Get Ready for Obamagate!

[Lemur]

As more info emerges about the IRS thing, looks like it's going to be very hard to tie to the White House.

A U.S. Internal Revenue Service manager, who described himself as a conservative Republican, told congressional investigators that he and a local colleague decided to give conservative groups the extra scrutiny that has prompted weeks of political controversy. [...]

The excerpts of interviews with IRS workers released by Cummings indicate that the IRS manager and an underling first decided to contact Washington, D.C. IRS officials for guidance on the cases from groups aligned with the anti-tax Tea Party movement.

They did so to consolidate them, as they might be precedent-setting for future cases, the manager said, according to the interview transcripts.

It was an unidentified Cincinnati IRS worker who reported to the manager, identified as John Shafer by committee aides, who identified the first Tea Party case.

Two interesting notes: (1) None of these groups actually needed permission to assume 501(c)4 status; their request of status from the IRS was voluntary and "on them." All of these political groups could have had their tax-exempt status without any problem by filing for 527 status. The only reason to file for 501(c)4 was to prevent disclosure of their donors.

I'd like to thank Citizens United for making this unholy mess possible!