by Jim Kouri
Following the day's myriad news stories on Benghazi, Associated Press
allegations and the IRS targeting right-of-center organizations, the
highly anticipated Treasury Department's report on the blossoming IRS
scandal released late Tuesday is relatively small comfort for Tea
Party groups, according to political strategist and attorney Michael
Bakker.
The report does strongly suggest that management style of President
Barack Obama -- leading from behind -- may have presented the White
House with yet another scandal: lack of adequate supervision at the
Internal Revenue Service that allowed agents to target tea party,
patriot and other conservative groups for additional probing whenever
they applied for "501 (c) (3) nonprofit" tax exempt status, according
to a report releasedTuesday by the Department of Treasury.
Inadequate management contributed to rank-and-file agents to target
mostly Republican and Libertarian leaning organizations for more than
18 months, according to the report of the Treasury Department's
inspector general's investigation.
The powerful Treasury Department's tax-collecting and enforcement
agency, the Internal Revenue Services (IRS), had already conceded on
Friday that its agents targeted conservative PACs and Tea Party groups
for politically-motivated audits during the 2012 election.
"While the Obama White House claims that it called for a full
investigation into the allegations, I believe these scandals --
Benghazi, Associated Press and IRS -- are the result of Chicago
politics infecting the rest of the nation," said Mike Bakker, a
political strategist and attorney.
According to the director of the IRS' department overseeing tax-exempt
organizations, Lois Lerner, employees at an IRS office in Ohio began a
probe of organizations using the terms "patriot" or "Tea Party." IRS
agents conducted politically-motivated reviews during the 2012
election cycle, including the presidential race, to see if
conservative groups were violating their tax-exempt status.
However, Lerner backed away from her original statement and told
reporters that the decision to conduct the probe was not partisan,
just an "error in judgment," by low-level employees who were "less
sensitive than they should have been about the impact this
[harassment] might have on the Obama-Romney race and other elections
in November 2012.
"We made some mistakes. We apologize," said Lerner.
"Mistakes? Writing a wrong number or name on a tax form is a mistake.
Sending agents with the power to violate a person's or group's privacy
is harassment at best, out-and-out criminal use of intimidation at
worst," said political strategist Mike Bakker on Friday.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell immediately responded to
Lerner's announcement and, like many conservatives, he said that the
IRS's announcement was proof that allegations made by conservative
groups were "well-founded."
White House Spokesman Jay Carney said during his regular briefing on
Monday that IRS' conduct was "inappropriate," and the matter was
already under investigation.
But many conservatives are demanding that the White House conduct a
"transparent, government-wide review," and not the usual cover-up as
seen in the Benghazi and Fast and Furious scandals.
According to the acclaimed talk show host and attorney, Mark Levin,
his public-interest group Landmark Legal Foundation had been probing
the IRS's investigations of conservative and Tea Party groups.
Levin said that the IRS dispatched agents to commit "outrageous"
investigations of groups and citizens who oppose the Obama
administration and agenda.
IRS agents began targeting groups with "Tea Party," ''Patriots" or
"9/12 Project" -- a movement started by talk show sensation Glenn Beck
-- in their applications as far back as March 2010. The IRS later
included groups that promoted the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
"Adding 'the Constitution and the Bill of Rights' to the list of
targets strongly suggests that the Democrats, including Obama and his
minions, view America's founding documents threatening to their
leftist agenda," said political strategist Michael Baker.
In several cases, the IRS conceded that its agents obtained lists of
donors from groups seeking a 501 (c) (3) nonprofit tax exempt status.
In fact, there are those who claim the donor lists were turned over to
a far-left media organization, ProPublica.org, which is located in New
York City.
The report comes on the same day that Attorney General Eric Holder
announced a Justice Department investigation to determine whether IRS
officials broke any laws. Holder said he wasn't sure which laws may
have been broken.
Jim Kouri, CPP, is founder and CEO of Kouri Associates, a homeland
security, public safety and political consulting firm. He's formerly
Fifth Vice-President, now a Board Member of the National Association
of Chiefs of Police, an editor for ConservativeBase.com, a columnist
for Examiner.com, a contributor to KGAB radio news, and news director
for NewswithViews.com.
He's former chief at a New York City housing project in Washington
Heights nicknamed "Crack City" by reporters covering the drug war in
the 1980s. In addition, he served as director of public safety at St.
Peter's University and director of security for several major
organizations. He's also served on the National Drug Task Force and
trained police and security officers throughout the country.
In addition, he's a blogger for the Cheyenne, Wyoming Fox News Radio
affiliate KGAB (www.kgab.com) and editor of Conservative Base Magazine
(www.conservativebase.com). Kouri also serves as political advisor for
Emmy and Golden Globe winning actor Michael Moriarty.
He holds a bachelor of science in Criminal Justice from Southwest
University and SCI Technical School in New York City and completed
training at the NYC Police Academy, FBI Continuing Education Program,
and the Certified Protection Professional (CPP) of the American
Society for Industrial Security.
Kouri appears regularly as on-air commentator for over 100 TV and
radio news and talk shows including Fox News Channel, Oprah,
McLaughlin Report, CNN Headline News, MTV, etc.
