Bush Used the IRS, FBI, CIA and Secret Service to Go After Opponents -- Where Was the Fox and GOP Outrage?
By David Sirota (about the author)
OpEdNews Op Eds 5/14/2013 at 23:14:41
Source: Salon
The recent IRS flap shows an obvious double standard in Washington's reactions to Bush era and Obama era misconduct.
Former US President George W. Bush thanks US President Barack Obama during a dedication ceremony at the George W. Bush Library and Museum on the grounds of Southern Methodist University on April 25, 2013 in Dallas, Texas.
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.
That's 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 Department's inspector general, congressional scrutiny is certainly warranted. However, there's just one problem: most of the lawmakers and pundits today decrying the use of public resources against a White House's political opponents had little -- if anything -- to say about equally troubling revelations about the Bush administration's deployment of public resources against its opponents. In fact, conservatives said so little back then that Fox News apparently doesn't even know (or is pretending not to know) the Bush administration used the IRS in the same way the Obama administration allegedly did.
And here's the even more incredible thing: the Bush cabal didn't 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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http://www.opednews.com/articles/Bush-Used-the-IRS-FBI-CI-by-David-Sirota-130514-490.html
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