FOX News "Democrat" Dennis Kucinich Slams IRS’s Tea Party ‘Political Targeting’

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

Former Democratic Congressman and presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich slammed the unethical targeting of conservative Tea Party groups by the IRS on Fox News Sunday’s panel, unequivocally suggesting that this was political targeting at its worst.

After dropping the disclaimer that he is a “liberal Democrat” and does not celebrate Tea Party politics, Kucinich firmly claimed politics has no place with the IRS: “We can not have a condition in America where peoples politics are the basis for IRS attacks.”

Asked by Chris Wallace whether he buys the IRS claim that this was just an isolated bureaucratic offense by select IRS agents in Cincinnati, Kucinich said the buck stops at the top.

“The tone is set from the top,” Kucinich said. “We are in a hyper-partisan, intensely partisan condition in Washington. The polarization is damaging to our country.”

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/dennis-kucinich-slams-irss-tea-party-political-targeting-how-can-it-not-be/

I wonder if he spent Roger Ailes' 30 pieces of silver in one place?

[Cali_Democrat]

1. Who? Kooch?

Anyone who's on the Fox News payroll should be ignored.

[Bonobo]

2. A load of nauseating bullshit (your OP)

There has been an increasingly visible meme from some of the more right-leaning posters that attempt to link Kucinich and the Tea Party.

It is time to end this charade.

Kucinich is a true Democrat and does not deserve the asinine quotation marks you put on that title.

Let this post, whether it stands or not, be the first to challenge you to name ONE ISSUE where Kucinich can be claimed to be representing either Republican interests or Teabagger interests.

If you cannot name a real issue (and no, criticizing the IRS is not one) then you will prove your OP to be as bereft of meaning as I already know it is.

Those of us who know still remember what it means to be a Democrat. We have memories. We have political compasses that still work and this BULLSHIT OP will not do a thing to throw off our clear vision.

[cali]

6. sorry, it looks to me like Dennis sold out. Was the Faux gig the only job he could find?

[Snotcicles]

7. I tend to agree with this, however I think Dennis Kucinich has always enjoyed and sought attention.

I think his move to Fox shows an opportunity for both to exploit that. It keeps him visible, while providing them a source to manipulate. So I will be watching to see if he does in fact end up "representing either Republican interests or Teabagger interests" intentionally or otherwise.

[WCGreen]

23. He's a "liberal" democrat when it suits him...

I have known Dennis for 40 some years now.

A lot of people forget that he used a lot of racial politics to get his start as a councilperson and was all over over the place when he was mayor and then councilperson again.

He was a decent State Senator and a very good Congressperson when it came to constituent problems.

I like him as a person because he is a capable of rising above a lot of the bullshit.

We had a mutual friend who was diagnosed with terminal cancer the day of the 1996 general election. This was the year DK went to congress. While everyone was waiting milling around and getting antsy for DK to show up, he stayed there, the three of us talked about all the stuff he shared with Mike. He also included me as if I was there for the 30 years with them

To me, that act excuses all the stuff I didn't like about him. In all the years I have been involved with politics, from 1974 to now, I have never seen another political figure act that way...

[DonCoquixote]

36. if Dennis wanted a payday

There are plenty who would have given him one. Hell, he could have done the circuit of lectures, if not get Mike Morre or Current TV. He knows Fox LIES, and he knows they will use him to help give the credibility. That is more than enough for the 30 pieces of silver analogy.

It is not just a matter of telling the truth, but what you mix the truth with. Dennis can tell a truth as clean as spring water, but if he knows his bosses will lace it with cyanide, he is guilty of being a poisoner.

[think]

3. Why would anyone condone the IRS being used as a political tool?

For goodness sake it's wrong for the IRS to target groups politically regardless if you like their politics. So hell yes, I agree with Kucinich on this!

I'm sure Dennis would be the first to stand up if the iRS was targeting liberal groups also.

Double standards and hypocrisy can stay in the realm of Pugdom thank you.....

[Ichingcarpenter]

4. A reminder from history

[eridani]

5. Maybe using the IRS for political purposes is a bad idea, no matter--

--who does it to whom? Just sayin'.

[Snotcicles]

9. Maybe it wasn't all that political, maybe it was the IRS thought they were more likely to cheat. An

excellent lesson in profiling. Don't you think?

[eridani]

16. Possible. But appearances matter

Most company ethics codes specify avoiding even the appearance of impropriety.

[RandiFan1290]

8. The Lieberman "dems" chase him out of office

Then demand a unicorn pony purity parade.

[quaker bill]

10. Political targeting?

I know what they did sounds bad. However, start any group, name it anything you like, and then on all the filings with government state that its main mission is to eliminate taxes, oppose all government, and abolish the IRS. Then apply for tax-exempt status and see how many questions you get.

Now, the Quaker Meeting I serve as Clerk has had its tax exempt status challenged twice by the IRS. Once during the Reagan Administration, and once again in the GWB* administration. Our tax exempt status was challenged interestingly at about the same time that other Meetings were being infiltrated by the DOD as "threats to military recruitment".

Of course when republicans do this, it is all "national security" and when dems do it, it is a "scandal".

[leftyohiolib]

11. “The tone is set from the top,” Kucinich said. “We are in a hyper-partisan, intensely partisan

condition in Washington" you just described the company you keep

[kelliekat44]

12. First off, all the DK fans here should contact their fav person to stop with the distortions agains

this President. We all know that there are many Dems who are upset they could not beat Obama to become President. But if they still have the best interest of the country in mind, they might be more constructive instead of destructive. Second, the IRS did not "attack" anyone., They were doing their job in asking for more proof of the status of these groups..especially since we know that Koch-backed groups are full of lying political wise guys. Third, groups on the left have been targeted as well. Asking for more proof and more documentation is not an attack and until the GOP comes up with one of their groups that was unlawfully denied status they need to STFU...and that includes DK.

[geek tragedy]

13. Goes on RepublicanTV to falsely blame Obama

for partisanship in Washington and for something done by an agency without his political appointees.

Kucinich also supported the GOP redistricting plan in Ohio. And Gaddhafi and Assad.

Dennis Kucinich is a full-fledged Fox News Democrat like Pat Caddell and Kirsten Powers. Fuck the self-serving twerp.

[former9thward]

26. All political appointees were Obama's on Jan. 20, 2009.

On that day he had the power to fire any political appointee and put his own in place. That is why candidates have transition teams. They don't even wait for the election. Both McCain and Obama had transition teams working on appointments well before the election.

[dsc]

29. no that is wrong

The IRS Commissioner has a fixed term (that means he serves a set number of years and not at the pleasure of the President). His fixed term started in 2006 and ended in 2012. He is no longer the Commissioner of the IRS and hasn't been replaced due to the Senate not confirming Obama's nominee.

[former9thward]

38. No the last Commissioner was appointed by Bush in 2008.

He resigned in November, 2012. Obama has not nominated anyone.

[Cha]

30. Bad try.. attempting to blame Pres Obama. n/m

[former9thward]

39. Bad try yourself.

I did not blame anyone. I replied to a poster who thinks political appointees are frozen. They are not. Try again.

[Cha]

40. Oh, you weren't tying to blame the President and failed..

my bad.

[Cha]

31. Dennis supported the gop redistricting in Ohio?! That got him gone

from Congress because he lost to Marcy Kapture?

[geek tragedy]

33. He thought he could beat Kaptur.

http://chronicle.northcoastnow.com/2011/11/02/dennis-kucinich-lobbying-for-republicans-redistricting-plan/

http://www.cantonrep.com/newsnow/x422404093/Kucinich-lobbies-for-GOP-redistricting-plan

[Cha]

35. "Kucinich lobbies for GOP redistricting plan"

That's Fucking Priceless! No wonder he's such a bitter man.

thanks geek

Oh, and..

"IRS Acted Alone In Developing Targeting Criteria For Conservative Groups: Report"

"On Sunday, a government official said the report will note that IRS officials told investigators that no one outside the IRS was involved in developing the criteria the agency now acknowledges were flawed," the WSJ reported. The report bolsters what Lois Lerner, the IRS director of exempt organizations, said Friday -- that the practice was "absolutely not" influenced by the administration.

The Associated Press reported on Saturday that based on a draft of the IG report, knowledge of the practice seemed not to be confined just to low-level employees, as initially claimed. Lerner was informed of the targeting practice on June 29, 2011, the IG report says, according to the AP. The IG report notes that Lerner wanted the criteria immediately changed. The AP also reported that according to the portion of the IG investigation released to the news outlet, it is unclear whether IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman or anyone outside the IRS knew about the changes.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=2839543

[JaneyVee]

14. He's become off the rails.

[SidDithers]

15. Sounds like he's spending too much time with Lew Rockwell and Ron Paul...

at the Ron Paul Institute.

Sid

[mythology]

17. I think in large part he's right

The IRS should be above reproach. In this case, at least some members of one IRS office singled out one set of groups. Imagine the uproar if it had been done to liberal groups. This is a colossal fuck up on somebody's part.

Where I think he's wrong is that I don't think it was ordered from the top of the administration because the Obama administration wouldn't be that stupid.

[MNBrewer]

18. SO he's a Democrat in scare quotes now, huh?

How low can you go?

[Mosby]

20. he works with ron paul now.

At his foreign policy institute.

Is that what democrats do in your opinion?

[Daniel537]

27. No, of course its not what they do.

Democrats are just as hawkish on Foreign Policy as the GOP. If we actually followed Ron Paul and Dennis Kucinich on Foreign Policy we would see the end of our global empire and the Military Industrial Complex, and we can't have that now can we?

[Mosby]

34. what empire?

Last edited Mon May 13, 2013, 10:53 PM - Edit history (1)

Democrats used to believe in "nation building" and protecting small weak countries from bullies. That's why we started helping GB and others in 1941. Libertarians like paul don't give a shit about the state of affairs around the world, which is why they are isolationists, social darwinism and all that. That's who dennis is getting in bed with. Fuck him.

[Douglas Carpenter]

19. we should all be slaming the IRS’s Tea Party ‘Political Targeting’ just as we would be if they were

targeting progressives groups. Even President Obama said that. That's a no brainer!

[Daniel537]

28. +1

I have no tolerance for people who make excuses for abuses of power just because "our side did it".

[Marr]

21. If this happened five years ago, you'd be screaming bloody murder.

Sorry, but I can't respect anyone whose morals spin around 180 degrees whenever their team takes the reigns. For you to be putting quotes around "Democrat" in reference to Kucinich for this is a condemnation of your own party loyalty.

[hrmjustin]

22. I am sorry but I don't understand your OP.

He condemned the IRS for doing something very wrong that the President said so himself today. I don't like FOXNEWS either but this is an issue that has to be investigated. Kucinich did not betray anyone and I do not understand you calling him a traitor.

[DevonRex]

24. It's "the tone is set from the top"

part that's offensive. As IF republicans aren't hyperpartisan themselves to the point of pathology.

[hrmjustin]

25. I can understand that. I would love to see if these republicans want to open the investigation

up to what the IRS did during the Bush years. I doubt it but the senate is going to take this up so maybe they will.

[UTUSN]

32. Allow me to Rec #4 & K this thread, he's the Pat CADDELL of us Lib/Dem/Left (on Faux)!1 nT

[Luminous Animal]

37. What does that make Obama? He also had some pretty harsh words for the IRS.

[UTUSN]

41. Glad tohaveDK's support on something.& those of us who decry giving aid& comfort to the enemy (Faux)

are NOT "right leaning (DUers)" as another esteemed poster said upthread. We are just Dems who shake our heads at fellow Dems who do more attacking at fellow Dems than at Wingnuts.

[Marrah_G]

42. I think the congressman is right

No one should be targeted by the IRS because of their political views.