Meanwhile, in the War at Home…

As part of the $388 billion spending bill working its way through Congress last week, apparently the GOP inserted a provision allowing the Chairmen of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees or their "agents" to review any American's tax return with no limitations. Josh at Talking Points Memo has the lowdown here, and there’s a diary at DailyKos with info here. Josh says:

[A]t the request of Rep. Ernest Istook of Oklahoma, chairman of the House Appropriations Transportation Subcommittee, a special provision was inserted into the bill which allows the Chairmen of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees or their "agents" to review any American's tax return with no restrictions whatsoever.

Specifically, none of the privacy law restrictions -- or the criminal and civil penalties tied to them -- would apply when the Chair or anybody he or she designates as his or her "agent" looked at your tax return.

[…]

The provision was slipped into the bill at the last moment. And, at least on the Democratic side, no one was told about it until some Dems caught it at the last moment.

Senate Republicans quickly backtracked, calling the provision a mistake or snafu and insisting they knew nothing about it. You can see some of the back-and-forth that took place on the Senate floor in this AP piece at CNN.

Sen. Stevens of Alaska, Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, originally blamed the provision on a 'staffer'. But later, according to the AP, Sen. Frist and "congressional aides" said it was inserted at the behest of Rep. Istook.

And in case you're wondering, Istook's staffers are apparently telling constituents that Rep. Istook had to step out of the room for a moment when the DeLay Rule was being voted on.

The provision has been pulled from the bill, thanks to the Dems kicking up a fuss (way to go, guys!). But lest you think the poor, victimized Republicans got all the fun ripped out of their spending bill, fear not—the provision for a Presidential yacht is still in.

This incident must give us (and hopefully our Democratic leaders) an acute awareness of what we’ll be up against unceasingly the next four years. The IRS provision was snuck in at the last minute, and it was only because the Dems happened to notice it (out of 3000 pages) that it was effectively confronted. We must scrutinize and challenge everything, and never, ever take for granted that we are dealing with fair people.
Between the rampant greed of the Republicans and the despicable tactics of the decidedly non-Christlike Christian Right, vigilance will be the key for the foreseeable future.