People of all political stripes should send message against politicization of IRS

To the Editor:

In addition to the conservative groups targeted by the IRS, it seems Romney donors were targeted by Obama campaign operatives.

According to Idaho businessman and Republican donor Frank Vandersloot: “He (Obama) put a target on our backs, and he's now going to blame the people who are shooting at us?"

I think information provided by Kim Strassel in a Wall Street Journal article entitled, “The IRS Scandal Started at the Top” is important. Her analysis of the use of presidential political pressure through government bureaucracies in the post-Watergate world appears sound. Could it be unlike Nixon, Obama had an enemies list but made no telephone calls or had to erase any tapes?

We might legitimately ask the following questions:

Did we witness a climate of intimidation at the national level born of Chicago style political gamesmanship?

Do these activities by the IRS sound ethical or legal? If not, does a liberal yet ‘jackbooted” President camouflaged by plausible deniability feign surprise but secretly (or perhaps worse due to incompetence) use the federal bureaucracy like a riot baton to bludgeon his political opponents?

Such musings may sound harsh but what do you imagine Mr. VandertSloot’s life has been like since being fronted out in Obama’s speeches and on his campaign website?

Should people of all political stripes should send a powerful message against the use of the IRS to harass political opponents? What do you think?

Philip W. Chapman

Highland