By Andrew L. Urban
May 14, 2013: We have to praise President Barack Obama’s response to alleged wrongdoing at the IRS. “If in fact IRS personnel engaged in the kind of practices that have been reported on and were intentionally targeting conservative groups, then that’s outrageous and there’s no place for it — and they have to be held fully accountable,” the President Obama told reporters today.
Obama said he learned of allegations that the IRS targeted conservative groups through news reports last Friday.
Would that our own politicians have the same attitude to alleged wrong doing – and not just when it involves their political opponents. Would that the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, had responded in like manner to the allegations of corruption against a Labour MP or the Speaker, for example, or when union officials were being investigated.
It is a clear ethical and moral position that is being articulated in Obama’s response, not a shroud of legalese or platitudes. Refusing to condemn the impropriety on principle is not a show of loyalty to those under investigation – but a show of disloyalty to the electorate.