Squashing Dissent - IRS, Churches and the NAACP

From Democracy Now this morning (Links are mine):

IRS Warns Church For Anti-War Sermon

The Internal Revenue Service has warned one of Southern California's largest churches it could lose its tax-exempt status because a priest gave a sermon criticizing the Iraq war two days before last year's presidential election. The IRS has sent the All Saints Episcopal Church
in Pasadena a warning that the federal tax code prohibits tax-exempt organizations, including churches, from intervening in political campaigns and elections. The IRS has issued warnings to other non-profits, including the NAACP, for issuing statements deemed critical of the president.

Looking at the All Saints site, this is a obviously a progressive church that is against the war, but does an anti-war message from the pulpit equally church electioneering?  Especially when there have seemingly been more concrete examples of advocating from the pulpit for or against a specific candidate.

A November 21st, 2004 Washington Post article took a look at the IRS reaction to the NAACP case and had had similar questions about church's advocating from the pulpit.  From that article:

But there's an even clearer possible violation of the spirit of the public charities law: whether individual churches engaged in activities that aided the Bush-Cheney campaign. Alan Cooperman, a Washington Post reporter who covers religion, reported in July that the president's reelection campaign sent instruction sheets to religious volunteers, listing 22 "duties" to be accomplished on a specific timetable. The sheet included such tasks as acquiring a church membership directory and sending it on to campaign headquarters, calling "all pro-Bush" church members, speaking at the church's seniors group and distributing a voter guide at the church before the November election.

While in the case of the NAACP, there was direct mention of Bush, the "only specific call for action ... was an appeal for an expanded voter registration drives.  While there are articles quoting the IRS at stating the actions are not politically motivated  I can not find any recent instances of a specific conservative organization being under investigation, even though it seems there are plenty of instances of conservative non-profits and churches clearly stepping over the line time and time again.  

Many of us remember the Baptist Church that kicked out all its Democratic members, or the Vatican trying to deny communion to Kerry or the Catholic Bishops stating that "a vote for a candidate like Mr. Kerry ... would be a sin"

So excuse me if I don't take the IRS's word that there is no partisan slant to these activities, after all it is not as if this Administration has ever tried to use the agencies under its control to intimidate its critics (too many examples to link to here, please add your own in the comments, but from the from the same 11-21-04 Post piece)

What's more disturbing is that the Bush administration has a record of trying to intimidate liberal nonprofits. In 2003 the Department of Health and Human Services sent a letter threatening legal sanctions against local Head Start agencies that were lobbying against the president's proposal to rework the program. Nevermind that this sort of lobbying is perfectly legal.

While there may be examples on both sides of encroaching on the line tax-exempt organizations must walk, I think that this case is just one more example of the Bush Administration using its power to intimidate its critics, and we need to continue to shed light on these activities until even the MSM mush report on the blinding truth.