Why Does Obama Rush to Throw IRS Under the Bus

I will be honest in saying that I don't follow the scandals of Washington too much anymore.  The Right has cried wolf for a generation, and at this point it's getting hard to listen.  But I am pretty disappointed with the President for his hasty rush to judgement about the supposed political abuse by the IRS of various Tea Party and right wing groups.

Our President has once again embraced the expedient in stead of the good.  He has, in effect, fired the interim head of the IRS, tarnishing that unconfirmed director's reputation without benefit of hearings or an attempt to understand what was behind the IRS's controversial actions.

The GOP noise machine is representing this "scandal" as something right out of the Nixon administration. How hypocritical coming from a party that gave us the Nixonian and Cheney/Bush administrations that never knew the meaning of truth.  The voices bleating farthest on the right say that the IRS was acting politically to promote the advantage of the American Chavez who sought to silence his political enemies and undermine the constitution because he hates America.  All the better to wage his war to bring Socialist health care on freedom loving Americans as well as obliterate the constitutional right to keep and arm bears.  Or something like that...

But seriously, does even a moderated version of this hyper-suspicion of the Executive Branch hold water when you think about it for five minutes?  The IRS is an apolitical bureaucracy and is chock full of people who got their jobs during the Bush years  What do they have to gain by "abusing" their power and going after the right?  Further, did they apply this same attitude to 501c requests originating from other ideological viewpoints?  Most importantly, is there grounds for defense of the IRS considering the view that 501c status was being unlawfully exploited as a nefarious loophole in campaign finance and tax law, allowing unlimited and anonymous campaign funding in violation of other campaign and tax law?  There is a view that lawyers of the left and right were and are evading the spirit and letter of campaign and tax laws, subverting Democracy and gaining tax advantages in doing so.  That was a valid view then, and it still applies now... to 501c's of the left and right.  This includes Stephen Colbert's 501c that showed us exactly what abuses were available in the absence of regulating 501c's.

The old Obama we used to know and love, and elected in 2008, would have spoken out against a rush to judgement and instead suggested we get all the facts and make decisions based on evidence.  But the current Obama seems motivated purely by putting all so called scandals behind him through capitulation to Republican charges and placating the right, as if clearing his desk through surrender to his critics will buy him good will to get gun control and health care legislation through.

This is ridiculous.  No matter how much Obama tries to show he is a good guy and capable of meeting the GOP half way, it will never be good enough.  After the failure of compromise from 2008-2012 how does he not get this?  But more importantly, if he fires bureaucrats for political reasons- which is what he is doing - he is no better than the Republicans who dream nightly of imprisoning the IRS so they can do no harm to GOP donors, or scaring the IRS from fulfilling their mission of insuring that the tax code ISN'T abused for political ends - by the right or left.This might also fulfill the wishes of those running 501c's on the left.  Lets not forget that Obama's crowd has embraced the post McCain-Feingold ethics in practice as much as the Rove crowd. 

Obama's firing of the IRS leadership, and threat to subject IRS workers to jail, is cravenly playing into Republican hands.  But it also ignores the most important point:  WAS THE IRS RIGHT IN QUESTIONING WHETHER TEA PARTY GROUPS AND OTHERS (others being the liberal groups that were also affected by their inquiries） WERE WITHIN THE SPIRIT AND LETTER OF THE LAW in claiming 501c status and shielding of donors.  Were they being politically activist themselves, or were they just trying to protect tax code from political abuse?  I suspect the latter, and this suspicion that 501c's were being abused was all over the news at the time these so called abuses were occurring.  I'm sure Obama might recall expressing those objections himself.  I know his supporters like myself did.

By prejudging this scandal instead of investigating the circumstances fully (the IG report asks the questions but doesn't answer them), Obama is being unjust to some who might in fact be good people and deserve better.   As far as I'm concerned, Obama is participating in a political lynching.  Maybe because he's from Indonesia and Kenya (like the kooks on the right say) he doesn't get it that lynchings are despicable and immoral.  But he should put on the Billie Holiday record tonight and listen to what she says about strange fruit.  Be you black, white, red or blue, everyone deserves their day in court and a chance to defend themselves against their accusers.

There are two sides to most stories.  We deserve to hear both sides, and the accused deserve the right to tell it in advance of punishment.

Here's an interesting piece from the press suggesting this same view:
 http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/05/15/1209257/-Liberal-groups-received-same-IRS-letter-that-ignited-Tea-Party-nbsp-outrage#