Independent Groups
Wall Street Journal: Obama’s Counsel Told of IRS Audit Findings Weeks Ago
By Peter NicholasThe White House’s chief lawyer learned weeks ago that an audit of the Internal Revenue Service likely would show that agency employees inappropriately targeted conservative groups, a senior White House official said Sunday.
Wall Street Journal: Higher-Ups Knew of IRS Case
By JOHN D. MCKINNON, SIOBHAN HUGHES and DAMIAN PALETTAThe Internal Revenue Service’s watchdog told top Treasury officials around June 2012 he was investigating allegations the tax agency had targeted conservative groups, for the first time indicating that Obama administration officials were aware of the explosive matter in the midst of the president’s re-election campaign.The disclosure to the Treasury general counsel and the deputy secretary was a cursory one, according to J. Russell George, the Treasury inspector general for tax administration. He said he didn’t reveal conclusions of the probe, which was in its early stages, and his disclosure came as part of a routine update to Treasury leaders. At the time, Republican lawmakers were complaining publicly about alleged IRS targeting of tea-party groups.
Washington Post: ‘Who’s going to jail’ over IRS scandal? Probably nobody.
By Aaron BlakeEssentially, there are three types of laws that might conceivably have been broken, as Attorney General Eric Holder acknowledged in his testimony before a House committee Wednesday:1) Civil rights laws that protect people from being discriminated against by the government2) The Hatch Act, which prevents civil servants from engaging in partisan political activity3) Perjury laws, which prevent people from lying to Congress
Prospect: How to Stop the Next IRS Scandal
By JONATHAN BERNSTEINHere’s a better idea: Instead of trying to chase the big money away, resulting again and again in more obscure and more difficult-to-understand campaign structures, just let it return to where it makes the most sense to be: In the campaigns and in the formal party organizations. Lift the limitations on contributions. If someone wants to give a million dollars or three to a House candidate or $20M to the Republican National Committee, let ‘em. No ceilings at all.
Washington Post: Dan Pfeiffer: Legal questions in IRS scandal ‘irrelevant’ to ‘inexcusable’ actions
By Sean SullivanWhite House senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer said Sunday the question of whether any laws were broken in the Internal Revenue Scandal is “irrelevant” to the fact that the agency’s actions were wrong and unjustifiable.“I can’t speak to the law here. The law is irrelevant,” Pfefiffer said on ABC News’s “This Week With George Stephanopoulos.” “The activity was outrageous and inexcusable, and it was stopped and it needs to be fixed to ensure it never happens again.”
NY Times: Confusion and Staff Troubles Rife at I.R.S. Office in Ohio
By NICHOLAS CONFESSORE, DAVID KOCIENIEWSKI and MICHAEL LUOWhile there are still many gaps in the story of how the I.R.S. scandal happened, interviews with current and former employees and with lawyers who dealt with them, along with a review of I.R.S. documents, paint a more muddled picture of an understaffed Cincinnati outpost that was alienated from the broader I.R.S. culture and given little direction.Overseen by a revolving cast of midlevel managers, stalled by miscommunication with I.R.S. lawyers and executives in Washington and confused about the rules they were enforcing, the Cincinnati specialists flagged virtually every application with Tea Party in its name. But their review went beyond conservative groups: more than 400 organizations came under scrutiny, including at least two dozen liberal-leaning ones and some that were seemingly apolitical.
Disclosure
NY Times: Potential Donors to Enroll America Grow Skittish
By ROBERT PEARWASHINGTON — The Obama administration’s efforts to raise private money to carry out the president’s health care law have provoked such a strong partisan uproar that potential donors have become skittish about contributing, according to several people involved in the fund-raising program.White House officials said they did not sign off on the fund-raising calls made byKathleen Sebelius, the secretary of health and human services, but were generally aware that she would be seeking support from outside groups.
State and Local
California –– LA Times: Corporate money in politics: Liberals vs. liberals on Prop. C
By Michael McGoughAll in all, the editorial said Proposition C was a “primal scream about the role of corporate (and other) money in politics” that would send a muddled message to the members of Congress it purportedly was instructing.The Times may be right or wrong on Proposition C — voters will have the final say on May 21 — but we’re not alone in seeing problems with the measure.
Illinois –– Chicago Tribune: City contract seekers donate to Emanuel despite his own ban
By Jeff Coen and John ChaseLeaders of a tech firm seeking a city contract donated $15,000 to Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s campaign fund, despite Emanuel’s own executive order banning contributions from vendors trying to get city business.The donations linked to a company that uses digital mapping to find illegal billboards are the latest example of a political tie-in to the mayor’s billboard initiative, rolled out last fall with a no-bid contract to another Emanuel campaign donor.
