Karl Rove: Dick Durbin, the IRS, and Me

[Valin]

WSJ:

Many Democrats have fallen silent about letters asking for investigations. Not the senator.

Karl Rove

5/29/13

 

Say this much for Assistant Senate Majority Leader Dick Durbin: He's got chutzpah. Most congressional Democrats who wrote letters asking the IRS to investigate tea party and other 501©(4) conservative groups have fallen silent or are expressing feigned outrage that the IRS would do what they asked. But not Mr. Durbin.

 

(Snip)

 

Crossroads GPS is a 501©(4) advocacy group that builds grass-roots support for conservative policies that encourage economic growth, reduce needless regulation, promote fiscal responsibility and strengthen national security. Many policies that GPS has championedfor example, no cap-and-trade and a 2011 debt limit deal with spending caps and no tax increaseprevailed.

 

(Snip)

 

Democrats were content to have 501©(4) groups active as long as they were operating on behalf of liberals and their causes. For example, no Democratic leader demanded the IRS investigate the 501©(4) arms of the League of Conservation Voters, National Abortion Rights Act League, VoteVets, NAACP, Defenders of Wildlife, Sierra Club and other liberal organizations that have spent millions excoriating Republicans, pushing liberal issues and registering voters.

 

(Snip)

 

What was going on is obvious: Mr. Durbin wanted the IRS to silence conservatives. So did every other congressional Democrat who wrote similar letters to the IRS, from Senate Finance Committee chairman Max Baucus to New York Sen. Chuck Schumer to Vermont Rep. Peter Welch. But in the glare of public attention, using the IRS to cripple or destroy opponents looks corrupt. Abuse of power always is.