While they are not concerned with churches that support Republican candidates or tell members to leave their church if they voted for Kerry, the Republicans sure do worry about the NAACP:
Several Republican members of Congress sent letters to the Internal Revenue Service questioning whether the NAACP had veered into political advocacy and asked for an investigation into its tax-exempt status, according to documents released by the civil rights organization.
The IRS began looking into the Baltimore-based National Association for the Advancement of Colored People about a month before the 2004 presidential election after a speech by NAACP Chairman Julian Bond that was largely critical of President Bush’s policies.
Political campaigning is prohibited under the NAACP’s tax-exempt status. The IRS said its inquiry would focus on whether Bond’s speech was too political, and that the investigation is among dozens into the activities of tax-exempt groups during the 2004 election season.
The NAACP received more than 500 pages of documents the IRS has gathered to begin its inquiry. The group had made requests under the Freedom of Information Act and provided the documents to The (Baltimore) Sun.
Well I guess when Bush only gets a 9% approval from black voters, then why should they care. After all, using the IRS as their “political henchmen” is a tactic very common in the GOP.