Wednesday, May 15, 2013

Watergate Revisited?

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George Will reminds us that forty years ago this week---May 17, 1973, the Senate Watergate hearings began exploring the nature of Richard Nixon's administration.

The result?

"He has, acting personally and through subordinates and agents, endeavored 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."

---Article II, Section 1, Articles of Impeachment Against Richard M. Nixon, adopted by the House Judiciary Committee, July 29, 1974.

A young lawyer named Hillary Clinton worked tirelessly on this case.

Now, the nature of Barack Obama's administration is being clarified as revelations about the IRS targeting conservative groups merge with reports regarding Benghazi, reveal that lies upon lies and misleading statements were made to the American public and even to the family members of those murdered in the terrorist attack.

And then, as they say in Yakima, when it rains it pours.

We now hear the administration has wire tapped the Associated Press not only in New York, Washington DC and Hartford, but also the main AP number in the House of Representatives press gallery.

The press, who have been beyond supportive of the Obama administration--- nearly complicit, now are feeling betrayed---jilted.

What the press evidently believed to be a long term relationship, seems to be more of a one night stand. Or at least, an "evolving" relationship, with speed bumps.

We have also learned that ProPublica, a far left, George Sorros connected organization, was sent copies by the IRS of applications and information submitted to the IRS by conservative groups.


While the New York Times carried a little story on page 10 with a headline story on global warming when the IRS scandal broke this week, the Washington Post at least put the story on their front page. They also included a reminder of Watergate and the Nixon impeachment.

Secular progressivism has brought us to where we are, however that does not diminish the responsibility of those who believe and practice the philosophy.

Their notions about relative values and truth have led to not only believing they are above the "outdated laws and principles of conservatives," but are called upon to regulate and run the lives of the lessor people---the conservatives and people of faith---those locked in the past.

Five days before the IRS story broke, the President was speaking at Ohio State University Commencement where he was warning the graduates of "creeping cynicism" and "voices" that "warn that tyranny is...just around the corner."

"Don't listen to them," he said.

Okay. I understand why he would not want university students to listen.

Today we are being asked to believe there was no political motives behind the IRS targeting conservative groups. Perhaps if we believe that or suggest otherwise, we are victims of "creeping cynicism."

Earlier this week the House Ways and Means Committee wrote a letter and hand delivered it to the IRS demanding that the agency deliver, by Friday, all communications containing the words, "tea party," "patriot" or "conservative" and the names and titles of all IRS officials involved in discriminating against the above.

So far the IRS has not responded.

Steve Miller, acting IRS commissioner says, "Mistakes were made".

I would say so.

He said the mistakes were a result of the urgency of being overworked due to increased applications.

He says, "Politics did not play a role." He said the agency was guilty of a "lack of sensitivity."

Really?

Everyone who believes that at this point, please line up on the far left side of the room.

If politics did not "play a role," why did the IRS send copies of at least 31 applications and information documentation from conservative groups to ProPublica, a far left progressive organization connected to George Sorros?

ProPublica wrote negative press about conservative groups using 6 copies of IRS applications illegally given to them by the IRS before the conservative groups had even been approved.

And who is ProPublica?

Check this out from Fox:

The investigative reporting start-up ProPublica is a prime example. ProPublica, which recently won its second Pulitzer Prize, initially was given millions of dollars from the Sandler Foundation to “strengthen the progressive infrastructure” – “progressive” being the code word for very liberal. In 2010, it also received a two-year contribution of $125,000 each year from the Open Society Foundations. In case you wonder where that money comes from, the OSF website is www.soros.org. It is a network of more than 30 international foundations, mostly funded by Soros, who has contributed more than $8 billion to those efforts.

There's more. Read the link to Fox.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says the IRS is "just the beginning."

He says he personally raised the issue in 2012 and the Washington Post dismissed it as a "bunch of red herrings."

He says this scandal extends up the chain, "The Obama effort to shut up opponents isn't limited to the IRS, it applies to the FCC (Federal Communications Commission), HHS (Department of Human Services)...and you remember, the Obama campaign last year published a list of eight businessmen who it believed were enemies."

McConnell also said this administration "will stop at nothing to get its way. It will do anything to silence its critics."

He also added that the recent IRS revelations were “just the beginning of the story. This is no little thing. This is a big thing. The good news about it is they finally got caught. They finally messed with an agency everybody fully understands. When they try to quiet the critics through other agencies, it doesn’t get attention. This does. Everybody understands the IRS and how powerful they are. This is just one example of an administration-wide effort to silence critics.”

Senator McConnell, we wish you well as you pursue this travesty.

We pray that you, too, are not silenced.

God help us.