Julian Bond, former chairman of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said during a Tuesday interview on MSNBC that it’s only right and just that the federal government and the IRS target tea party groups.
Tea party groups are, after all, “overtly racist” and the “Taliban wing of American politics,” Mr. Bond said, Mediaite reported. The IRS ought to look over these groups’ shoulders, he said — at the same time condemning former President Bush, for what he alleged was that administration’s biased push for the IRS to investigate the NAACP.
The NAACP was investigated for improper political activities in 2004 after Mr. Bond made a speech that was highly critical of Mr. Bush, Mediaite reported. The group was later cleared of any wrongdoing. But Mr. Bond hasn’t forgotten, and said his group was “unfairly targeted,” Mediaite said.
He denied holding a double standard with today’s IRS targeting of tea party groups and yesteryear’s IRS investigation of the NAACP.
“I don’t think there’s a double standard at all,” he said, in the MSNBC report. “I think it’s entirely legitimate to look at the tea party. I mean, here are a group of people who are admittedly racist, who are overtly political, who tried as best they can to harm President Obama … They are the Taliban wing of American politics and we all ought to be a little worried about them.”
(Editor’s note: The story has been corrected to reflect that Julian Bond is the former chairman of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.)
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• Cheryl K. Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com.
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