[EL] The enemies list, then and now
BZall at aol.com
BZall at aol.com
Mon Jul 23 07:40:28 PDT 2012
Oh, you don't need to go back as far as Nixon to see the IRS used this way.
_http://www.cato.org/pubs/journal/cj19n2/cj19n2-8.pdf_
(http://www.cato.org/pubs/journal/cj19n2/cj19n2-8.pdf)
And the late Bill Lehrfeld convened a series of very interesting meetings
in my office in the early and mid-90's on White House influence on IRS
Exempt Organization examinations (an audit of an exempt organization is known as
an "examination"). The Washington Times carried a series of articles about
the IRS campaign, which sparked my friend Marc Owens, then head of IRS EO
Division, to call me and harangue me about the non-political nature of the
audit selection process. But witness the extreme uncomfortableness of the
lead IRS examiner on the audit of a very large conservative organization
trying to explain to us how the organization was "randomly" selected soon
after the Clinton Administration took over, just like a variety of other
similar organizations. Which, of course, led to the Lehrfeld meetings of a couple
dozen lawyers for similar organizations in one room. The subsequent
congressional report on the audit process was a joke to anyone with actual
knowledge.
So the real surprise is that anyone is surprised that this might happen
again. The people at IRS are often unjustly accused, but they are, after all,
just human.
Barnaby Zall
Of Counsel
Weinberg, Jacobs & Tolani, LLP
Please note our new address:
10411 Motor City Dr., Suite 500
Bethesda, MD 20817
301-231-6943 (direct dial)
_www.wjlaw.com_ (http://www.wj/)
bzall at aol.com
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In a message dated 7/23/2012 10:14:57 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
david.l.epstein at gmail.com writes:
Ask and ye shall receive. I stand corrected -- it is on the official
website.
Reading it over, though, I remain unconvinced that the people on this
list are marked for some sort of government retaliation. In fact, I
find the very suggestion an insult to former President Nixon and his
cronies. Now *they* knew how to put together a real enemies list, with
lots of journalists (e.g. Daniel Schorr, who was handed the list at
the last moment not knowing he was on it and read his name on air),
cultural icons (e.g. Paul Newman, who remained proud of his
inclusion), and so on. And its purpose was to see "how we can use the
available federal machinery to screw our political enemies." I think
Obama still has a ways to go before he catches up with the master.
On Mon, Jul 23, 2012 at 9:20 AM, Soren Dayton <soren.dayton at gmail.com>
wrote:
> Yeah, it's on the website
>
>
http://www.barackobama.com/truth-team/entry/behind-the-curtain-a-brief-history-of-romneys-donors/
>
> Sent from my iPad
>
> On Jul 23, 2012, at 9:10 AM, David Epstein <david.l.epstein at gmail.com>
wrote:
>
>> This is it? Seriously? After reading the column, I see that someone
>> (presumably wealthy) who donated money to Romney has been audited. I
>> also see that an Obama "campaign website" listed some donors along
>> with aspersions on their characters, but (tellingly), there is no link
>> provided to this website. If someone has the link, I'd be happy to
>> follow that too, but my guess is that it wasn't published by the
>> actual Obama campaign.
>>
>> Pretty thin gruel, definitely on the level of internet urban legends
>> rather than actual news.
>>
>> On Mon, Jul 23, 2012 at 8:59 AM, <JBoppjr at aol.com> wrote:
>>> Click here: The enemies list, then and now | Power Line
>>>
>>> Interesting story about harassment of contributors triggered by the
>>> Obama campaign.
>>>
>>> Opps, on second thought, don't read, we have been authoritatively
told
>>> that this does not happen. Jim Bopp
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Law-election mailing list
>>> Law-election at department-lists.uci.edu
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>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> **************************************
>> David Epstein
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