Two Reasons Obama’s IRS Scandal Is Not Like Watergate

1. The Nixon political apparatus tried but failed to get the IRS to harass its political enemies, and it tried but failed to cover up evidence of its misdeeds. By contrast, the IRS under Obama succeeded in doing what Nixon tried but failed to do, and the Obama political apparatus has, so far, succeeded in destroying or covering up evidence of its transgressions against the rule of law.

2. A majority of Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee joined all of the Democrats in adopting Article Two of the Articles of Impeachment, which concluded that

Richard M. Nixon, in violation of his constitutional oath faithfully to execute the office of President of the United States and, to the best of his ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States, and in disregard of his constitutional duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, has repeatedly engaged in conduct violating the constitutional rights of citizens, impairing the due and proper administration of justice and the conduct of lawful inquiries, or contravening the laws governing agencies of the executive branch and the purposed of these agencies.

The first count in that indictment was that Nixon, both

personally and through his subordinates and agents, endeavored to obtain from the Internal Revenue Service, in violation of the constitutional rights of citizens, confidential information contained in income tax returns for purposed not authorized by law, and to cause, in violation of the constitutional rights of citizens, income tax audits or other income tax investigations to be intitiated or conducted in a discriminatory manner. [Emphasis added]

So far, not one single elected Democrat has even been willing to condemn the political harassment actually conducted by the IRS, in stark contrast to the Watergate era Republicans who voted to impeach Nixon for only endeavoring to do what the Obama IRS has done.

So, it is true that the Obama IRS scandal bears little resemblance to Watergate.

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