Donors to GOP Group Drew IRS Scrutiny

Via the Wall Street Journal

At the same time the Internal Revenue Service was targeting tea-party groups, the tax agency took the unusual step of trying to impose gift taxes on donors to a prominent conservative advocacy group formed in 2007 to build support for President George W. Bush's Iraq troop surge.

The probe of the group, Freedom's Watch, began in the unit led by Lois Lerner, the IRS official already under scrutiny for her role in the more recent targeting of conservative groups.

It’s perfectly proper for the IRS to make sure the tax laws are not being flouted. What’s wrong is selective enforcement. If Liberal groups get a pass while Conservative groups get audited and fined, we have the essence of despotism. If this is a leadership problem it's serious; if it's widespread at the individual level it's even more serious.  In the latter case, the entire IRS may need to be replaced.