On Thursday’s “Morning Rundown” on MSNBC, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) noted President Obama’s “culture of intimidation” as a motivating factor behind the scandal involving the IRS hassling grassroots conservative groups seeking non-profit status.
Rubio specifically cited the National Labor Relations Board decision against Boeing’s move to South Carolina and IRS audits of some of Mitt Romney’s top donors as examples of government agencies carrying out policies after taking a cue from the campaign rhetoric employed by the President.
As everyone in Washington looks for a “smoking gun” linking the IRS scandal back to the White House, it’s fair to take Rubio’s point and ask if President Obama has motivated the kind of “rogue” behavior on display in this case, with his divisive and demonizing rhetoric toward the tea party and conservatives over the years.
The president has demonized the tea party during his campaign in 2012 and mocked them as “Teabaggers” as early as Nov. 2009. Then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi claimed tea party protesters brought swastikas to protests in 2009 and Majority Leader Harry Reid continues to use the word “extremist” almost every time he mentions the term “tea party” and he has blamed the grassroots conservative movement for the lack of progress on any issue before Congress.
Meanwhile, the media has consistently labeled the tea party as racist, violent, anarchist and un-American while jumping at any opportunity to blame them for government grid-lock, not to mention erroneously blaming them for the mass shootings in Tucson and Aurora as well as the terror attacks in Boston in April.
With that kind of constant drumbeat of demonization and slander against the tea party movement, and the intimidation from the president cited by Sen. Rubio, maybe it’s no wonder that government bureaucrats took it upon themselves to harass and scrutinize these groups while giving left-leaning organizations a fast-track. Maybe they were just going the extra mile to please the boss. After all, if you knew the CEO of your company thought a particular group was racist and evil, wouldn’t you give them a tough time when trying to business with you?
The problem here is, “the company” is the United States Government, and “the boss” is the President of the United States.
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