Politico Reporter: IRS Targeting of Tea Party ‘Easily Influenced’ 2012 Election

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Jack Coleman @ Newsbusters:

The signs keep accumulating that the IRS scandal is worse than liberals are willing to concede.

On Bill Press’s radio show yesterday, a reporter with left-leaning Politico told Press that the Internal Revenue Service dragging its feet on applications for tax-exempt status from tea party groups probably affected the outcome of last year’s election. (Video after the jump)

Here’s what Politico’s Lauren French told Press (audio) —

PRESS: So, Lauren, you’ve been covering this IRS scandal. How big is it really? How serious is it really, do you think?

FRENCH: I think it’s really serious, depending on the groups that were targeted, you could say that this easily influenced the 2012 election. A lot of these groups’ applications were delayed to the point that they weren’t able to get their tax-exempt status until after the election and depending …

PRESS (interrupting): Do you really believe that?

FRENCH: I think that you should be able to, if you are following the rules, partake in the political process and the IRS and the government shouldn’t hold you back. I think that that’s a very fair way to look at this. So, whether or not these groups were going to spend a lot of money or really be the top five of these non-profit groups is a different matter. A lot of these groups actually are really small, but if they have the right, they have the legal right to partake in the election and they should be allowed to. And I think it depends, really, I mean, we’re seeing kind of a drip-drop out of the White House and out of the IRS of who knew what and when, which is something I have been covering, of when was Deputy Treasury Secretary Neal Wolin first told. And as of right now, all we know is that neither the Obama administration or the White House or the Treasury, no one knew before 2013 about the results of this audit. But if we find out that key administration people outside of the IRS knew about it, that’s going to have a significant effect on this scandal. It’s going to turn it into a whole different direction.

A section of the Inspector General’s report (see page 14) on the IRS scandal that Press clearly missed or quickly forgot:

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It started in 2008 with Obama campaign general counsel Bob Bauer going aftert after, Hillary, Edwards, Conservative groups.

Conservatives Became Targets in 2008

The Bauer onslaught was a big part of a new liberal strategy to thwart the rise of conservative groups. In early August 2008, the New York Times trumpeted the creation of a left-wing group (a 501(c)4) called Accountable America. Founded by Obama supporter and liberal activist Tom Mattzie, the group—as the story explained—would start by sending “warning” letters to 10,000 GOP donors, “hoping to create a chilling effect that will dry up contributions.” The letters would alert “right-wing groups to a variety of potential dangers, including legal trouble, public exposure and watchdog groups digging through their lives.” As Mr. Mattzie told Mother Jones: “We’re going to put them at risk.”

Obama feigns that he is “outraged” by the “inappropriate” targeting and harassment of conservatives, groups. Methinks the lady(-pants-wearer) doth protest too much. This is how his campaigns have operated from the start, therefore it is pretty clear that these unconstitutional abuses of power are coming from the top of the Obama hierarchy, down to their thuggish low level operatives.