May 12, 2016
Source: Bigstock
See, FOA is in deep trouble, definitely with its members, and possibly with the IRS, over shenanigans relating to its 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status. In 2014, FOA went running to The New York Times claiming that the IRS was discriminating against the group by denying it tax-exempt status. Bitching to The New York Times about discrimination and victimization? How very “conservative.” The IRS caved (very likely due in part to Ted Cruz’s intervention), but, since then, certain FOA members have lodged complaints against FOA with the IRS, claiming that the “nonpartisan educational org” was secretly raising money for GOP candidates and lying to members about deductibility in order to extract large donations.
FOA’s internal emails tell the story of an organization that was just begging for an audit (or even a criminal investigation). The best solution was to surrender the 501(c)(3) and dissolve the “standing organization,” essentially erasing the group on paper. A cover story for the dissolution was needed, one that the media would jump at, one that could deflect attention from other possible reasons for the abrupt disbanding, and one that would allow the heads of FOA to leave with their reputations intact. Trump became Friends of Abe’s Springtime for Hitler, covering fire for a failing GOP organization looking to bug out quickly. And unlike in The Producers, the plan went off with barely a hitch. Only one news organization explored the IRS angle”the left-leaning Truthdig. That aside, “Trumpdunit” perfectly met the needs of everybody who was involved in, or who covered, the story.
To be clear, Friends of Abe is not what this column is about. What I”m drawing attention to is the first major example of something I think we”ll be seeing a lot of over the next seven months (and possibly beyond): Republicans and conservatives using Trump in order to excuse their own failures and hide their own malfeasance. Next on the list, expect Glenn Beck to blame Trump for the collapse of his “empire.” Everyone in the friggin” world knows that Beck, Inc. was going down long before Trump, but now Weepmaster Glenn will be able to blame his bad fortunes on the Donald, and news organizations that despise everything Beck stands for will happily play along. This election’s inevitable Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock wannabes, the Republican candidates who will blow their chances by making incomprehensibly idiotic statements, will blame their November losses on Trump and his toxic coattail effect on down-ticket races. “I didn”t lose because I claimed that wimmins is witches who hypnotize menfolk into rapin” “em. I lost cuz o” that dern Trump!”
Make no mistake”this year’s GOP losers are already planning their scapegoating and exit-strategizing, energized by the fact that, perhaps for the first time, the mainstream media will be all too eager to assist them in pushing a narrative. Just as in the race against Waxman, establishment GOP hacks are expecting a loss, and they”re mapping ways to benefit from it. There’s only one thing that could conceivably go wrong, and if you”ve seen The Producers, you know where I”m going with this. Max Bialystock’s brilliant plan fails when Springtime for Hitler becomes a massive success. That’s the movie’s twist”the thing that was expected to fail, doesn”t.
There are a lot of people in establishment GOP circles who, by November, will have everything riding on a Trump loss. For most people, The Producers is nothing more than an irreverent farce. But for a growing number of Republicans, Mel Brooks” masterpiece is a grim cautionary tale with an ending that will only provoke laughter of the very nervous kind.
