Bush Used the IRS, FBI, CIA and Secret Service to Go After Opponents...
Salon / By David Sirota
Bush Used the IRS, FBI, CIA and Secret Service to Go After Opponents -- Where Was the Fox and GOP Outrage?
The recent IRS flap shows an obvious double standard in Washington's reactions to Bush era and Obama era misconduct.
As your kindergarten teacher probably told you, two wrongs do not make a right. But the discrepancy in reactions to wrongs does, indeed, show how Washington so often serves the interests of the political right.
Thats one of the big if deliberately ignored takeaways from the reaction to news that the Internal Revenue Service allegedly targeting conservative organizations for extra scrutiny in their larger review of political groups tax exempt status. In the last few days, the allegations have generated a wave of national headlines, a congressional investigation,federal legislation and ever-louder calls for impeachment.
Considering the gravity of the allegations against the Obama IRS from the Treasury Departments inspector general, congressional scrutiny is certainly warranted. However, theres just one problem: most of the lawmakers and pundits today decrying the use of public resources against a White Houses political opponents had little if anything to say about equally troubling revelations about the Bush administrations deployment of public resources against its opponents. In fact, conservatives said so little back then that Fox News apparently doesnt even know (or is pretending not to know) the Bush administration used the IRS in the same way the Obama adminstration allegedly did.
And heres the even more incredible thing: the Bush cabal didnt just use the IRS for its political hackery it mounted a full-scale government-wide assault on its enemies, marshaling disparate agencies in its smear efforts.
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