And of course...what week would be complete without a nice column by one   
   of my   
   favorite columnists: Ann Coulter:   
      
      
   Tips for Right-Wingers on the IRS Scandal - Ann Coulter   
      
      
   Jun 06, 2013   
      
      
   Instead of showing endless loops of IRS employees wasting taxpayer dollars   
   line-dancing -- Breaking news: Government employees waste millions of your   
   dollars every single day! -- I think it would be more useful for the   
   public to   
   hear a few crucial facts about the exploding scandal at the Internal   
   Revenue   
   Service.   
      
      
   At Tuesday's congressional hearings on the IRS, witnesses provided   
   shocking   
   details about the agency's abuse of conservative groups.   
      
      
   The IRS leaked the donor list of The National Organization for Marriage to   
   their political opponents, the pro-gay-marriage Human Rights Campaign.   
   This is   
   not idle speculation: The documents had an internal IRS stamp on them. The   
   list of names was then published on a number of liberal websites and NOM's   
   donors were harassed.   
      
      
   The IRS demanded that all members of the Coalition for Life of Iowa swear   
   under penalty of perjury that they wouldn't pray, picket or protest   
   outside of   
   Planned Parenthood. They were also asked to provide details of their   
   prayer   
   meetings.   
      
      
   Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash. -- who was ordered by the D.C. Circuit Court   
   to   
   pay more than $1 million to John Boehner in 2008 for the sleazy maneuver   
   of   
   publishing an illegally taped private conversation -- blamed the   
   conservative   
   groups themselves. "Each of your groups was highly political," he lectured   
   them, noting that they wouldn't have been asked any questions if they   
   hadn't   
   requested tax-exempt status.   
      
      
   Even a fair-minded person -- not to be confused with Jim McDermott --   
   might   
   hear about the IRS' harassment of groups with "tea party," "patriot" or   
   "liberty" in their names and think: "How do we know the IRS wasn't equally   
   hard on left-wing groups?"   
      
      
   What might be more helpful than clips of IRS staff line-dancing would be   
   for   
   reporters, say at Fox News, to mention a few examples of the wildly   
   partisan   
   left-wing groups that the IRS has certified as tax-exempt.   
      
      
      
   Among the many left-wing groups with tax-exempt status are:   
      
      
   -- ACORN (now renamed as other organizations, but all still tax-exempt),   
   "community organizers" who engage in profanity-laced protests at private   
   homes, dump garbage in front of public buildings and disrupt bankers'   
   dinners   
   in order to get more people on welfare in order to destroy the capitalist   
   system and incite revolution;   
      
      
   -- Occupy Wall Street, which -- in its first month alone -- was   
   responsible   
   for more than a dozen sexual assaults; at least half a dozen deaths by   
   overdose, suicide or murder; and millions of dollars in property damage;   
      
      
   -- Media Matters for America, a media "watchdog" group that has never   
   noticed   
   one iota of pro-Obama bias in the media;   
      
      
   -- Moveon.org, which ran ads comparing Bush to Hitler under its 501(c)(4)   
   arm;   
      
      
   -- The Center for American Progress, an auxiliary of the Democratic   
   National   
   Committee funded by George Soros and staffed by former Clinton and Obama   
   aides   
   to promote the Democratic agenda;   
      
      
   -- The Tides Foundation, which funnels money to communist and   
   terrorist-supporting organizations;   
      
      
   -- The Ford Foundation, which has never found a criminal law that isn't   
   "racist."   
      
      
   These groups are regarded by the IRS as nonpartisan community groups,   
   merely   
   educational, while dozens of patriotic, constitutional, Christian or tea   
   party   
   groups are still waiting for their tax exemptions.   
      
      
   That's to say nothing of Planned Parenthood, PBS and innumerable other   
   Democratic front-groups that not only have tax exemptions, but get direct   
   funding from the government.   
      
      
   By contrast, the conservative groups being raked over the coals by the IRS   
   actually were nonpartisan. The tea party forced sitting Republican   
   senators   
   off the ticket in Alaska and Indiana, and toppled "establishment"   
   Republicans   
   in Utah, Delaware, Nevada, Florida and Texas. Far from being a secretly   
   pro-Republican group, the tea party has been a nightmare for Republicans.   
      
      
   Show me one instance where the Center for American Progress was more of a   
   problem for Democrats than Republicans.   
      
      
   It is obviously in the interest of the left to show us liberal groups also   
   harassed by the IRS, so it's striking that they haven't been able to   
   produce   
   one   
   yet.   
      
      
   Instead, they hearken back to the Bush years to claim that the IRS once   
   audited the NAACP, which is treated as ipso facto political harassment.   
      
      
   First of all, the NAACP doesn't exactly have a sterling record of   
   rectitude   
   when it comes to organization funds. In the 1990s, the NAACP used   
   tax-exempt   
   contributions to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars of hush money to the   
   mistress of then-executive director Benjamin F. Chavis Jr. -- as detailed   
   in   
   enraged columns by Carl Rowan at the time.   
      
      
   Find a tea party organization that's done that, and we'll understand the   
   IRS   
   conducting a three-year proctology exam on the group.   
      
      
   Second, the Bush-era audit of the NAACP was prompted by a blindingly   
   partisan   
   speech given by NAACP chairman Julian Bond at an organization meeting in   
   Philadelphia in July 2004. Bond attacked a slew of elected Republicans by   
   name, denouncing the entire party as one whose "idea of equal rights is   
   the   
   American flag and Confederate swastika flying side by side."   
      
      
   That's what we call "black-letter law" on improper activity for a   
   tax-exempt   
   organization. As a 501(c)(3) group, the NAACP is prohibited from   
   supporting or   
   opposing any candidate for elective office.   
      
      
   The NAACP responded to the IRS' letter by screaming from the rooftops that   
   it   
   was political payback. Consequently, Bush's IRS commissioner requested   
   that   
   Treasury's inspector general investigate the IRS' tax-exempt unit for   
   political bias. The IG's report found no politics in the NAACP audit and   
   -- to   
   the contrary -- that more "pro-Republican" groups (18) than   
   "pro-Democratic"   
   groups (12) had been audited.   
      
      
   Nonetheless, the NAACP simply refused to cooperate with the IRS. There was   
   nothing the Bush administration could do. No Republican was going to allow   
   the   
   NAACP's tax-exempt status to be revoked on its watch. Two years later, the   
   IRS   
   simply issued a letter clearing the group.   
      
      
   Today, the NAACP openly engages in partisan activity, such as a current   
   weeks-long protest of Republican legislators in North Carolina.   
      
      
   Finally, a tip to the Democrats trying to defend the IRS: As a devoted   
   true-crime TV viewer, I can tell you that when you're caught red-handed,   
   it's   
   never a good defense to say, "Why would I be so stupid to kill my wife   
   right   
   after taking out a huge life insurance policy on her?"   
      
      
   You were that stupid and you got caught.   
      
      
      
      
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