CNS:
Landmark Legal Foundation sent a letteron Friday to the Treasury Department’s Inspector General for Tax Administration requesting an investigation to determine whether officials with the Internal Revenue Service have engaged in misconduct in dealing with applications from Tea Party groups seeking tax-exempt status under section 501 (c) (3) of the Internal Revenue Code.
“Landmark Legal Foundation requests an immediate investigation into possible misconduct by the Internal Revenue Service’s Exempt Organization (EO) Divisoin that calls into question the integrity of federal tax administration and IRS programs,” said the letter signed by Landmark President Mark Levin.
“Recent media reports indicate that the EO Division is using inappropriate and intimidating investigation tactics in the administration of applications for exempt status submitted by organizations associated with the Tea Party movement,” Levin wrote.
As CNSNews.com reported earlier this month, the American Center for Law and Justice, which says it represents nearly 20 Tea Party organizations nationwide, put out a statement on March 7 complaining about what it perceived to be improper treatment of Tea Party groups by the IRS.
“This appears to be a coordinated attempt to intimidate Tea Party organizations by demanding information that is outside the scope of legitimate inquiry and violates the First Amendment,” ACLJ Chief Counsel Jay Sekulow said in a statement.
“These organizations have followed the law and applied for tax exempt status for their activities as Americans have done for decades,” Sekulow said. “The problem here is the IRS has gone beyond legitimate inquiries and is demanding that these organizations answer questions that actually violate the First Amendment rights of our clients.”
“This intimidation campaign is as onerous as what the IRS did to the NAACP in the 1950’s and is simply unacceptable,” said Sekulow. “We will aggressively defend our clients and are prepared to take the IRS to court if necessary.”
In his letter to the inspector general, Landmark’s Levin said that the types of inquiries the IRS was making of Tea Party groups were inappropriate.
“The information demanded in many cases goes far beyond the appropriate level of inquiry regarding the religious, charitable and/or educational activities of a tax exempt entity,” said Levin.
“The inquiries are not relevant to these permitted activities,” Levin wrote. “Inquiries extend to organizational policy positions and priorities, personal and poltiical affiliations, and associations of staff, board members and even family members of staff and board members.”
“Finally,” said Levin, “reports that Tea Party-related organizations are being singled out for the IRS’s intrusive inquries raises serious questions about the propriety of the personnel involved in the evaluation of tax exemption applications.”
Trent Lott, Mitt Romney, and the host of docile, status quo Republicans whining for an easy transition of power from one set of ruling elites to another, may not recognize that we are in the midst of an existential war for the very soul of this country. Meanwhile, conservatives like Levin have repeatedly risked ridicule and the tut-tutting of inside-the-Beltway types for his “confrontational” attempts to hold the organized, institutional left in check — or at the very least, at bay.
He is, you see, unhelpful — precisely the kind of conservative talk show host the left so desperately looks to demonize, scapegoat, and silence, and that the establishment right wouldn’t mind see marginalized. Which gives us a clear picture of just where conservatives are today with respect to their relationship with the GOP.
Landmark Legal, in addition to now entering into this particular fray, recently filed papers with WI requesting an investigation into the 29 circuit court judges who signed on to the Governor Walker recall petition. Too, Levin’s group has been instrumental in fighting the legal battle against ObamaCare on behalf of 26 states — even as newly-minted “conservative” favorite Chris Christie has kept New Jersey out of the court battle, and even as Eric Cantor and the GOP leadership seems to be intimating that, rather than a full repeal of ObamaCare, the goal of the Republicans will be to seek partial repeal, then offer various “fixes” to the legislation, should the high court uphold it.
Somebody is going to have to do the heavy lifting. Glad Levin — long a TEA Party favorite — is using his legal foundation to at least let the anti-foundationalists know we’re here and that we won’t simply roll over for them.
@geoffb: There’s some interesting stuff going on in the comments on that story that bear further reading, but the fact BHO said that at all is horrifying.
Even in jest.
I mean, seriously.
just
what
why
Nixon AND Carter. In one guy. Great.
Is this antifoundationalism some kind of Asimovian antidisestablishmentarianism thing?
Reagan said in jest “the missiles have been launched” or something to that effect, so let’s not get too carried away. Yes, I think it was a stupid thing to say, but in this case I’m more willing to think he was just being stupid than revealing a planned malevolence. But I’d be happy to see Levin succeed if no other reason than to make it clear that this is way out of bounds.
He said “the bombing starts in five minutes” in jest during a mike check. It was the media that hyperventilated over the president’s insensitivity regarding even the possibility of nuclear annihilation (the crazy, dinosaur-riding cowboy sonofabitch!).
Obama’s “jokes” are always in front of an audience, and he’s never really joking.
Yeeeeeah. While I can see the grounds for comparison there, @charlesaustin, this is not an isolated issue with Obama. And as Ernst points out, Reagan made a joke during a mike check. This is versus Obabo’s record for “joking” about retarded and/or illegal political policy moves and “jokingly” denigrating whoever he feels like because he knows his supporters will think it’s hilarious and he gets away with airing his actual intentions/opinions.
If anyone in the audience actually does stand up and go “hey, that’s not funny, and not only that, it’s illegal/incorrect/classist/horrifying,” he can fall back on the time-honored recourse of twelve-year-old boys and enormous pricks everywhere–“I was just joking!” And he’s got millions of people who will slavishly back him up on his intentions.
‘Cuz it’s an acceptable double standard when you’ve got a D by your name.
This all just re-proves what a political idiot Obama is.
The media latched onto the “Most Brilliant Man Ever To Be President” canard and now they’ve got to be sweating.
This, Trayvon, the stupid Cambridge police, the photo op on a pipeline, etc. etc.
This guy speaks off the top of his head and we are all a little dumber for having heard it.
It’s funny because its true!
Levin speaks for me in so many areas. Obama speaks for me in…none.
It seems to be a media trope that Republican presidents are dunces and Democrat presidents are geniuses. Bill Clinton was hailed on the cover of the Mensa Bulletin in 1993 as “Mensa-caliber” despite his not being a member and never even having submitted an IQ score for consideration.
I had been a Mensan for just two years when that happened, and had just renewed for three. I never paid that organization another penny.
The frame work is that Republicans are master manipulator crooks who pull all the puppet strings with their secret society ties (Bush 41, Nixon,) or they are dunces who can’t spell potato or fall down the boarding stairs of Air Force One.
Sometimes they get confused and try out both approaches as with Reagan and George W. without being able to explain the contradiction of an idiot master manipulator.