Independent Groups   AP: Was IRS Targeting Limited to Cincinnati Office?  The revelation could prove to be significant if investigators are able to show that Washington officials were involved in singling out tea party and other conservative groups for extra scrutiny when they applied for tax-exempt status. IRS officials have said repeatedly that the targeting was [...]

In the News   Politifact: IRS targeted liberal groups during Bush years, says Jim McDermott David Keating, president of the conservative leaning group, Center for Competitive Politics, sees nothing similar between what happened under Bush and what happened under Obama. “I just don’t’ see this as being in the same league,” Keating said. The key difference is [...]

Independent Groups   Washington Post: Conservative groups targeted by IRS testify that agency demanded they curtail activities  By Juliet Eilperin Susan Martinek, president of the Coalition for Life of Iowa, testified that an IRS agent told her in June 2009 that she needed to send a letter with her entire board’s signatures “stating under penalty of [...]

In the News   Washington Times: Self-financing candidates can’t buy love; wealthy challengers rarely win the elections  By Luke Rosiak But having the wealth to get out of that doesn’t always translate into political charisma, and may actually be a disadvantage for candidates who need to connect with average voters. “You don’t know how a business guy [...]

Independent Groups   National Review: The Lois Lerner Defense By Mark Steyn We have the president of the United States’ word as a gentleman that he knew nothing about the Internal Revenue Service’s targeting of his enemies until he “learned about it from the same news reports that I think most people learned about this.” Furthermore, although the [...]

Independent Groups   Wall Street Journal: Donors to GOP Group Drew IRS Scrutiny  By JOHN D. MCKINNON and DIONNE SEARCEY At the same time the Internal Revenue Service was targeting tea-party groups, the tax agency took the unusual step of trying to impose gift taxes on donors to a prominent conservative advocacy group formed in 2007 [...]