TAXPROF ROUNDUP: The IRS Scandal, Day 311. Key bit:

We need to remind ourselves that there is a lot more potential abuse going on at the IRS than what’s been associated with Lois Lerner. Here are a few examples. I talk to many practitioners who (a) don’t want to be identified, probably for fear of retaliation, and (b) question the independence of the IRS Appeals Office. That is a big problem.

In 2012 a high-ranking IRS executive said in a speech that she believes the government has a higher duty than that of a private litigant. “The government,” the executive said, “represented by the tax administrator, should not pursue a particular outcome and then look for interpretations in the law that support it. The tax administrator should do nothing more or less than find the law and follow it, regardless of outcome. The separation of powers, a bedrock principle of our Constitution, demands it.”

I have a few questions. How many private tax litigators believe that’s actually how the IRS operates? If this noble statement is taken seriously by others in the IRS, why did Tax Analysts have to go to court to get training materials? And why is the IRS being questioned so strongly by Congress on its belief – or, more accurately, the lack thereof — in the bedrock principle of the separation of powers?

Why, indeed?

HMM: Malaysia Airline MH370: 9/11-style terror allegations resurface in case of lost plane.

WALTER RUSSELL MEAD: The Consequences Of The NSA Failure.

In the wake of the NSA surveillance controversy, the Obama administration is privatizing part of the internet. It will be giving up state control of Icann, which assigns internet addresses. The privatization of Icann started back in 1997 but was put on hold after 9/11. . . .

The Obama administration undertook massive expansion of US spying without reviewing the weaknesses in the system that allowed people like Snowden and Manning to access extraordinary amounts of important data. It neglected to inform key allies (like Germany) about the nature of its program. It overreached by using a system whose only real justification was security against terror for other ends, apparently including information in such matters as trade negotiations. Now in an attempt to patch up relations, it is taking a step that has significant implications — without, one notes, feeling any need to get authorization from congress.

In itself, it’s possible that this step could work out well. We’ll have to see more of the details and observe how it plays out in practice to know whether the internet remains free and whether private actors prove less prone to abusing power than the US government. But to take a step like this because you’ve mishandled grave matters of alliance politics and national security is not a mark of success.

We’re not seeing a lot of “marks of success” much of anywhere, lately.

MEGAN MCARDLE: The First Hit Is Always Free.

AT AMAZON, deals on Tax Software to maximize your refund. “Maximize?” I haven’t had a refund in years. How about “minimize the amount of blood sucked from your veins?”

Also, Hot New Deals, updated every hour. Get ’em before they’re gone!

L.A. TIMES: In old memo, a glimpse of conflict ahead for Hillary Clinton?

Four months after Bill Clinton took office in 1992, the White House announced that it was firing all seven employees of the in-house travel office, which arranged trips for the media. Officials blamed the employees for gross financial mismanagement — but the move took on another cast when the administration sought to replace them with a travel agency from Arkansas.

Hillary Clinton insisted in a 1995 deposition that she had no role in the firings. But an investigation by independent counsel Robert W. Ray found that there was “overwhelming evidence” that she had played a role. Still, he said in a report released in the fall of 2000, only months before the Clintons left the White House, there was not sufficient evidence to prove that she had lied under oath about what she had done.

“Mrs. Clinton’s input into the process was a significant — if not the significant — factor influencing the pace of events in the travel office firings and the ultimate decision to fire the employees,” Ray concluded.

As one of the first moves made by the Clinton administration, the travel office brouhaha helped craft an impression of the new White House couple as, at best, willing to run roughshod over employees in order to install loyalists. Ultimately, the administration admitted the firings were a mistake, and five of the employees were rehired. The former travel office director, a well-known and popular figure at the White House, was acquitted of criminal embezzlement charges.

All seven travel office veterans appeared before Congress the day after the president praised his wife in the State of the Union address. Angry and tearful, they testified that the accusations by the Clinton White House had ruined them financially by forcing them to incur massive legal bills to clear their names.

But she’ll run as a friend of the little guy.

WASHINGTON EXAMINER: Bobby Jindal steps out in New Hampshire.

Jindal was the featured speaker Friday during his second trip to New Hampshire, a key early presidential primary state. He took his previous trip, in May, for a Senate Republican fundraiser; now, he was presenting himself for the first time to some of the voters who will decide whether he should be the Republican nominee for president, if he decides to run.

He sounded like a candidate Friday night, as he hit on some crowd-pleasing Republican themes, such as gun-ownership rights and smaller government, and he peppered in sure-hit laugh lines.

“If you like your religion, you can keep your religion,” Jindal deadpanned at one point, as he railed against Democrats for infringing on religious freedom.

But the meat of Jindal’s remarks focused on what he has framed as his signature issue, his fight to bring a school voucher program to Louisiana and the subsequent federal court battles over whether the program meets desegregation standards.

He and Scott Walker both have strong education records.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, LEGAL EDUCATION EDITION: Shrinking Law Schools Face Financial Devastation.

IT’S ALL ABOUT THE BENJAMINS: Roll Call: Goodlatte to Fundraise in Silicon Valley as Tech Community Pushes Immigration Fix.

House Judiciary Chairman Robert W. Goodlatte, R-Va., is scheduled to hold a high-dollar fundraiser in Silicon Valley next week — but frustrated tech donors are already grumbling about the event, disappointed by the lack of progress from House Republicans on one of their top policy priorities: immigration legislation.

According to an invitation obtained by CQ Roll Call, the Goodlatte fundraiser is organized by TechNet, which bills itself as the “preeminent bipartisan political network of CEOs and Seniors Executives that promotes the growth of technology-led innovation.” Suggested contribution levels for Wednesday’s round table and reception with the powerful chairman range between $10,000 and $40,000 for the Goodlatte Victory Committee.

Like I said.

RUTH MARCUS: What the Duke porn-star student shows us about our degraded culture. Also about the higher education bubble . . . .

I HOPE THEY’RE AS SUCCESSFUL HERE AS THEY HAVE BEEN EVERYWHERE ELSE. BUT, YOU KNOW, ETERNAL VIGILANCE AND ALL THAT. Gun control activists open new front: Corporate America.

Still reeling from the stinging legislative defeats of 2013, proponents of tougher firearm regulations are increasingly turning their focus to private sector campaigns.

Gun control groups have claimed victories in recent months, successfully pushing Starbucks to declare guns unwelcome in stores and persuading Facebook to crack down on unregulated firearm solicitations.

With no end in sight to the congressional gridlock that has thwarted more stringent federal gun laws, groups say they will continue to apply pressure on major companies.

Message to The Hill: It’s not “gridlock.” It’s “a consensus in favor of civil rights.”

NOWADAYS I THINK THIS PICTURE WOULD BE EVIDENCE OF “RAPE CULTURE:” Everlasting Embrace: Man From Iconic WWII Kiss Photo Dies.

MY GUESS: This downward trend in law school reputation scores reflects increased strategic voting as people downrate schools close to theirs in the rankings.

THE CULTURE OF UNEXPECTEDLY! Wrong Again: The economists’ confession.

HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Milt Rosenberg talks to John Leo: Deans, Deanlets and the Left March Through the Universities.

AT AMAZON, deals on Award-Winning Titles In Movies & TV.

Plus, deep discounts on open-box and used camera equipment.

Also, due to heavy demand, a new today-only deal: T-fal Ultimate Stainless Steel Copper-Bottom 12-Piece Cookware Set, $74.99 (50% off).

MICHAEL BARONE: Astonishing poll shows 38-year Democratic congressman down 14 points.

This is astonishing for several reasons. Rahall, first elected in 1976, is now the seventh most senior member of the House, with three of the more senior members retiring (John Dingell, Henry Waxman, George Miller) and another with a serious primary challenge (Charlie Rangel). Moreover, his district in southern West Virginia has historically been very Democratic; in its previous boundaries it voted for Walter Mondale over Ronald Reagan in 1984. Rahall won in 1976 by 46 percent to 37 percent over Ken Hechler, his predecessor in the seat, who after losing a Democratic primary for governor ran as a write-in candidate; the Republican nominee received only 18 percent of the vote. From 1978 to 2008, Rahall was re-elected with at least 64 percent of the vote, except in 1990 when he beat Republican Marianne Brewster by only 52 percent to 48 percent.

But this is coal country, and Rahall’s margins have gone down after President Obama was elected president. In 2010, Rahall won by a reduced margin of 56 percent to 44 percent, and in 2012, his margin was only 54 percent to 46 percent. Obama’s unpopularity surely cost him: John McCain carried the district within its then-boundaries by a 56-percent to 42-percent margin in 2008, and Mitt Romney carried the current district 65 percent to 33 percent in 2012. Rahall is ranking Democrat on the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and was Chairman of the Natural Resources Committee when Democrats had a majority in the House; these are committee positions of importance to a mountainous coal district, but apparently they are not enough to help him now.

Obama’s a millstone around a lot of necks this election cycle.

STEPHEN GREEN: How Do You Say “Keynesian Failure” in Japanese? I think it’s ケインズ主義の失敗.

Plus: “Deregulate. Simplify the tax code. Protect the value of your currency. Those three steps are all it takes to achieve prosperity, but as Glenn Reynolds like to say, politicians don’t like them because they provide too few opportunities for graft.” Well, I don’t exactly like to say it, it’s just that it’s indisputably true. . . .

PUTIN: The Mask Comes Off, But Will Anybody Care? Russia appears to be deliberately fomenting more violence in Ukraine, possibly in advance of an invasion. Putin is no Hitler, but Hitler would recognize his moves.

PROFIT CENTER ABOLISHED? Car Dealers Are Terrified of Tesla’s Plan to Eliminate Oil Changes.

RON RADOSH: The New Apologists for Vladimir Putin—on the Right and the Left. People have always projected their fantasies of power on various strongmen. That’s always been a mistake.

THE CHICAGO WAY: Taxi Publication Threatens To Expose ‘Secretly Gay’ Aldermen If City Doesn’t Ban Ride-Sharing.

ILYA SOMIN: Why the federal government wastes large amounts of property it often doesn’t even know it owns.

SPYING: NSA About Attorney-Client Privilege Concerns: We’ll Probably Grab Your Communications But We’ll Try Not To ‘Listen In.’

AT AMAZON, up to 40% off on select Spring Clothing.

Plus, huge savings in the Spring Sportsmen’s Event.