The truth is out there, but so are the fantasies

Sen. William Roth (R-Del.) promised earlier in his Senate careerthat he would not run for office after he turned 70. He is now 78,and is gearing up to run next year for his sixth six-year term. Heboasts many triumphs as chairman of the Senate Finance Committee,including 1998 legislation that made it harder for the IRS to collectpenalties from tax-evaders. Thanks to the law, collection ofpenalties was down nearly 80 percent in the last fiscal year.

No wonder Roth got his bill through. His committee turned uphorrendous evidence of IRS abuse. A man testified that agents stormedinto his house, drew a gun on his son, knocked the son down andwatched as his daughter changed clothes. This was riveting stuff. Itmade the network news and was widely reported in print. It confirmedmany people's suspicion that the IRS is a fascist outfit. Roth madeit a dramatic part of his book The Power to Destroy.

There is only one thing wrong with this gripping tale: It isn'ttrue. In depositions for a civil suit, the son has said that heneither saw a gun nor was knocked down. The daughter under oath saysthe agents did not watch her undress.

The ironic thing is that the IRS could not defend itself fromthese charges when they were brought before the committee because itis not a fascist organization. It was observing its own rules ofconfidentiality for the man making reckless accusations. The WallStreet Journal, in a story reporting these developments, quotescritics of the Roth law as saying this "shows the risk of legislatingbased on horror stories."

It also shows how willing people are to believe the worst aboutthe IRS in particular and government agencies in general. The oldhysteria in America shouted, "The communists are coming! Thecommunists are coming!" A more lasting cry in this country has been,"The government is coming! The government is coming!" Naturally, noone likes to pay taxes, and griping about that can settle on thecollectors, rather than the legislators who determine what we pay.Even in this country, which has a lower tax rate than any of themajor industrial nations, we are restive under the necessity. Butdemonizing the civil servants who carry out their jobs is the path tothe Oklahoma City bombing, where government workers were destroyed asif they were not our fellow citizens but some alien creatures lackinghumanity.

If the IRS had been staging a fascist-type raid on the man whotestified, it would not have been accompanied by local police andstate beverage agents, acting under legal warrant. The IRS' actionswere under scrutiny from authorities not willing to be compromised byother people's violence or unlawful conduct. That is why the witness'children could not back up his story of their own brutalization.There were too many eyewitnesses, from too many separate authorities,to make the story stick. Roth's committee could have checked theallegations with local police who accompanied the IRS. But itpreferred the horror story. It would be good for the senator's book.

As it turned out, the IRS had been misled by an untrustworthyinformant in this case. It was in error. But common sense should havemade people hesitate to believe a man who claimed the agency hadchosen such a procedure, and such associates, as a successful way toknock citizens about, flourish guns and leer at a teenager.

Unfortunately, common sense does not go very far when people areout to demonize an enemy. It certainly did not go far with WilliamRoth.

Garry Wills is adjunct professor of history at NorthwesternUniversity and winner of numerous awards, including the PulitzerPrize and the National Humanities Medal.