Saturday, May 11, 2013

Obama's Banana Republic Ethics

Using government agencies to harass political opponents is what we expect in a third world country like Bangladesh or Venezuela. Now our U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) apologizes for doing this reprehensible practice just last year, see the Associated Press story for details.

It placed particular emphasis on conservative groups, checking to see if their non-profit status was legitimate, during the lead-up to the 2012 election. No similar emphasis was given to liberal groups during the same heated, politically charged period.

In some ways, this is the ugliest thing the Obama administration has owned up to. Believe it or not, the normally pro-Obama Washington Post agrees. In an editorial they say:
If it was not partisanship, was it incompetence? Stupidity, on a breathtaking scale?
The Associated Press has a story indicating that senior people at the IRS knew of the targeting by the agency of conservative groups back in 2011.