As if the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) needed another hit
to its already less-than-likable public image among Virginians, the Richmond
Tea Party’s executive director, Laurence Nordvig, stated on Saturday that his
organization was among those inappropriately targeted by the IRS.
According to Nordvig, members of the Richmond Tea Party “had
become suspicious during protracted questioning over a two-year period in which
the group was trying to qualify for nonprofit status, which it was eventually awarded.”
That’s probably not what Richmond Tea Party members had in mind when they
decided to attempt to qualify for nonprofit status.
Nordvig also stated, “For a period of two years, IRS
officials intentionally obstructed our organization’s attempts to qualify for a
simple nonprofit status, at the cost of hundreds of man hours and thousands of
dollars. In addition, intrusive and improper demands were made for personal
information about our volunteers, which not only invaded privacy, but
encroached upon their constitutional rights to free speech and free
association.”
The use of government power to intimidate, coerce,
undermine, or otherwise inappropriately block the rights of American citizens,
whatever their political affiliation, is an act that cannot and should not be
tolerated. And to add insult to injury, the
former IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman seems to have lied about his knowledge
of intentionally targeting conservative groups.
Even if Osama bin Laden had a political organization LEGALLY
operating in the U.S., this organization would not warrant the type of gross
government abuse witnessed by the IRS against conservative groups (notice the
word, legally). It simply doesn’t represent the principles embodied in our
country’s foundational political theory or law.
Those senior IRS officials who knew about this
discriminatory targeting should immediately step down from their posts or be
forced to by the Obama administration.
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