new york | A former top IRS
official warned Jewish groups that they would likely face a financial penalty and expensive audit process if they went through with plans to have the Republican vice-presidential candidate speak at an anti-Iran rally last week.
The warning came from Marcus Owens, a 25-year veteran of the Internal Revenue Service and the former director of its tax-exempt unit.
“For this to be legal, an invitation would have had to be issued to both vice-presidential candidates at the same time,” explained Ellen Zimmerman, the general counsel of the UJA-Federation of New York.
Zimmerman’s version of events, confirmed by Owens, would appear to poke a major hole in the claim by right-wing critics that organizers of the rally were motivated primarily by partisan politics in deciding to disinvite Palin and other American elected officials.
Jewish groups triggered an uproar, first by inviting Palin to and then disinviting her from the Sept. 22 rally to protest Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s appearance at the United Nations General Assembly.
The Palin invitation prompted Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) to renege on a commitment to appear and led to accusations that organizers — in particular the Conference of Presidents of Major Amer-ican Jewish Organizations — had allowed election year politicking to overshadow a bipartisan display of opposition to Iran’s nuclear program.
In response, the Presidents Conference issued an invitation to Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.); but Obama’s running mate had a prior engagement, so the campaign agreed to send Rep. Robert Wexler (D-Fla.).
In the end, Jewish groups decided to rescind all invitations to U.S. politicians.
“It was Democratic partisans that made this political,” said Morton Klein, the president of the Zionist Organization of America. “The real issue was giving visibility to Sarah Palin. Liberal Democratic interests trumped concern about Iran.”
The McCain campaign trumpeted the same line, lamenting that Palin was barred under pressure from “Democratic partisans.” — jta