head of irs. we know exactly how nixon felt about using the irs to go after people. why are we going after their tax returns? i you know what i mean? there s a lot of gold in them there hills. i can only hope that we are, frankly, doing a little persecuting. right? we ought to persecute them we can. that s not some bureaucrat in the cincinnati office of the irs sorting applications, that s the president of the united states directly asking for the irs to persecute his political enemies. conservatives talk about president obama bringing chicago-style politics in his rough and tumble approach to adversaries. this is what nixon means about enemies. the brookings institution a political enemy.