And Nixon didn't abuse the IRS - that is urban legend.................
Originally Posted by Whirlaway
If it was urban legend, then why was it the second article of impeachment the House Judiciary Committee approved? Doh! If by "urban legend" you mean history that isn't favorable to conservatives, then yes, I agree.
http://www.historyplace.com/unitedst...ents/nixon.htm
"Those who don't know history are doomed to misrepresent it" - austxjr
No, Nixon used IRS to abuse his percieved "enemies". Nixon also tried to use the BLS for his own purposes but failed. It happened under FDR, Reagan, Clinton and Bush too. If they didn't do it explicitly, then it was done to some extent under their administrations. This was much less after Nixon because of Congress.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...301630836.html
"After Richard Nixon took office, his administration quickly created a Special Services Staff to mastermind what a memo called "all IRS activities involving ideological, militant, subversive, radical, and similar type organizations."
More than 10,000 individuals and groups were targeted because of their political activism or slant between 1969 and 1973, including Nobel Laureate Linus Pauling (a left-wing critic of the Vietnam War) and the far-right John Birch Society.
The IRS was also given Nixon's enemies list to, in the words of White House counsel John Dean, "use the available federal machinery to screw our political enemies."
The exposure of Nixon's IRS abuses during congressional hearings in 1973 and 1974 profoundly weakened him during the uproar after the Watergate hotel break-in. The second article of his 1974 impeachment charged him with endeavoring to obtain from the IRS "confidential information contained in income tax returns for purposes not authorized by law, and to cause, in violation of the constitutional rights of citizens, income tax audits or other income tax investigations to be initiated or conducted in a discriminatory manner." Congress enacted legislation to severely restrict political contacts between the White House and the IRS.
Hey, this wasn't good, but it wasn't a conspiracy unless you think (as you obviously do) that everything done under Obama (with his participation or without) is a nefarious conspiracy. It isn't near as bad as what Bush did to the NAACP where there is a letter from the IRS stating
the audit was triggered by opposition to George Bush and threatening fines and penalties.
"The agency denied a culture of bias. They said the audit was triggered by staffers in a satellite office" Sound Familiar?