The real IRS scandal isn’t Lois Lerner — or her critics, its Dark Money

[Commentary] The Sept. 9 Digest item “Ex-IRS official won’t be charged in scandal” noted that the ex-Internal Revenue Service official will not be charged in the “mistreatment of conservative groups during the 2010 and 2012 elections.” However, the real big scandal here is the undermining of our democratic process by the IRS fostering a tsunami of “dark money” in our elections.

With the decision in Citizens United, our elections have been swamped by an increased flood of money, but the Supreme Court’s decision was based on the premise that the electorate would be informed as to who was trying to influence it and could then make its own decision. That is not the case with the IRS procedure here, which does not require any transparency as to the identity of the true donors. The names given, such as Crossroads GPS and Organizing for Action, lack such transparency. While the Communications Act and long- established Federal Communications Commission rules require disclosure of the identity of the sponsors in political or controversial-issue ads, the FCC has failed to enforce the act or rules. That is the scandal, and it applies to the FCC under its present chairman and his predecessor.