Obama to use Executive Branch dollars to support his campaign

The Obama administration will send Attorney General Eric Holder out to meet with pastors from churches around the country to inform them exactly how much “campaigning” they can do from the church pulpit to stay within federal guidelines and not threaten their tax-free status.

Doing so at first glance would not seem to be illegal, but I know for damn sure Holder will not be meeting with the Catholic Church to advise priests.

Along with Holder, the Obama administration is also sending out representatives from the IRS and not surprisingly, the ACLU will be partnering with the administration.

Attorney General Eric Holder, the IRS, and the liberal lawyers at the ACLU will brief several hundred pastors in the African American community on how to participate in the presidential election — which the Congressional Black Caucus chair expects will help President Obama’s campaign.

“We will have representatives from nine denominations who actually pastor somewhere in the neighborhood of about 10 million people, and we’re going to first of all equip them with the information they need to know about what they can say and what they cannot say in the church that would violate their 501c3 status with the IRS,” Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo., told MSNBC today.

The laws are clear are they not? </sarc> Since when does the Executive Branch have the funding to do such a thing? The laws are the laws. When I call the IRS to get clarification on a tax issue, I’m reminded advice I get directly from a tax advisor might be wrong.

They will let them know who to regard as the bad guys, though (hint: not Democrats). “We’re going to talk about some of the draconian laws that have cropped up around the country as a result of the 17 percent increase in African American votes,” Cleaver said, describing voter ID laws as a form of Jim Crow-style “poll tax” on seniors and black voters.

Absolutely not acceptable … but will anything be done? Tell me, what would the media response be if the Congressional “White” Caucus </sarc> met with the Catholic Church to discuss the First Amendment and what they could and could not say in a church setting?

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Posted in ,

Steve McGough

Steve's a part-time conservative blogger. Steve grew up in Connecticut and has lived in Washington, D.C. and the Bahamas. He resides in Connecticut, where he’s comfortable six months of the year.

7 Comments

  1. JBS on May 30, 2012 at 8:23 am

    Aaahhh, the Chicago machine politics lives on at the national level. Thuggery by any other name.



  2. RoBrDona on May 30, 2012 at 1:22 pm

    I’m surprised the O doesn’t take these pastors golfing so he can lure them with promises, WH balls and non-denominational Mulligans. Except they know how much he cares about any churches rights … they only have to read the Catholic lawsuits. Yes folks, he is on his 97th round of his presidency, more than any other except Eisenhower.? ?



    • JBS on May 30, 2012 at 8:20 pm

      Isn’t it during the Eisenhower presidency that businesses started moving off-shore? For the patriotic tax advantages, of course!



  3. PatRiot on May 30, 2012 at 8:44 pm

    To all Americans, church goers or not:
    1.? Beware any party that has their Attorney General?campaigning?instead of doing his job.? Oh… that’s right, he hasn’t done it in 3 and a half years….. just like his best buddy Barry….. and?the?legislators that haven’t produced a budget yet.
    2.??You will be thrown under the bus like the Catholics.



  4. Tim-in-Alabama on May 31, 2012 at 12:49 am

    Some people have a cockeyed view of the world ? literally and figuratively.



  5. Lynn on May 31, 2012 at 4:52 pm

    Oh for goodness sakes (Wanted to save RVO from a visit from Atty. General Holder aka Inspecter Clouseau by not saying the other G word), all pastors and any men of ?the clergy can say whatever they want. The First Amendment has not been taken away, yet. They just say it as their opinion, Right!



  6. stinkfoot on June 1, 2012 at 5:37 pm

    Wouldn’t doling out advice related to an election that the adviser has a vested interest in the outcome be a conflict of interest?? It is inappropriate if it isn’t criminal but don’t expect the press to run with that- they had the mother of all scandals in “Fast & Furious” when the same attorney general tried to choreograph justification for enacting stricter gun laws and the cooperative press sort of buried that one.? I guess that hoping that an American citizen gets KILLED by Mexican drug lords that our government knowingly enabled to get armed US made weapons isn’t newsworthy so don’t expect anything from the administration’s efforts to influence how segments of the population vote by instructing church leaders how to “legally” instruct their parishioners to reelect the criminal in chief.? Ladies and gentlemen it appears that we live under a criminal regime and the press is a part of? the problem.? Nothing to see here… back to frothing at the mouth at straw-man millionaires and billionaires while the mother of all economy killing tax increases is prepared for us, enema style.? We all may just as well smile while we’re being bent over if this regime gets a second term.
    ?



square-cleaver

The website's content and articles were migrated to a new framework in October 2023. You may see [shortcodes in brackets] that do not make any sense. Please ignore that stuff. We may fix it at some point, but we do not have the time now.

You'll also note comments migrated over may have misplaced question marks and missing spaces. All comments were migrated, but trackbacks may not show.

The site is not broken.