Although sparsely covered today, organizations targeted by the IRS were finally granted the opportunity to testify at a House Ways and Means hearing."This dialogue is about the jackboot of tyranny on the field of our founding documents. To whisper the letters I.R.S. strikes a shrill note on Main Street USA. But when this behemoth tramples upon America’s grassroots, few hear the snapping sounds." ~ Karen Kenney
HotAir: Meet Karen Kenney, the first in what will undoubtedly be a parade of victims of the intimidation tactics of the IRS aimed at conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status. Twitchy captures Kenney’s statement and the immediate Twitter reaction to it. With President Obama attempting to pre-empt the hearing with an odd live statement on judicial nominations — usually a matter left to press releases — coverage of the hearing has been spotty, but this needs to be seen and read in full:
Besides prying into prayer and educational activities, President of a Pro-Life organization in Iowa, Sue Martinek, informed Congress that the IRS made them promise under penalty of perjury not to protest Planned Parenthood facilities...
LifeNews: At a hearing today over the Internal Revenue Service and how it targeted conservative and pro-life group, the head of one pro-life organization provide details about how the federal agency discriminated against it.
Sue Martinek, President of the Coalition for Life of Iowa, explained to the House Ways and Means Committee that her pro-life group “is a grass-roots, low-budget public charity founded in 2004, to provide prayer, education, and related activities about the sanctity of life from conception to death.”
Later, the IRS made the pro-life group commit to not protesting Planned Parenthood, the nation’s biggest abortion business.
“In June of 2009, [IRS Agent] Richards told me verbally that we needed to send in a letter with the entire board’s signatures stating that under penalty of perjury we would not picket/protest or organize groups to picket/protest outside of Planned Parenthood,” Martinek said. “Upon receiving such a letter, she indicated that the IRS would allow our application to go through.”
Making a powerfully emotional statement towards not only this congressional committee, but to the government on whole, Alabama Tea Party president Becky Gerritson announced, "You've forgotten your place."
TheExaminer: During her opening statement in front of the House Ways and Means Committee Tuesday morning, Alabama Tea Party President Becky Gerritson teared up as she concluded her remarks, reminding the panel that she was not looking to score political points.
Gerritson said that the government targeting of her Tea Party group was “un-American” and a “willful act of intimidation.”
“I’m not interested in scoring political points. I want to protect and preserve the America that I grew up in, the America that people cross oceans and risk their lives to be come a part of and I’m terrified that it is slipping away.”
Related link: Rush Limbaugh Praises Becky Gerritson: “So, Right On The Money!”
Of course, some Democrats, like Rangel, feigned outrage, while others, specifically McDermott, disgracefully blamed the victims in all of this for having the gall to apply for tax-exempt status at all...
HotAir: If you’re going to step in the ring with your government, you should expect to get punched in the face. And by “step in the ring,” I of course mean “avail yourself of the same perfectly legal tax strategies that are routinely permitted to liberal nonprofits.” I confess, while I expected some stupid and predictable Democratic scandal spin this week, I didn’t expect to watch a congressman indirectly defend government discrimination on grounds that the victims could have avoided it by simply not asserting their statutory rights in the first place. And yet here we are.
Despite the many issues that I have with an establishment guy like Paul Ryan these days (his support of amnesty for starters), he was nonetheless right to blast McDermott for blaming the victims...
Related link: IRS Scandal: McDermott Blames the Victims
South Carolina Tea Party president Dianne Belsom also chimed in to correct the Democratic misconception that tea parties are subsidized by the taxpayers...they're not! She also addressed the issue of double taxation on dues or donations...
The hearing ended with the final word from another Democrat who attempted to make this a bipartisan plight of justice for both conservatives and progressives targeted. That'd be laughable if it weren't so damn disingenuous. Here's Chairman Dave Camp explaining earlier to a different Democratic complainer how they were given the opportunity, but were unable to produce a single liberal targeted by the IRS...
There's only one thing left to say:
ADDENDUM: John Eastman of the National Organization for Marriage also lit into Democrats, Blumenauer and Doggett in this particular piece, for the 'scurrilous' comments being lobbed towards his conservative organization...
