Biggest Question About IRS Scandal: Why The Apology?

What is most intriguing about this latest Obama scandal is not that the IRS was targeting conservative groups like the tea party for audits in 2012 but that it has apologized for doing so. White House spokesman, Jay Carney tried to mitigate the agency's alleged misconduct by blaming Bush. At a press conference he said, "The individual who is running the IRS at the time was actually an appointee from the previous administration."

That makes no sense because the Bush appointee was, Douglas Shulman, who is not a registered Republican and has donated to the Democrat Party. So why the apology? Could it be because it was the right thing to do? What a concept.

More than likely it's because Barack Obama didn't cover his tracks as well as Bill Clinton did when he was president. Last year, charges of misconduct were brought on behalf of the Landmark Legal Foundation, an organization that Mark Levin heads, requesting an investigation. Mr. Levin told Jeff Poor at The Daily Caller that his organization had litigated similar complaints of political audits during the Clinton administration and specifically referenced the Heritage Foundation as one of the tax collector's targets at the time. This statement reminded me of my own connection with this conservative think tank.

In 2000 I wrote a column for the Staten Island Advance about how Clinton was worse than Richard Nixon in using the IRS to target enemies of his administration. Soon after it was posted online I received an email from a VP at the Heritage Foundation informing me of the heavy costs the organization endured to fight these attacks by the agency.

What I discovered in my research at the time was that charges of misconduct were dismissed by the IRS which was then headed by Charles O. Rossotti, an appointee of the Clinton administration who served from 1997-2002. Needless to say no apology was issued for any misconduct. The Heritage Foundation was not the only target of course. Conservatives like Bill O'Reilly and other Clinton critics were audited more than the average taxpayers as well. In fact, Clinton's enemies list dwarfed Nixon's and they were subjected to continual audits by the IRS meant to cost these 'enemies' financial and emotional hardships.

A senior IRS official, Paul Breslan told Judicial Watch, the Washington -based legal watchdog group, "What do you expect when you sue the president?" The group had filed 50-plus legal actions against the Clinton administration and subsequently found itself a prime target by the administration.

Judicial Watch was not alone, of course and witnesses bearing damaging testimony against the president who were singled out for audits include: Clinton paramours Gennifer Flowers and Liz Ward Gracen, sexual assault accusers Paula Jones and Juanita Broaddrick, and fired White House Travel Office Director Billy Dale.

Conservative groups beside the Heritage Foundation included: The National Rifle Association, National Review, The American Spectator, Freedom Alliance, National Center for Public Policy Research, American Policy Center, American Cause, Citizens Against Government Waste, Citizens for Honest Government, Progress and Freedom Foundation, Concerned Women for America and the San Diego Chapter of Christian Coalition.

Although Richard Nixon has the reputation of going after his enemies by using the IRS, he was actually not very successful at it. In fact, I wrote, he was a piker compared to the Clinton administration and that was because the commissioners in charge of the White House during his presidential years were decent Republicans and were not inclined to do his dirty work.

Bill Clinton made sure he had the backup for his misdeeds but Barack Obama did not and while he made jokes about auditing his critics, failed to remove all Bush appointees at the IRS Although a probably Democrat, Shulman was appointed Commissioner of the IRS by George W. Bush and served from 2008-2012. He has been succeeded by his Deputy Commissioner, Steven T. Miller who is now acting Commissioner. After the IRS's admission and apology, time will tell if Obama decides to make his position permanent.

The IRS has actually been performing decently for the past few years in that it has been attacking the outright fraud against taxpayers. Currently the agency has opened 800 criminal investigations and Mr. Miller, says it has stepped up efforts to prevent fraud and service identity theft victims.

He also reported to a Senate panel that the agency has expanded the number and quality of its identity theft screening filters and has suspended or rejected more than 2 million suspicious tax returns this filing season, Miller said. In all of last year, the agency stopped 5 million suspicious returns.

Besides the apology issued for auditing the tea party and other conservative alliances, the IRS was forced has to apologize for spending tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars to film a Star Trek parody costing $60,000. In its apology to Congress, the IRS determined that the video, which was played for a leadership conference, did not have enough educational content to justify its cost. On the other hand, it defended a Gilligan's Island video which was an introduction to a 12-hour training series. The commissioner defended the video as part of a campaign that saved an estimated $1.5m in 2011, which it would have otherwise spent in personal training.

The Internal Revenue has always been perceived as the bane of law-abiding and long-suffering taxpayers. It can also unfortunately be a punishing henchman of a corrupt administration. In the past it has allowed itself to be used to punish critics and enemies of a despotic government more totalitarian than democratic. News that the Obama administration had requested the hiring of thousands of new IRS to enforce Obamacare only confirmed fears that the IRS was being used once again to do an administration's dirty work.

It may be too soon to view these recent apologies and admission of misconduct as a sign that the agency may not be willing to sacrifice its original mission to ensure that every taxpayer is treated fairly, and that we know and understand all our rights.

Targeting tax fraud and identity theft is a step in the right direction. But instead of going after conservative patriotic groups that love this country, it would better serve the nation by removing the 501 tax exempt status of organizations that foment terror and anti-American activism.

Alicia Colon resides in New York City and can be reached at aliciav.colon@gmail.com and at www.aliciacolon.com