IRS Scandal (Even More)

Poof! The IRS Scandal Returns

Posted 06/27/2013 05:50 PM ET

Scandal: Democrats thought they had safely bottled up the IRS scandal after finding the word "progressive" on a watch list. But then the inspector general blew it with inconvenient facts.

Just two days ago, Democrats were telling everyone within earshot that the entire foundation for the scandal — that IRS officials had singled out conservative groups for delays and harassment — was a hill of beans.

Why? Because they'd found a spread sheet the IRS had used to alert front line agents about things to watch out for, which included an entry for "progressive" groups.

The top Democrat on the Ways and Means Committee, Sander Levin, exclaimed that "this new information shows that the foundation of those investigations is flawed in a fundamental way" and demanded to know why the inspector general ignored it.

Naturally, the mainstream press took Levin's bait, and jumped on the story as evidence that the GOP was trying to turn a bureaucratic snafu into a political scandal.

But then Treasury inspector general Russell George responded to Levin, telling him that his office focused on the targeting of conservative groups because that's exactly what the IRS was doing.

George explained that while just six progressive group applications were flagged for additional scrutiny between 2010 and 2012, the IRS stopped every one of the 292 Tea Party applications submitted.

What's more, the document Levin was waving around had nothing to do with why the IRS flagged those six liberal groups. It picked them out for some other reason.

The IG also pointed out that its investigation found "multiple sources of information corroborating the use of Tea Party and other related criteria" to target right-wing groups. There was nothing comparable for liberal groups.

And while the IG didn't get into this, there's also no evidence those six liberal groups were treated in any way like the Tea Party groups, which had their applications held up for years while the IRS demanded to know who their donors were, what books they were reading and what was in their prayers.

So, as we said earlier this week, the IRS scandal is still alive and well. And it's just as important today as it was last week to find out why the IRS was singling out conservative groups who might have made a difference in a close presidential election. And who authorized it.