February 27, 2006
The Call is Coming From Inside the House!
Today Josh Marshall first reminds us what reasonable people used to be able to think:
Under every administration there are examples of individuals or tax exempt groups (associated with the opposing party) getting audited by the IRS. It always, or usually, looks a bit fishy. But there's seldom any concrete evidence of politicized decision-making at the IRS to point to. So partisans on one side or another make their judgments in the absence of hard proof. And that's pretty much where it ends.
and then reveals what a Brave New Nixonian World we actually live in:
There's a astounding piece on page A3 of the Post today about one of these instances -- only in this case there appears to be more or less conclusive evidence that it was a political hit.
Yes, it appears that (friends of) Tom Delay instigated an IRS audit of a group that was driving the corruption case(s) against him as retaliation.
It's always driven me nuts when people pish-tosh civil libertarian arguments about, say, domestic government spying or the ability to unilaterally declare anyone an "illegal combatant." The standard reply to these concerns is usually something along the lines of, "I'm not doing anything wrong. What do I care as long as I have nothing to hide?" If you try to argue that the government might use these powers against the political opposition, they usually start making snide remarks about tinfoil hats.
Well, wake up, America. It's a fairly short jump from this crap to having the FBI keep everyone on your enemies list under careful watch. The bald truth is, there is not one example in history of a government having a power it didn't abuse. This is the unavoidable hazard of having governments staffed and run by human beings.
They say the price of freedom is eternal vigilance. Usually, they say this while casting dirty looks at dirty foreigners. This is a profound misapprehension of freedom's historically most potent and dogged foes.
Posted by ben at February 27, 2006 03:02 PM
Comments
Well said Ben! I couldn't agree more. Its things like this that make me glad we have the ACLU to help keep an eye on big brother.
Posted by: Za at February 27, 2006 04:37 PM