… In short, the entire scandal narrative was a fiction. But it had real consequences, effectively derailing Obama’s agenda not long after a resounding reelection, costing several people their careers, and distracting and misinforming the public. It’s not that nothing went wrong at the IRS, but that the transgression merited […] Read more »
Shifting IRS polls contradict key deposition
Roughly half of all Americans now think the White House was behind the Internal Revenue Service decision to target conservative political groups — a growing belief at odds with information recently provided to CNN by congressional investigators. [cont.] Alan Silverleib, CNN Read more »
Dark Money Politics
In the world of nonprofit “dark money” groups, nothing is as it seems: political committees, through the magic of the internal revenue code, become tax-exempt “social welfare” organizations; a partisan campaign ad becomes principled “issue advocacy”; and federal election law that requires public disclosure of donors is rendered toothless by […] Read more »
Gomez: No tea for me, thanks
In the 2010 special US Senate election, enthusiasm from the nascent Tea Party movement helped propel Scott Brown past Martha Coakley. In the 2013 special election, the Tea Party is nowhere to be found, and Gabriel Gomez isn’t exactly turning over rocks looking for it. [cont.] MassINC Polling Read more »
Americans Think Officials Knew About IRS Political Targeting
Nearly six in 10 Americans believe that high-ranking IRS officials in Washington were aware the IRS had a practice of targeting conservative political groups for greater scrutiny in recent years. One-quarter think knowledge of this was mainly limited to the agency’s office in Cincinnati where the mishandled applications for tax-exempt […] Read more »
Almost Half of Americans Say Obama Untruthful About IRS
Almost half of Americans say President Barack Obama isn’t telling the truth when he says he didn’t know the Internal Revenue Service was giving extra scrutiny to the applications of small government groups seeking tax-exempt status. Forty-seven percent of Americans say they don’t believe Obama compared with 40 percent who […] Read more »