rejek, that story is dated in July...that the best you pinheads can come up with now?
Here is something a little more up to date....
A DEMOCRAT ABUSING HIS OFFICE...imagine that....
Senator Blasted for Abusing Office, Seeks IRS Probe of Conservative Group
By Jeff Gannon
Talon News
August 8, 2003
WASHINGTON (Talon News) -- Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT), the ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee, has asked the Internal Revenue Service to investigate the tax-exempt status of the Rushmore Policy Council. The South Dakota-based organization has run advertisements that publicized the voting record of Sen. Tom Daschle (D-SD) on abortion and other family values issues.
Baucus' committee has oversight of the IRS.
The Montana Democrat wrote a letter to the agency in which he suggested the activities of the group might violate their tax-exempt status.
Rushmore's "Daschle Accountability Project" took the Senate minority leader to task over his positions, but never directed voters to vote for or against him.
Baucus wrote, "If the council is organized and operates for political purposes, the legitimacy of the organization's tax-exempt status may be questionable."
He further suggested that while the Rushmore Policy Council's current tax status does not require it to publicly disclose its income or spending, its activity may require it to file under a different section of the tax code that would require some of that information to be released.
Robert Regier, the executive director of the Rushmore Policy Council, said the group has done nothing wrong, adding, "We play it straightforward, issue by issue."
Regier said the Democrats are trying to take away his rights. "I appeal to the better angels of my senator and ask him to stop the character assassination, intimidation, and baseless accusations," he said.
"Twisting a man's Christian testimony, using the IRS to intimidate -- those are political tactics unbecoming of a United States senator," Regier added.
"God have mercy on our nation the day it becomes illegal for American citizens to speak publicly about a politician's voting record, while pornographers and flag burners are lauded as examples of the First Amendment in action," Regier said.
"If the senator from Montana considers me a lawbreaker for urging Sen. Daschle to stop obstructing judicial nominees, then charge me with a second count for asking him to stop funding Planned Parenthood with our tax dollars. And throw away the key when I ask him to cut taxes," Regier declared.
The enlistment of Baucus appears to some to be more evidence of the Daschle campaign's willingness to "attack the attackers."
Dan Allen, Communications Director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, told Talon News, "This shows how concerned Senate Democrats are that Daschle is vulnerable. They are pulling out all the stops and playing these partisan games."
American Conservative Union Chairman David A. Keene called Sen. Baucus' request, "a blatant abuse of power by one of Tom Daschle's Democrat cronies who want nothing more than to silence law-abiding conservative issue-advocacy organizations."
Keene points out that as a 501(c)4 tax-exempt organization, the Rushmore Policy Council would have had to do one of two things to warrant such an investigation.
"It would have told voters to 'vote for' or 'vote against' Sen. Daschle -- which the ads did not do -- or engaged in illegal campaign coordination with Daschle's opponent," Keene said.
Sen. Daschle has yet to draw a competitive opponent.
"This complaint is utterly lacking in merit," Keene said. "This is Washington power gaming at its worst."
Keene continued, "Because Rushmore is intent on educating the generally conservative people of South Dakota on their liberal-fringe Senator's voting record, Senator Baucus would force the IRS to devote time and resources investigating a bogus complaint."
"The Baucus-Daschle investigation has been designed to have a chilling effect on the rights of Rushmore to speak freely, and I for one hope that it does not," Keene said.
Paul Erickson, a South Dakota businessman and political activist, told Talon News, "I've always said that Tom Daschle doesn't speak for South Dakota, but I never realized he doesn't even speak for himself." |
