It's Different This Time

Peggy Noonan on why the IRS scandal is different this time, even if other Presidents used the agency for political purposes [bold added]:

The abuse was systemic—from the sheer number of targets and the extent of each targeting we know many workers had to be involved, many higher-ups, multiple offices. It was ideological and partisan—only those presumed to be of one political view were targeted. It has a single unifying pattern: The most vivid abuses took place in the years leading up to the president's 2012 re-election effort. And in the end several were trying to cover it all up, including the head of the IRS, who lied to Congress about it, and the head of the tax-exempt unit, Lois Lerner, who managed to lie even in her public acknowledgment of impropriety.

The Internal Revenue Service may not pack the most firepower (although some of its staff are armed), but it is one of the most powerful and feared government agencies. The IRS has information on nearly every American and has

extensive and unique powers to investigate and examine private records, powers that in many cases contravene the protections otherwise afforded individuals against illegal searches and seizures, self-incrimination, and the right to counsel provided by the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Amendments.

Undoubtedly there will be calls for new restraints to be placed upon the IRS. However, the most effective controls will be more than legal; it took generations for venerable institutions like the U.S. Armed Forces, the FBI, and the Secret Service to develop cultures that enabled them to perform professionally (for the most part) no matter who was in charge, and to be circumspect about the use of force.

There is a growing realization that IRS agents, who assume everyone is guilty unless innocence is proved, do not have an institutional ethos to dial back the use of their full power. And when that power is brought to bear exclusively against Administration opponents while supporters are given a pass (though the tax attributes may be similar), then civic society is in danger of flying apart. Peggy Noonan is right: "That is the kind of thing that can kill a country, letting half its citizens believe that they no longer have full political rights." This has got to be redressed, with all deliberate speed. © 2013 Stephen Yuen