Whoopsie
The Democratic Leadership Council, the centrist, pro-business wing of the Democratic Party from which Bill Clinton's presidency arose and which has been led by Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, has had its tax exemption revoked by the IRS, Forbes reports. (Annoying free registration required.)
Tax-exempt organizations (of which there are many flavors) are a complicated issue, and the intermingling of such organizations with politics and politicians more complicated still. But the gist of the IRS's problem with the DLC is that it favored a specific subset of Democrats rather than society as a whole. That was basically the same argument, but with respect to Republicans, the IRS used to revoke the Christian Coalition's exemption several years ago, which makes sense inasmuch as the two groups had the same kind of tax exemption.
The DLC also owes more than $20,000 in back taxes. A quick search didn't turn up any specific info on the DLC's budget, so I don't know how big a financial problem this is for the group. (Donations to the DLC and other, similar organizations are not tax-deductible.) Its think tank, the Progressive Policy Institute, has an annual budget of around $3 million.
