an IRS manager acknowledged that applications mentioning Israel were getting special attention.

“Israel is one of many Middle Eastern countries that have a ‘higher risk of terrorism,’” wrote Jon Waddell, manager of the IRS’s Exempt Organizations Determinations Group. “A referral to TAG is appropriate whenever an application mentions providing resources to organizations in a country with a higher risk of terrorism.”

This is becoming an epidemic with agencies controlled by this administration.

White House Relies on Incompetence Defense as IRS, AP Scandals Grow

It strains credulity to believe that the White House learned of the explosive scandal weeks ago, yet failed to inform President Obama or his top advisors. The IRS admission that it had engaged in inappropriate targeting of organizations based on their political views is a direct assault on citizens’ free speech rights. It is the kind of scandal that ought to quickly move to the highest levels of power as soon as it is revealed.

We also are to believe that the Attorney General could issue broad subpoenas for journalists’ phone records as a kind of independent agent. Jay Carney on Monday said the the White House was unaware of the sweeping review and directed questions to the Justice Department. If Eric Holder were truly empowered to assume these broad powers without White House knowledge, then Obama’s management of the Executive Branch is utterly dysfunctional.

President Obama’s best defense to these emerging scandals, then, is that he is an incompetent manager of his office. Not only can the AG authorize his own fishing expedition of communications between reporters and whistleblowers, but the White House can learn of a politically explosive scandal at the IRS and decide it doesn’t warrant the President’s attention.

NBC Investigative Reporter: Admin Has History Of Intimidating Press

Lisa Myers, NBC’s investigative journalist, told “Morning Joe” that the administration has a “history” of “coming down hard” on those who talk to the press that don’t “tow the line” of the Obama administration’s desired narrative.

EXCLUSIVE: McConnell: IRS Revelations ‘Just The Beginning’

The scandal, McConnell said, extends up the chain. “The Obama effort to shut up opponents isn’t limited to the IRS,” he stated. “It applies to the FCC [Federal Communications Commission], SEC [Securities and Exchange Commission], FEC [Federal Elections Commission], HHS [Department of Health and Human Services] …. And you remember, the Obama campaign last year published a list of eight businessmen who it believed were enemies.”

McConnell further noted reports that the Department of Health and Human Services had been contacting businesses “skeptical about the implementation of Obamacare and asking them to contribute money to sell the program to the American people. That’s absolutely improper if not illegal. This administration will stop at nothing to get its way. It will do anything it can to silence its critics.”

When it comes to using government agencies for political purposes, Nixon was a piker compared to Obama’s regime.