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Paul L. Caron
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Saturday, November 5, 2016

The IRS Scandal, Day 1276:  George Will On The 2016 Presidential Election And The IRS Scandal

IRS Logo 2Washington Post op-ed: A Fitting Final Chapter to 2016’s Sleaze Sweepstakes, by George F. Will:

It is grimly hilarious to hear it said that the Justice Department, by not holding Comey to established protocols concerning discussions of ongoing investigations, and concerning pronouncements close to elections, has tainted itself. ... The department has enabled, by not seriously investigating, the IRS’s suppression of political advocacy by conservative groups. Or of the IRS’s subsequent destruction of subpoenaed emails pertinent to this. So, unsurprisingly, the most intrusive and potentially punitive federal agency continues to punish conservative groups for being conservative, according to Cleta Mitchell, a lawyer for political groups who confirms there are indeed conservative organizations who were targeted by the IRS and have still not received their tax-exempt status.

In 2013, President Obama professed himself “angry” about “inexcusable” IRS behavior, before he decided there was not a “smidgen” of IRS corruption. He claimed to have learned about the IRS behavior from the media. Now he claims that he learned from the media about Clinton’s email abuses, although they had exchanged emails using her private server. Perhaps.

The defining scandal of the Obama era has been the media’s lackadaisical consensus that Obama’s administration has had no serious scandal. This, although with the Justice Department protecting the IRS, the administration has (in the words of Richard Nixon’s White House counsel John Dean) used “the available federal machinery to screw our political enemies.”

Clinton, the ultimate author of her current agony, resembles no one so much as Nixon in her paranoia and joyless pursuit of joy. Her government career began with the House committee preparing Nixon’s impeachment. Twenty-two years earlier, he had saved his career by addressing a supposed scandal with his nationally broadcast “Checkers speech,” which was mawkish, abasing and effective. How fitting it would be for a Clinton “Checkers speech” to end our long national nightmare that this campaign has been.

https://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2016/11/the-irs-scandal-day-1276george-will-on-the-2016-presidential-election-and-the-irs-scandal.html

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Comments

The IRS rampage against conservative groups continues and undoubtedly under a Hillary Clinton regime will be expanded. BTW...the MSM is not in the least interested.

Posted by: VoteOutIncumbents | Nov 5, 2016 11:21:37 AM

"How fitting it would be for a Clinton 'Checkers speech' to end our long national nightmare that this campaign has been."

Except Secretary Clinton won't deliver any such speech, because the modus operandi of her entire political career has been to mislead the public until the facts come out that refute such deception, and then to no longer make any public statements either true or false on the matter.

The goal is the Presidency, and upon achieving the office I suspect a President Clinton will make every assurance that the DOJ is staffed with only loyal Democratic career lawyers who will bury any and all investigations into Clinton-related influence peddling, violations of national security, and false statements to Congress, no matter what evidence there may be. That will certainly solidify the anti-law reputation of the Democratic Party, which it's already been building to under the current President. But America deserves the President it chooses, with all the illegal baggage that will entail.

Of course, we ordinary citizens who have no friends in bureaucratic circles or law enforcement are routinely raked over the coals for failing to pay our parking tickets on time...

Posted by: MM | Nov 5, 2016 12:48:18 PM