Editorials: Who's the Right Watchdog for Nonprofits' Political Activity? | Roll Call

An obvious danger of the IRS political targeting scandal is that congressional and federal investigations will produce much heat but little light. As House Ways and Means ranking Democrat Sander M. Levin of Michigan cautioned at that panel’s opening IRS hearing last week, members of Congress “must seek the truth, not political gain.” Even nonprofit sector leaders warn that recent IRS scrutiny, while long overdue, will exacerbate the agency’s many problems instead of fix them. “The thing that we don’t want to happen is for the appropriate anger of lawmakers to result in the wrong outcome,” said Diana Aviv, president of Independent Sector, a coalition of nonprofits and philanthropic community leaders. While “there should be consequences for people who misused their position,” she added, the IRS should not “pull back” from curbing abuses by politically active tax-exempt groups.
It’s a legitimate fear. Between calls for an independent counsel, attacks on the Obama administration’s allegedly “Nixonian” tactics, congressional subpoenas and legal action by tea party groups, the furor triggered by IRS missteps could not be more politicized. Vulnerable Democrats fretting about midterm fallout in 2014 have assailed the IRS almost as shrilly as Republicans.
Politicized or not, the controversy has already shed crucial light on the disastrous tax and campaign finance mess that landed the IRS in trouble to begin with. A recent federal inspector general’s report did not just expose the agency’s inappropriate targeting of tea party groups. It also pulled back the curtain on the agency’s failure to consistently apply, or even understand, its own regulations.
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