IRS Also Targeted Liberal Groups

Jonathan Wiseman reports for the New York Times that the IRS has also targeted liberal political groups seeking tax exempt status. As Andrew Sullivan points out on The Daily Dish, this pokes a hole in the ridiculous claim by Peggy Noonan in the Wall Street Journal that the IRS scandal was tantamount to Watergate and merits impeachment of President Obama.

So time’s up, Peggy. Put up or shut up – especially with the outrageous smear that the president was behind this. The IRS was trying to flush out bogus non-political groups on both sides. That’s what we pay them to do. Since the targeting used classic code words on right and left, it may have been unwise as an administrative policy, but it sure wasn’t illegal or scandalous. And you can see why, given the volume of applications, these might have been shortcuts to expedite the process. I think this scandal just evaporated into thin air.

Sully makes another valid point in this post, that the Journal's editorial page is now officially under the right-wing media bubble.  Its tone is generally less shrill than Fox News or the radio screamers but its content is the same and equally fact-challenged.

Notice, en passant, that the WSJ is now indistinguishable both in party line and total hysteria from Fox News and talk radio (not that it’s ed-page was anything but extreme, but at least it was smart).