The Numbers: 292 Tea Party Groups Targeted, Just 6 Progressive Groups

An update to Drew's post below-- when only six organizations were looked at, they may be be being targeted, but they're being targeted for the easy treatment, not the rough treatment.

In a letter to congressional Democrats, the inspector general also said that 100 percent of Tea Party groups seeking special tax status were put under IRS review, while only 30 percent of the progressive groups felt the same pressure.

Let's unpack this whole claim -- liberals are clinging to the idea that if any of their groups were targeted, then this isn't a scandal at all, just equal application of the law.

But this is nonsense. The entire point is that the IRS is supposed to review these applications in order to determine whether the applicant fits under the rule for receiving special status. Progressives are now basically saying that if the IRS did its basic job with respect to progressive groups, and looked at a few of them, then there's no scandal.

But that's what the IRS was supposed to do. That doesn't mean it was "targeting" them.

What's targeting? Targeting is when the IRS applies special search terms to give your applications special scrutiny above and beyond the level that other groups receive.

All the progressive defenders of the IRS seem to be able to allege is that the IRS treated their groups properly and did in fact do some basic due diligence on a few of them.

But they weren't targeted for heightened scrutiny-- they got the regular ol' level of scrutiny.

And they know it, and now they're lying.

Meanwhile, 26% of Obama supporters believe the nation's top terrorist threat is The Tea Party, and, oh joy, I guess a lot of them work at the IRS.

new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 51% of Likely U.S. Voters consider radical Muslims to be the bigger threat to the United States today. Thirteen percent (13%) view the Tea Party that way, and another 13% consider other political and religious extremists to be the larger danger....

However, among those who approve of the president’s job performance, just 29% see radical Muslims as the bigger threat. Twenty-six percent (26%) say it’s the Tea Party that concerns them most. Among those who Strongly Approve of the president, more fear the Tea Party than radical Muslims.

posted by Ace at 11:52 AM

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